AMERICAN BLIZZARD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 1509, 16 January 1914, Page 7

AMERICAN BLIZZARD.

BIG LINER WRECKED.

•FATE OF THE COBEQUID

SNOWSTORMS AT SEA.

FISHING SMACKS LOST.

SUFFERING IN NEW YORK

By Telegraph— Treat Association— Copyright.

(Received January 15, 10.25 p.m.

Halifax, January 15. The Royal Mail steamer Cobequid, bound from the West Indies to Halifax, which was reported yesterday to have struck on Briar Island during a great gale, has been sighted on the Trinity Ledges, off Port Maitland. All the people on board, numbering 122, arc safe.

In response to wireless calls four steamers came to the assistance of the Cobequid yesterday. Rough seas drove the Cobequid on the Trinity Ledges, and under the battering of the great rollers she has now begun to break up. The wireless operators aboard continued the call S.O.S. till the water entered and the engines stopped. The darkness and the blizzard combined to render the work of rescue of the passengers and crew difficult, but all entered the boats safely with the exception of the captain and 11 men, who remain aboard in the hope of salvage should the weather moderate.

The Canadian Government steamer Lady Laurier has been despatched in an endeavour to locate the wreck. Much wreckage has come ashore on the Nova Scotian coast, but it is not known whether any of this belongs to the Cobequid.

The gales arc continuing along the Atlantic coast, with terrific snowstorms at sea.

Many fishing schooners have been lost on the Massachussetts coast, but the loss of life has been light.

THOUSANDS HOMELESS, BEGGING FOR SHELTER. New York, January 15. . The city has been swept by a blizzard. Thousands of homeless people are begging for shelter at the municipal lodging houses, which are already overcrowdedThe temperature fell below zero yesterday, and nine deaths arc reported, due directly or indirectly to the severe weather. While the cold was most intense, four fires broke out in the poorer quarters of the city, and 1000 persons were forced into the streets. The firemen were unable to cope with the outbreak at first owing to the water freezing. The burned ruins present an extraordinary spectacle, with icicles hanging from the charred beams and rafters.