DISASTER IN JAPAN

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 9 March 1927, Page 5

DISASTER IN JAPAN

EARTHOUAKE AND FIRE. PIVE TOWNS DESTROYED. HEAVY DEATH-ROLL REPORTED. ay CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT. TOKIO, March 7. Severe earthquakes have been reported from Osaka and Kobe A cinema hall collapsed at Osaka as the result of the earthquake. Eighty people we re pinned under the wreckage. Rescue work is proceeding. The first direct reports from the stricken region tell a story of terrible suffering. Thousands who were homeless spent the night in the fields among the snow in view of the burning towns and villages. The Kyoto prefecture police officially report that 1230 are dead and a thousand injured. Five towns and several villages were wholly destroyed by fire, taking what the earthquake had left. The town of Minayama suffered worst. There a thousand are dead and six hundred are Eight hundred and ninety buildings collapsed during two terrific shocks. An official report from Osaka gives the dead there as 40 and injured 67, being mostly in the Sakae suburb. Tidal waves followed the ’quake. Six passengers on the- world cruiser California, were seriously hurt. One woman was drowned, and a member of the crew who leaped from the deck to rescue her was hurt.

Tokio and Yokohama are practically unaffected.

SHOCKS RECORDED ELSEWHERE. ROME, March 8. The Bendandi Observatory recorded a very heavy earthquake shock at a distance of 6500 kilometres, probably in Asia. The agitation of instruments lasted for four hours, and attained, the exceptional amplitude of 80 centimetres. HONOLULU, March 7. The earthquake followed the basin of the River Kyoto, stated a cable message from Tokio. The railways were crippled and the telegraph wires were brought down. Several towns were badly shaken. Part of the city of Kototi, with a population of 30,000, was a raging inferno, owing to the fire after the ’quake. SYDNEY, March 8. The first wave of the Japanese earthquake reached River View Observatory at 7.39 last night, and continued at intervals for three hours. A feature was the exceptional length of the waves.