A CLOUD BURST

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 12 September 1921, Page 5

A CLOUD BURST

CAUSES MANY DEATHS

EXTENSIVE DAMAGE DONE

•BY CABLE—PKBSS ASSOCIATIOX-COPYRieat NEW YORK, Sept. 10.

A telegram from San. Antonio, Texas, states that a cloudburst caused considerable damage to property^ and many reports received indicate that as many as 500 were killed. Although these are considered .highly exaggerated, the telephone and telegraph wires in the stricken region were destroyed and .reliable information .is therefore not available.

A. wild storm is raging in the Carrib--Ikean Sea, which devastated several islands and sunk ships caught in mid;»»a. Twenty-one bodies have been recovered from the flooded districts of the city, which is under twelve feet of water. The cloudburst was most violent -«ver the southern and central part of rthe State, and in San Antonio 3i3 the •jpreatest damage to the business and residential sections. Ten inches of rain fell in a few hours.

Looting began in the devastated areas -ef San Antonio, and the Mayor enlisted the aTd of State troops, who are Jatrolling that area. Hundreds of omeless are being provided for. Various cities of the State, including the 'Capital, are cut off from communication with each other, resulting in inability :t© aid the distressed. A~large ©art of State's cotton crop, is believed to %c ruined. A later message.states that 42 bodies have been recovered.

NEW YORK, Sept. 10. ; The San Antonio cloudburst was part -«fa national thunderstorm. Disturbances from the Canadian NorthWest -to the Gulf of Mexico were marked by tornadoes. In South . Dakota and Nebraska heavy rainfalls'occurred over the entire Mississippi valley, rain^ in the north-western States turning' to -snow, Montana reporting a freezing -temperature.