SOME DETAILS OF DAMAGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2719, 25 April 1906, Page 28

SOME DETAILS OF DAMAGE.

-> 200,000 HOMELESS. _ A DEATH-ROLL OF 10,000.

NEW YORK, April 19. The shipping in San Francisco is less damaged than was reported. The Asiatic quarter is destroyed. The Jesuit Church and College of St.

Ignatius, which cc6t 2,000,000d01, was demolished. The University of California at Berkeley is safe. Four looters were shot. The Mint i& reported to be on fire. One hundred thousand are homeless. Outside help is arriving in all directions. The Cliff House and adjacent pleasure resort were swept into the sea. The damage to property is estimated at between £30.000,000 and" £40,000,000. The fire insurance risks amount to £50,000,000. The British offices are the hardest hit. Reuter states that it is impossible to trace individuals in the present confusion, but the Englishmen and foreigners who were staying at the big hotels are doubtless safe. The casualties so far are confined to the poorer tenement section. ! General Funston has telegraphed to President Roosevelt stating that 200,000 people are homeless, and that food and tents are scarce. All the Government buildings have been destroyed. Five persons were killed at Oakland, and there were many fatalities at Santa Cruz. Thirty-six people were killed at San Jose, and 270 perished in Che Agnew Asylum, near San Jose. At Santa Rosa 200 people were killed, and 10,000 are homeless. April 20. General Fnnston telegraphed on Thursday morning that the city was practically destroyed, and that the situation could not be worse. Congress has voted 1,00,000d0l for the relief of the sufferers, and has ordered the distribution of army rations. It is also sending large supplies from Portland and Seattle, and has ordered several warships to co-operate. j I The havoc extends everywhere within a radius of 100 miles from San Francisco, j The Majestic, Orpheus, Columbia, and ■ other theatres collapsed, and were afterwards burned. Many of the richest banks and commercial houses in Montgomery street were burned, and hundreds of people were roasted in the debris, |

Chinatown and the Japanese quarter are in ruins. The Chinese, who were in a fearful 6tate of panic, rushed into the streets beating gongs. They collided with other foreigners, and fierce fighting took place, but the troops suppressed the outbreak at the point of the bayonet. Though many blocks of buildings were dynamited throughout the night the flames overleapt all the obstacles, and the firemen have abandoned all hope of controlling the fire. The fashionable suburbs of Mall Park, Burlinghame, and Nob Hill have been destroyed, and most of the towns around the bay have suffered. The newspapers combined, and managed to i&aue a single print through, the Chronicle Office until that office collapsed yesterday. The Merchants' Exchange, Mrs Stanford's residence, and the Mark Hopkins Art Institute have been burned. Some of the pictures in the Art Institute were saved. One hundred thousand people passed Wednesday night in the parks, and probably 300,000 epenfc Thursday night similarly. Want of food and water is causing suffering. Thousands of people are waiting while the soldiers distribute water. In connection with the sale of food the rich are prevented from buying largely. Wednesday's shock occasioned heavy mortality at Santa Cruz, Palo Alto, Napa City, Monterey, Gilroy, and Hollister. Spreckels's Sugar Factory at Salinas was destroyed. j The employes, by desperate efforts, saved the Mint with 60,090,000d0lThe Pacific Squadron is safe at Long Beach. The people are still half dazed; but they are remarkably calm. A famine is feared, since the city lias j never had beyond a three-days' supply of i food. Prices have trebled. King Victor Emanuel of Italy, the Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria, the Kaiser, and the President of France (M. j Fallieres) have- cent cablegrams of aym- j pathy to President Roosevelt*

j Two shocks were experienced on Thursday afternoon. An operator at Los Angelos telegraphed that the office was rocking like a boat, and then the message ceased. President Roosevelt has appealed for private contributions. i The Wall street merchants suspended : business to arrange for relief. I Mr Rockefeller gave 100,000dol, and ' other enormous contributions have been received. The railways are conveying supplies free. General Funston wired at 4 o'clock this afternoon that there was no ' change in the. progress of the fire, and a private telegram received, two hours later stated that the fire was spreading over the crest of Nob Hill and going in a northerly direction towards the Latin quarter. ; The latest estimates place the number of deaths at 5000, and the damage at 300,000,000d01. The National Federation of Churches requests all denominations to observe Sunday next as a day of special intercession for the sufferers. LONDON, April 19. The New York Journal's correspondent states that the first shock tossed the city like a feather tossed by the wind, making the buildings rock like poplars in a storm. In three minutes the city was a mass of I debris. Some reports say that the water front was swept by a tidal wave, and that the shipping was swept up the streets. Many vreie drowned. There is a frightful stench from the broken, gas and sewer mains, causing fears of an epidemic of typhoid. The gasworks blew up with an awful report. The Grand Opera House and Claus Spreckek's office (the finest building of its kind in Western America) were crushed like egg-shells. The We6tern Union Telegraph Office was wrecked. Many of the millionaires' mansions were burned. Professor Milne, the seismic expert (stationed on the Isle of Wight), suggests that the earthquake wag possibly caused

by the earth's swinging a little off its axis, the strain and struggle to get- back breaking- the earth's crust. April 20. The Daily Mail publishes au Oakland despatch stating that 10,000 people have been killed and an equal number injured. Two lady millionaires and leaders in New York society have been ruined, their property being in San Francisco and being uninsured. The commander of the San Francisco Fire Brigade stated on Thursday evening that more than two-thirds of the city had been destroyed, and that there was no possibility of saving the remainder.