DAMAGE BY HURRICANE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19470, 28 October 1926, Page 13

DAMAGE BY HURRICANE.

THE DISASTER IN FLORIDA. ABOUT 400 PEOPLE KILLED. MANY THOUSANDS HOMELESS. JBY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] WELLINGTON, Wednesday. The actual extent 01 the recent hurricane disaster in Florida is described by Colonel E. P. Bicknell, an officer of the [American Red Cross headquarters at Washington, in a letter returning thanks for. the cable of sympathy sent by tho New Zealand Red Cross. "It is most kind of you," he writes, "to have sent us this message, for while the first press reports were somewhat hysterical and naturally overdrawn, tho disaster itself is of such magnitude as to rank among the half-dozen most serious calamities which have occurred in tho United States. In addition to the report of property losses, it should be stated that the total number of lives lost was substantially 400. and ihe. number of eerious injuries was above jOOO. "Buildings of substantial construction, such as brick, stone and concrete, and especially buildings of all-steel frame construction, as a rule came through without fundamental damage. Windows were blown out and roofs blown off, and the driving rain which accompanied the wind forced through the open windows into interiors, not only destroying furniture, but damaging the plaster on the walls and injuring many. Only the roughest sort of estimate in dollars has as yet been prepared, but it seems probable that it will be found that the total property losses within the most intense area of the storm action amount to around £30,000,000. It is also estimated that the number of persons rendered homeless is not less than 50,009.''