WEST INDIES HURRICANE

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 September 1928, Page 7

WEST INDIES HURRICANE

ENORMOUS DAMAGE CAUSED LARGE CASUALTY ROLL (Australian Press Association.) (By Cable—Press Assn—Copyright.) NEW YORK, September 15. After a day of garbled and conflicting reports, it is indicated that the tornado which worked havoc in- Porto Rico and which had a curious counterpart in the Mid West of the United States, has resulted in heavy loss of life and in tremendous property d am age. Communication, which.has just been re-established with Porto Rico, paints a- horrifying picture of the devastation. While it is impossible yet to determine the human toll, it is certain that the property loss will reach millions.

The latest reports recount how the tornado blasted its way through San Juan City, It battered‘the houses to the ground, ’ and reduced the residential and the commercial sections to a mass of hopeless ruins. Hundreds of the occupants of the buildings were killed and injured in the space of a few minutes.

The entire West "Indies were in horror, expecting havoc at any moment.

THOUSANDS HOMELESS

HAVANA, September 15. Reports reaching here from the stricken zone in Porto Rico indicate that there has been one of the greatest disasters in. the history of the Caribbean Sea hurricanes. It is estimated that 70 per cent of the homes and 30 per cent of £he commercial buildings have been destroyed in San JuanThe homes of thousands of workers along the waterfront have been completely destroyed. One-third of the city’s population is now without shelter. *

Reports from Humacao, on the East Coast of Porto Rico, state that thirty are dead there as the result of the hurricane. Extensive damage is also reported.

STR A. CHAMBERLAIN’S ESCAPE,

NEW YORK, September 15. In response to a wireless message from the Associated Press, the captain of the Orcoma, with Sir Austen Chamberlain aboard, replied that the ship did not encounter thd hurricane. The vessel is due at Havana to-night. AMERICAN MESSAGES. WASHINGTON, September 15. Advices to the U.S.A. Navy and the War Departments from San Juan. Porto Rico, state that 80 per cent, of the houses in j the city are unroofed, and tens of thousands of persons are homeless-

The American Cable Company has been advised by its manager to-day that ten’are deacl and 700 are homeless at Ponce, in Porto Rico, after Thursday’s hurricane.

The American. Red Cross received a message to-day from its representative at St. Croix, Virgin Islands, saving : “A terrific hurricane has swept Virgin Islands. No communication with St. Thomas. Hundreds are homeless. Need clothes and for food.”

FURY UNABATED.

(Australian Press Assn.—United Service.)

(Recd. Sept. 17, 9 a.m.) NEW YORK, September 16. The hurricane which desolated Porto Rico, Eastern shore of Anto-Domingo, and the Virgin Islands is unabated. It raked the Bahamas on Sunday. Seventy per cent- of the buildings at San Juanpr are said to be destroyed. Ten persons are dead and 700 homeless at Poncepr. Thirty are dead at Humacopr and hundreds are homeless at St. Croix, Virgin Island. The shipping was destroyed. A vessel is reported lost with all hands at Turk Island. Tens of thousands of inhabitants on the stricken islands are homeless. Assistance is imperative to avoid disease and famine. Coffee, tobacco and fruit crops are ruined. Power, light and water supplies are disrupted. The total deaths'is unknown because communications are down, but it is believed to be high.

OFFICIAL REPORTS,

(British Official Wireless). RUGBY, September 14A hurricane has swept the West Indies, and serious damage is reported. A telegram from the Administrator of Dominica to the Colonial Office, dated yesterday, states that it will be impossible to estimate the damage lor several days, but it is feared to be heavy. All jetties have been destroyed and 'heavy damage has been caused to ■the seafront. There are no communications with the country.districts. The Governor of the Leeward Islands reports considerable damage to houses throughout the islands, but details are not yet available.

U.S.A. VICTIMS. A LARGE DEATH-ROLL. NEW YORK, September 15. The Mid West States —Nebraska, Dakota, and Illinois —were also affected by the tornado. ’> Rockford (Illinois) has suffered the heaviest losses. The Coroner has estimated the deaths there at between fifty and seventy-five. One section of the town was practically obliterated. Communication, which has just been re-etasblished, increases the fear that the tornado’s toll will be heavily supplemented by a flood, which is now reported to be gaining headway, and choking off the avenues of escape. A furniture factory at Rockford collapsed and entombed more than one hundred employees, mostly women, many of whom are believed to have been killed instantly. The Red Cross, w’hich is handicapped by the meagre reports, is rushing aid to the stricken area.

Tho weather reports indicate that tho hurricane currently is headed toward Florida, where a recurrence of the memorable disaster of 1926 seems now an uncomfortable possibility.