Federal flood aid

Press, 12 October 1985, Page 10

Federal flood aid

NZPA-Reuter Ponce The American President, Mr Ronald Reagan, has declared Puerto Rico a disaster area, authorising millions of dollars of Federal aid to the Caribbean island devastated by heavy rains, floods and landslides. The rains earlier in the week . causd an estimated SUSSOO million (?875 million) in damage, and left 88 people known dead and another 500 missing in a mudslide that engulfed a hillsicle shanty town. The Presidential order made funds available to individuals and local governments and was issued one

day after Puerto' Rico’s Governor, Mr Rafael Hernandez Colon, appealed to Mr Reagan to rush emergency aid to the United States territory. The United States Parks Service used dogs yesterday to sniff through the muddy rubble of Mamayes. In the four days since the flood, 43 bodies nave been recovered from the ruins of 270 wrecked slum shanties. Rescue authorities said that the threat of disease caused by decomposing bodies may eventually force them to bulldoze new layers of dirt over Mamayes, permanently entombing hundreds of victims.