STORMS KILL 58

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32383, 24 August 1970, Page 13

STORMS KILL 58

tiv.z.n.x.-aeutai—cepyrmho, POINT-A-PITRE (Guadeloupe), August 23. The French Caribbean island of Martinique was slowly getting back to normal today after a hurricane code-named “Dorothy" carved a trail of death and destruction across it two days ago.

A provisional official report yesterday said that 38 persons had died and more than 200 were hurt as the hurricane, blowing at 80 miles an hour and bringing torrential r„in, lashed the island of some 320,000 people.

Seven persons are listed as missing- There is no word of many Ashing boats and pleasure eraft. Telephone communications on the island are slowly being re-established and the airport was opened for normal operations last evening. A shortage of drinking water is still a major problem but other supplies are getting through to the wrecked capital* of Fort-de-France despite broken bridges and roads strewn with obstacles and covered deep in mud. The Government has declared Martinique a disaster area and relief supplies are being sent there from its sister-island of Guadeloupe, to the north. A weather report issued last night in Bridgetown, Barbados, said that hurricane “Dorothy," now downgraded

to a tropical depression, appeared to be petering out in the central Caribbean, south of the Dominican Republic. A typhoon code-named

“Anita" last night headed over the sea after cutting a destructive path through southern Japan. Police said the typhoon, the most powerful to hit Japan this year, left 20 killed, nine missing, and 395 injured. The typhoon, which struck 11 of the 48 Japanese prefectures on Shikoku and southern Honshu, was gradually losing power as it moved over the Sea of- Japan off Hokkaido's west coast. But the police said “Anita" left 80,800 houses flooded or damaged, involving about 118,300 people mainly in southern Shikoku. Police and troops joined in relief work and by last night all main railway lines and roads were cleared.