TERRIBLE DESTRUCTION OF LIFE AND PROPERTY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2251, 22 April 1897, Page 11

TERRIBLE DESTRUCTION OF LIFE AND PROPERTY.

A recent issue of the Boston Transcript gives the -following story of terrible destruction in the City of Povoacao, situated 32 miles from Ponta del Jada, which is the capital of Sb. Michaels: — A petition had just been received at the Portugup.se Consulate in this city from the Island of St. Michael, in the Azores, belonging to the Kingdom of Portugal, signed by the royal Governor of the province of D m Jacinthe de Tores Adao and 19 other of the principal inhabitants, asking aid and narrating the particulars of the great calamity which has recently fallen on the people of part of the province. 1 The petition sets forth that on November 25 a grt at waterspout, which currents of the sea and sky had combined to make terrible, was Iwkirlfd from the ocean over a part of the i'land of St. Michael, and there broke, letting down tons of water in a tremendous cataract from on high directly over the city of Povoacoa, of about fcS,OCO inhabitants. Almost in an instant the deluge mounted above the roofs ot the houses, after tearing up the pavement of the streets iv its course, and digging trenchea in them, in some places 15ft below their ordinary level. Ib was in the night that the waterspout broke, and the great torrent rushing down the slopes to the sea tore a wide channel through nine miles of country, bearing away ' the homes of thousands of people. All tbe public buildings, with their archives, recorded deeds and property transfers, all the churches and houses, in some of which were the inmates, cattle from the hillside were hurried down it,to the flood, which brushed from its path the town of Riberia Quente, of 3000 population, aud several outlying parishes. From oae of the heights were those of the affrighted people had gathered they saw families in their becU floating for awhile amidst the chaos of , cattle, lumber, and rubbish and then d r sappear. All along the coast the fishermen have been 1 left destitute of boats, which have bsen de- ' stroyed by the raging waters, while the shore { has been littered by the corpses of many who have perished in the flood. The authorities } I have done what they could to relieve the misery ) ' of the more unfortunate, but so great is the suffering for food, clothing, and shelter, that they have felt warranted to print the abover I mentioned call for aid and send copies to various i j localities, one of which has been forwarded to the Fortuguese.Conßul at Boston-,

No calamity in the history of tbe Azore : Islands, not even the bursting of one ol the vol- ' canoes, which happened years ago, and created some destruction, has been so devastating »s this. It is, of its kiud, unprecedented in the . history of tbe world — the carrying away of a j city, a town, and several villages by the bursting , of a waterspout. '