AFTER THE HURRICANE

Taranaki Daily News, 17 November 1926, Page 3

AFTER THE HURRICANE

REBUILDING OF MIAMI. ‘READY IN NINETY DAYS.’ Every diweinible source of man power from Pompano lo Hialeah has been tapped to speed the work of relief and reconstruction along the 60 miles of Florida’s storm-wrecked coast, said Mr. J. B. Phillips, in telegraphing to the New York Herald-Tribune, on .September 25. Miami, with most of its debris cleared away, declared" that it would be ready for the winter season within 90 days. Mr. Phillips says: “A week ago this morning the storm struck, driving the waters of the bay anti ocean over this town, which called itself the playground of America, crashing houses, destroying villages, and exacting a toll of 400 lives and £25,000,000 or more in property damages. To-day the relief work in Miami has reached a feverish pitch, and a clearly defined end is evident. • Destroyed homes are being repaired. The homeless are fed. Salvage work in the harbour, the most desolate spot in Miami, is under way. The danger of a typhoid epidemic lessens daily with the arrival of medical supplies, and the end of congestion in the hospitals. CONDITIONS IN SMALLER TOWNS. Miami is a step ahead of the smaller towns to the norf between its limits and Pompano. It is turned to reconstruction. The others are handicapp.*d with less perfect municipal facilities and a dearth of man power. Their principal concern still is the care of the injured and preservation of health. Conditions are still serious in two of them—Fort Lauderdale and Hialeah. “The streets of Miami arc crowded with Red Cross cars, food trucks and cars flying the banner of the citizens* relief committee. .Sailors, marines apd civil labourers arc clambering over the wrecked hulks in the harbour or going down in search of the bodies of the drowned. Carpenters and labourers are being rushed by the truck load to repair the 5000 homes within the city. “The emergency labour bureau is searching for men. City departments have conscripted several score to work in the harbour. The Red Cross, which is in charge of transportation permits, has refused these papers to able-bodied men. Placards on every official headquarters front proclaim that “Labourers are wanted.” Relief workers have been asked to report, or have reported on their own initiative, any examples of shirking they find. EXAGGERATED REPORTS. “The Mayor, Mr. Ronifh, issued a statement deprecating exaggerated reports of the damage to the town. Business houses, most of them still windowless, and many leaning on temporary props,, flaunted ‘business as usual’ signs. Beside some of the battered ship skeletons cast on the beaeli rest placards, ‘iThis boat will be rebuilt.” “A bureau £o enlist unskilled labour, opened by the Elks Lodge, is receiving hundreds of volunteers daily. Several school teachers and many clerks have volunteered. The opening of the school next Monday has been postponed. The extent of damage in the harbour is incalculable. There is no record of all the vessels and pleasure craft anchored there when the hurricane bit. At least 100 craft, including schooners and freight vessels, were hurled ashore . and left stranded. It is believed that about 200 smaller craft sank. Those in charge of the work said 90 per cent, of the vessels in the harbour were wrecked. Much of the labour used in the salvage work has been conscripted. A sailor and three negroes were shot yesterday during a quarrel engendered by the labour situation, but none was hurt seriously, and the threat of racial trouble had disappeared to-day.”