MOUNTING TOLL

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 74, 24 September 1938, Page 10

MOUNTING TOLL

U.SA HURRICANE

TOWNS UNDER MARTIAL LAW

500 BODIES FOUND

United Press Association —By Electric Itf*a

graph—Copyright (Received September 24, 10 a.m.) ; NEW YORK, September 23-. ' As communication is gradually restored, the picture of havoc and death resulting from the hurricane which swept the Atlantic seaboard yesterday becomes more horrible. | The toll of Kves may reach 700, with 500 bodies already recovered. New storms have struck New England and Long Island, paralysing the work of searching for the dead, and also the relief work, which, the Red Cross now estimates must be extended to 60,000 homeless families. The damage is estimated to exceed 400,000,000 dollars. Rhode Island, with 250 dead and extensive damage .by tidal waves, seems the hardest hit, with Long Island next. Martial law has been declared in many towns*. The Connecticut and Merrimas Rivers are both already 33 feet above the flood-level, and have inundated Hartford and other cities,, driving thousands from their homes and further aggravating the situation, .which is rapidly assuming, the proportions of a national disaster. . President Roosevelt has ordered all available Governmental did for tha stricken communities, .where the dam* age varies from a fallen tree across' a motor-car to the destruction of whole areas. ~ Numerous trains were overturned, miles of1 concrete roads torn "up, the contours of beaches changed, thousands of houses destroyed, bridges torn down, and communications and power lines over wide areas dislocated. The wind reached a velocity of 120 miles an hour in New York City, and is believed to have been higher elsewhere. Coastguards and Red Cross and other workers are ministering to hundreds of injured and are searching for more. - s The film star Miss Katharine Hepburn, with her parents, waded to .safety from her summer home at Fenwick, Connecticut. /