STORM HAVOC

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 238, 5 September 1935, Page 7

STORM HAVOC

HURRICANE IN FLORIDA. DEATH AND DESOLATION. TRAIL OF DAMAGE. (United Press Association—-By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received September 5, 9.10 a.m. MIAMI, Sept. 4.

A.message from a Morgan Lino official reported “All well” aboard the stranded vessel Dixie this morning. The weather had moderated considerably and rescue vessels were preparing to start the transfer of the passengers.

Pilot Roy Keeler flew over the Dixie and reported that the work of removing the passengers had been begun by four of the nine steamers standing by. Tlie rough seas were obviously hampering the work. A search party lias sent a wireless message to the Red Cross Society in which it is estimated that the loss of life is between 400 and 500 in the Florida Keys area, over which walls of water, as high as fifteen feet, poured continuously for many hours as the hurricane raged up from the Atlantic across the tip of Florida into the gulf.

The devastation was most severe in the camps of the war veterans engaged in building a highway down the keys to Key 'West. One camp was demolished and another is a mass of. wreckage. A rescue train sent on Monday to bring back the veterans is reported to have been wrecked.

It is reported that all the crew of the wrecked rescue train were saved.

Many died on Matecumbo Key in tlie collapse of an hotel used as an emergency hospital with forty patients, only eleven being saved. Flying timbers caused many casualties. The survivors dug holes into tlie earth under the ties of the railroad track to protect their heads from the flying debris.

Below Tavernier to Vaca Keys is the region bearing tlie brunt of the hurricane. Nothing man-made remains undamaged. The Florida-East Coast railway linking the mainland with Key AVest is a mass of twisted -wreckage. All the Government forces have joined the Red Gross in rushing medical aid into tlie stricken areas.

EARLIER MESSAGES. HEAVY DEATH ROLL.

SHIPS STAND BY DIXIE,

MIAMI, Sept. 3. As a result of the storm, more than 10U deaths are reported along Florida's hurricane-swept keys. Winds estimated at 100 miles an hour were experienced at Bocca Grande.

Unconfirmed reports telephoned to the Miami Daily News said that 78 persons, 75 of whom were war veterans encamped in Florida Keys, died as a result of the hurricane, which partly destroyed Tavernier early on Tuesday. Storm-battered refugees reached Miami after braving the tossing waters of Snake Creek in small boats. Deaths at Veterans’, Camp No. 1 on Upper iVlatecumbe Key are variously estimated at from 25 to 100. Broken communications prevented definite confirmation of deatiis along the keys. Three persons were drowned at Tavernier wfien a bus overturned. St. Petersburg and Tampa made ready for tlie approaching storm. St. Petersburg, wim a falling barometer, had a 68-imle-an-bour wind. A copyright message from an Associated t-ress correspondent aboard the s.s Platono, which is standing by the Dixie, said: “The Dixie wirelessed sfiortlv after 10 p.m. stating that she was still in no apparent danger and, like tiie rescue vessels standing by, is waiting for daylight to attempt lescue operations. Through the squalls of rain anil mist from tne mountainous waves the Dixie is visible iqtermittently. “Larlier to-night, about three miles off our starboard bow, three other vessels were also hove to, the Limon Gatun, El Occidente, and the oiltanker Reaper, but they are no longer in sight.” , _,, The Dixie sent the following wireless message to its New York office at 10 p.m., Eastern standard time.: “Chief engineer reports floor plates in stokehold up two inches. Making no water except in double bottom, fehip pounding slightly. Morale of passengers high. (Signed) Captain E. . sundstrom.” It is not known wliat the reference to floor plates meant. A coastguard intercepted a message stating that the British tanker Capulet is in distress on the Florida coast. It reports- “Engines broken down, but don’t think we need help.” Later advices stated that the Capulet had engine trouble 40 miles east of Hollywood (Florida).' The vessel lias stopped to make repairs, but is not in need of assistance.

CANAL PROPOSAL.

TO AVOID DANGER ZONE.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3

Coincident with hurricane damage to shipping in Southern Florida, it was announced that President Roosevelt had approved a 5,000,000-dollar allotment for preliminary work on a canal to connect the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico across Northern Florida, using the St. John’s and other rivers.

The canal would save one to two days’ shipping time between New. York and New Orleans, and would avoid the dangerous area where the Dixie is now project will cost about 100,000,000 dollars.