TERRIBLE DISASTER IN SOUTH AMERICA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2567, 22 December 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

TERRIBLE DISASTER IN SOUTH AMERICA.

From Valparaiso information has been received of tho bursting of a water pond SOO feet above the level of the city of Sim Juan do Dios, and the deluging of tho streets, causing a frightful locs of life. The despatch i< dited Valparaiso, loth August, and says that four days previously the pond burtt. The water ru»hedthrough tho city in a wave twelve feet high, nuryirijr nearly everything before it. At first it win thought than an immenso tidal wave had come from the sea. Tho shops were flooded and their contents destroyed. The people who were in tho streets at the time wero washed up and down, some being drowned, and others sustaining terrible injuries. Four days after the disaster the streets were still in an impassable state. The collection of the bodies of the drowned and killed was a sad work. No fewer thiin fifty-seveu bodies were recovered up to the time the despatch was sent off. but this number it was thought would be largely increased when matters were put right again. The soldiers and sailors were engaged at the time of writing in clearing away the debris. In one cake a tailor named Torres lost his wife and fonr children, whilst the contents of his shop were entirely destroyed. The loss of property alone was more than a million dollars in value. The pond was an artificial one, and belonged to a brewer named Meilar Mena.