JAPANESE DISASTER

Otago Witness, Issue 3768, 1 June 1926, Page 53

JAPANESE DISASTER

ERUPTION OF MOUNT TOKACHI. TOKIO, May 25. With a tremendous roar heard 20 miles away, Mount Tokaehi, a dormant volcano in Hokkaido, suddenly erupted yesterday. It is reported that 60 houses were burned in lava and that 120 persons are missing, mainly miners in the local sulphur mine. The town of Miye at the base of the volcano is seriously endangered and has been deserted by the inhabitants. The Nicbi Nichi reports that 1000 persons are missing. Two hundred were drowned in the water that gushed from the ground following the eruption. TOKIO, May 25. Reports from Hokkaido state that three violent eruptions occurred, the first resulting in a lava stream roaring down the side of Mount Tokaehi completely damming the Mie River and causing the countryside to be flooded. The third explosion blew off the side of the mountain, raining down rocks, trees, and mud, which clogged the Furyono River, thus increasing the floods, which submerged several small villages. Nearly two miles of railway were completely destroyed, but a relief train, with 800 helpers, is "reported to have arrived. The official report from the Governor of IJokkaido states that 200 buildings were washed away and about 1800 acres of farm lano were inundated. The latest official report states that 100 bodies have been recovered, while 20 people were seriously and 200 slightly injured. TOKIO, May 26. Eye-witnesses state that the third eruption of Mount Tukachi was the worst as he lava freed the mountain lake, which swept—a 30ft wall of water—down the hillside, wrecking farms; while the lava poured down from the craters engulfing villages and the railway. Warned by the preliminary rumblings, many neople escaped before the eruption and the flood. As the calamity occurred during the daytime, many farmers who were working in the fields were saved, but they lost their famiifcs in the villages and became demented by their loss.

A train from Asahigawa, warned by the rumblings, turned back and escaped the flowing lava. A relief corps was rushed to the scene, but the work wasfseverely hampered by the flood and the lava covering the railway tracks, which prevented the relief train arriving. The latest reports from Hokkaido state that 144 bodies have been recovered The damage is estimated at 2,000,000 ver: The rescue work was hampered bv a. thick mist. The volcano is still emitting ashes intermitentlv.

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