STAMPEDE OF THE RESIDENTS.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12452, 15 March 1906, Page 9

STAMPEDE OF THE RESIDENTS.

Tho "Star's" correspondent states that some of tho people who hud to leave their residences on the Strand at midnight, wore obliged ;to breaJi fences in oroer'toget atray to tho upper part of the towp. The help rendered by the natives was precious, as they could mv& bare-footed amongst the rubbish, wtiilo many of the whites were powerleee through having no shoes on. The night was perfectly dark, and it was raining heavily. Towards six o'clock the day broke three-quarters of an hour later than usual, and some idea of the 'magnitude of the catastrophe could then be formed. It was a dietrceeing sight. The . wbv<!S were getting bigger and, bigger, every moment, and it wesdangerous to' go into the houses, for every minute one of them wae failing down. People, half clothed, were etill carrying furniture- in spite of the dangers surrounding them. At 8 a.m. the barometer, went down so suddenly that people foresaw a cyclone, and doctors on horseback rode through the etreete ; telling peoplo to evacuate the stone houses in the upper part of the town. At 9 o'clock the wind came like a thunderclap, blowing down in ite first onslaught big trees like floldiem under fire.. Sheete frpm the iron roofa were flying in all directions. The peninsula of laiarapu was devastated, and the village of lautim. was entirely destroyed.