GERMAN DISASTER

Southland Times, Issue 20228, 13 July 1927, Page 5

GERMAN DISASTER

CLOUDBURST DAMAGE DEAD TOTAL MORE THAN 200 INDESCRIBABLE SCENE OF DESOLATION (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.) London, July 11. A British United Press message from Dresden says that the deaths due to the cloudburst are now estimated at 200. The death roll is mounting steadily as bodies are discovered in out-of-the-way places. Many are so mutilated as to* be unrecognisable. The damage is estimated at £BOO,OOO. It will be months before reconstruction work is complete, especially on many railway lines. Hundreds of people are forlornly roaming the mountain sides, creeks and valleys, searching with lanterns for missing relatives, while on the mountain slopes the whole night through thousands maintain a vigil. At stations where corpses were collected heartrending scenes were witnessed. One mother became insane on recognising the bodies of her three children. Fresh horror was added to the disaster in Mueglitz and Gottlaube Valleys owing to fear of an outbreak of disease through the destruction of w’ater mains and contamination of creeks by corpses. Doctors are being rushed to the scene to apply safeguards while firemen have surrounded the stricken area where the chaos and filth are indescribable.—A. and N.Z.