THE BIG TYPHOON.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 November 1917, Page 6

THE BIG TYPHOON.

A DEVASTATING NIGHT. AI'CKLAXDEII IN TOKYO. SWATHE OF DEATH AND DESOLATION. Some graphic details of the typhoon whish swept through Japan at the end of September last, with disastrous consequences to many districts, including thu loss of several hundred lives, are related in a letter received by Mr. C. 10. Rigg, o! Auckland, from his son, who was in Tokyo at the time. The writer slates that torrential rain had fallen all the previous day, and about 1 a.m. Hp awoke with a feeling of extraordinary oppressiveness in the air, finding it difficult to breathe. As he lay awake the wind rapidly increased in volume till by 2.30 a.m. the Tokyo Hotel, a four-storeyed building, in which his room was on the third floor, was rocking like a boat. Now properly seared, he sprang out of bed, and, snatching up what clothes were handiest, rushed downstairs to Die office amid the din of crashing glass and the furious howling of the typhoon. The electric light had failed, and guests, most of whom were Russians, and staff were all grop:n~ i? the same goal, where for several hours they crouched in momentary expectation of sudden death, as the hotel shook to such an extent that all thought it would certainly collapse. To venture out into the open, however, was utterly impossible, as the wind was raging at a velocity of over COO miles an hour, while fallen live wires and flying debris added to the terror. An ordinary typhoon which in Chinese means literally "big wind," would have blown through the city in anything from half-an-hour to an hour, but this one raged over four hours. Tn tiie morning the roads of Tokyo were literally paved with broken roofing tiles and glass, while everywhere lay an entanglement of wires, telephone posts, trees, and other wreckage. In Tokyo alone SOOO telephones were put out of commission.

The typhoon left in its track over 30,000 wrecked homes, the occupants, of many of these being left penniless and houseless on the threshold of winter. The worst damage was suffered by people in the low-lying districts near the sea, the flood tide from Tokyo Bay and the rain-swollen waters of the Sumida River combining to inundate thousands of dwellings and factories. In Tokyo Bay numbers of small craft sank, while many were smashed to matclnvood. At Kobi and Yokohama great damage iva» done in the harbors, while a 3000-ton steamer of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha was driven ashore in the Inland Sea. The cyclone struck Yokohama shortly after midnight, sinking four cargo boats and destroying China Town to the extent of a million yen (£100,000). The loss of property in Tokyo alone was estimated at the time of writing—two days after the typhoon—at over 10,000,000 yen (£ 1,00ft,000), 134(5 buildings being totally destroyed, 132,273 Hooded, and in the bay 103 boats sunk.

A large fire, which, but for the flood, would have endangered all Tokyo, started in Shintomicho, one of th: waterside districts, burning 100 houses to the ground. Amongst the casualties in the typhoon district were the following:—'2oo persons drowned at Kaser, near Tokyo. 200 killed and missing at Funabashi, 40 kill '<l and IC.TO houses destroyed at Haraki, 100 deaths and 1500 houses destroyed at Chiba, 3000 houses blown down at Osaka, and rice crops, bridges, temples, and sections of railroads destroyed. Telegraphic. communication with nearly e*ery country was interrupted, the cables'to the United States alone remaining in--tact.

The Meteorological Ofiko reported that, whereas the falling of the barometer to 28.75 inches indicated a hurricane, tlie barometer dropped at 3.30 a.m. for 15 minutes to 21.03 inches, establishing a record low registration.