FLOODS IN MEXICO

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 28 June 1926, Page 7

FLOODS IN MEXICO

CITY OF LEON SWEPT. DEATH ROLL EXCEEDS 1000 TORRENTIAL R AIN RESPO'NSIBtLiE-. rfY CABLE —PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT. MEXICO CITY, June 20. ■Floods swept the city of Leon from the River Gonieti. The death, list 1S expected to roadi 1000. Half of tlio city has been destroyed. Three hundred and eighty-seven (bodies have been recovered. Twenty thousand mud houses were destroyed. , . Relief workers, who are searching the ruins, declare that many other bodies are still buried’ in the mud. and many an,ore are likely never to be iecognised, because the victims were swept down-stream, in a. raging torrent. The water is now seven to ten feet deep in the lower sections of the city. Entire families were buried. The (properity loss is estimated at /.OuO.Uoc pesos. Federal troops have been ordered to proceed to the .scene to take up relief work. SAN FRANCISCO, June 26. A despatch received at Nogales, Arizona. on Saturday, said it was estimated that the, floods following the over flow of the Santiago River, Guanajuat State, Mexico, claimed 1300 victims. All the bodies were recovered. A fourth of the population .is homeless and des - titute. Property damage is estimated at 4,000,000 pesos. The Waters are receding:. Torrential rains during the past fortnight caused the greatest floods in the history of the region. Unharvested Crops were inundated, and entire business blocks’ in Leon were swept away. Lines of victims are passing through the improvised morgues i n an attempt to identify the missing relatives. Efforts to bring food and medical supplies to the area are hampered l>y the crippled rail facilities, and hunger i s beginning to show its ravages. [The city of Leon lias a population Of 50.000. and, is situated 30 miles west of Guanajuato. It is a great industrial centre, manufacturing saddlery, cottons and woollens. A peso is worth about two .shillings.!