ISLAND HURRICANE

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 February 1931, Page 7

ISLAND HURRICANE

NUMEROUS DEATHS REPORTED.

[BY CABLE—PRESS ASSN. —COPYBIGHT.]

SUVA, February 27.

The disastrous hurricane started at noon on Saturday last, and it lasted till' three o’clock on Sunday afternoon. At Lautoka seventeen Indian dead have been identified, and 23 are missing, believed killed. There are also twelve Fijians dead. At Ba, it is estimated that sixty were drowned, including four Europeans, two of whom are known. At Sigatoka it is reported that one hundred people were drowned, but this is unconfirmed. The Ba River rose forty feet. It washed away all of the houses on the flat. The refugees suffered seriously from intense and unusual cold. It is feared that many people will succumb as the result of their privations and the lack of food. Owing to there being gales, the news only arrived last night. The steamer Wairuna arrived here at noon to-day with a shipment of rice from overseas. This is being sent for the relief of Indians, who are in desperate need. The water supplies and sanitary systems are stopped, and there is the fear of disease breaking out. Precautions are necessary.

Fijians are reported to have done excellent work in the devastated areas.

EUROPEAN VICTIMS.

SUVA, February 27

Europeans known to have been killed as a result of the hurricane are. —Reginald Rankin; Mr and Mrs Watson, the former a mechanic, recently of Sydney; Mr W. J. Mansell, Lautoku, W. Spowart, electrician, of Suva, was electrocuted when connecting a hospital line at Lautoka, during the height of the storm.