A CUBAN HORROR

Evening Star, Issue 21316, 21 January 1933, Page 16

A CUBAN HORROR

HURRICANE AND TIDAL WAVE TOWN WIPED OFF THE MAP STORIES OF REFUGEES [Fsoh Oob Owk Corresponds!!!.] SAN FRANCISCO, November 17. Many tales of horror were related by survivors of the great hurricane and, tidal wave disaster which swept cen-r tral Cuba. Lying on their beds in hospitals, tbeili. faces blank with horror, mothers and; fathers were unable to tell how theyf escaped the waves and the wind which? swept over three-story , houses as though) they were matches. Dupuy Aguilera, a carpenter, the following story: “ I do not know how I escaped., When the wind started?, at 2 a.m. 1 instantly awoke and left the: house, ordering my wife and five chiU! dren to stay close by while I soughtii means of escape. I thought I could gefjj back at 5.30 a.m., but great wavea; swept me inward. My children saw af great timber fall and instantly kil!| their mother, but they escaped when, the waves lifted the upper story of ther house into the branches of small trees.) I personally pulled forty from thd water and helped to bury 150.” The carpenter said 3]ooo persons! were living in Santa Cruz when the disaster hit, and at least 500 fled before the storm. He said that no more thaq' 1,000 could have been saved, and he estimated the dead at 1,800. The' wife of Lieutenant Jose Llano* formerly military supervisor at Santai, Cruz, shot herself in the head when. 1 ?: her small baby was blown from hep arms. Tingo. San Pelayo killed himself when his mother was drowned. Alberto Alonso said he saw three brothers and two aunts drown. The station agent at’ Santa Cruz found the bodies of fiv? children in his station when he re- . turned to hunt for a strong box after the water had receded. The tidal wave that followed the storm left Santa Cruz unfit for habitation, and a few days later gasoline torches were applied and the remnant of the .city was burned to prevent spread of disease. The town was nothing but a shambles, and where 3,500 persons had lived were only soldiers* -sanitary workers, and a few city officials. FUNERAL PYRES. The Santa Cruz correspondent of the Havana newspaper ‘ El ■ Pais ’ told of funeral pyres blazing in several parts of the town as rescue parties worked swiftly in a blazing sun to clear the town of its dead. He also told of bodies being removed from bushy treetops where the tidal wave which levelled the city had carried them. The gravediggers, could not bury the dead fast’ enough for the sanitary safety of the few • who remained on guard. Captain Frederic? Tomeu,v on his arrival at Havana, said 800 bodies disclosed further dead. Cheered by reports from .Havana! that governmental agencies were’perfecting relief plans rapidly, local authorities “co-operated with physicians to avert ’ epidemics. The'last relief train from Santa* Cruz carried 150 refugees, most of whom bore wounds. Lieutenant Carillo, the ‘ military supervisor of-Santa Cruz, who did his utmost .to clear the place of people before the wall of water struck it, said official advices before the hurricane were meagre. On the Wednesday midnight- the -lieutenant said, a fisherman went to him and declared; " Lieutenant, you may shoot me if I lie, but at that sea. When the wind changes is going to sweep in and .flood Santa!' Cruz.’ ’ Carillo _ immediately began clearing out residents of the city*; threatening some of the laggards with, his pistol. He probably saved the lives; of several hundred before the storm: struck. After the inundation he did his. utmost to assist in the rescue worki until finally he collapsed. The next thing he remembered he was riding on a plank which grounded, and on hands, and knees he crawled out of the waterGHOULS SHOT DOWN. Two negroes were shot’and killed by, rural guards at Santa Cruz del Sut*. when the negroes were found removing valuables from the clothing of persons killed in the disaster. The soldiers were standing guard , over all that was left o£ the town, a rising flame, visible far at sea. It was the common, funeral pyre on which the dead were being heaped by soldiers, police, and relief workersThe Government later stated that the town will never be rebuilt, for tha tidal wave’s fury had wiped it from the map for ever. A check-up of survivors from Santa Cruz who arrived at Camaguey revealed that those who escaped the catastrophe numbered nearly 2,000, causing-official estimates af casualties! to be revised downward somewhat. la Camaguey 600 remained in hospitals,and over 300 were being cared for in? homes and stations. Bishop Enrico Perez, of Camaguey*. assisted by Francisco Baranta, delivered the nation’s funeral oration amidst; the burning ruins on the beach of Santa Cruz as the town’s dead popula-j tion, increasing by the hour as corpses,; were extricated from debris, was heaped] on the burning ghat by volunteer work-] ers. Fifty physicians worked with injured at Camaguey without rest for three days, and said they were finable to : continue without aid. Their urgent appeal sent another relief train with physicians aboard from Havana.