DISEASE FOLLOWS STORM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20058, 22 September 1928, Page 13

DISEASE FOLLOWS STORM.

TYPHOID IN FLORIDA. GREAT EFFORTS TO CHECK. RED CROSS WORKERS BUSY. ESTIMATES OF CASUALTIES. Australian and N.Z. Press Association. NEW YORK, Sept. 20. The latest estimates of tho deaths in Florida as a result of the recent hurricane placo the total at between 700 and 800. It is also estimated that 1500 people are missing. These casualties and rioting by negroes indicate the vast problem which faces the relief workers. Grave conditions exist at Pahokee, where an epidemic of typhoid is already gaining ground. In an effort to check the spread of the disease Red Cross workers are resorting to wholesale burials of the unidentified dead. An eye-witness says Pahokee was affected very badly by tho storm, which raced across Lake Okeechobee and swept the villages and the surrounding country. Numerous buildinrrs were demolished. Bodies were found floating in lakes and swamps.' Supplies of scrum and chlorine arc being rushed to all the stricken areas. The Governor of Florida, Mr. J. W. Martin, has asked for aid to be rushed by boat, owing to the uncertain conditions on the railways. The Coastal Railway Company has established a partial service and has abandoned tho regular schedules. All its trains have been placed at the disposal of tho relief workers. It is reported that the highways leading to Palm Beach are now partially in use again and motor-cars and waggons arc employed in aiding the rescuers. Animal life throughout the stricken State has been seriously affected. Tropical birds were killed by the thousand. Four people were killed in the New York metropolitan district. lieporls of collisions at sea and of wrecks continue to conic to hand, but none is regarded as serious. Advance warnings of the storm enabled captains to anchor their vessels in sheltered places, there to ride out the storm. BRITISH WEST INDIES. RESULTS OF HURRICANE. DISTRESS BEING RELIEVED. British Wireless. RUGBY, Sept. "0. A further report of the havoc done by the hurricane in the British West Indies was received by the Colonial Office today from the Governor-in-Chief of Jamaica, Sir it. E. Stublis. The message said the Commissioner of the Turks and Caicos Islands had reported that the first news received from Cockburn Harbour. Turks Island, indicated that the damage was serious and (that 17 lives were lost,' eight of the victims being married men. There is no news from Caicos Island yet. Beplies were received to-day from the Governors of (lie Leeward Islands and the Bahamas (.Sir Eustace Ficnnes and Mr. C. W. J. Orr respectively) expressing the grateful thanks of tho sufferers to whom King George sent messages of sympathy when the first news of the disaster was received in England. Sir Eustace said that although the damage was very serious at the Leeward Islands and although many people were homeless, relict' work was well in hand. Cases of immediate distress were being dealt with, and assistance was being rendered as far as possible.