CITY WRECKED

Southland Times, Issue 22131, 27 September 1933, Page 5

CITY WRECKED

TERRIFIC WIND DISASTER IN MEXICO DEAD TOTAL HUNDREDS TAMPICO DEVASTATED (United Pres, Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 5.5 p.m.) Mexico City, Sept. 25. The first unofficial estimates from Tampico on Monday night reported that several hundred were killed in Sunday night’s hurricane which devastated three-fourths of the city. The Secretary for the Interior, Senor Edouard Vasconcelos, said that the number of dead could not be stated exactly in Tampico itself. The military chief of the district reported by wireless’that threequarters of the city was destroyed and many were dead and injured. From the steamer Sapinero came an estimate of 200 dead and hundreds homeless.

Later reports from a wrecked radio station, where a Pan-American aeroplane engine is providing the power to work the radio, tell of appalling damage in the city of Tampico which was wrecked by a hurricane with a velocity of 115 miles an hour, the storm blowing itself out in an hour. The death roll is very heavy and the populace is panic-stricken. Thousands were washed out of their homes and thousands are missing or under the ruins of the city. It is believed to be the greatest disaster in recent Mexican history.

It is only ten days ago since a hurricane and flood waters caused over 30 deaths in Tampico. The storm lashed various parts of Northern Mexico and it was reported 130 lives had been lost. The devastated city of Tampico is a seaport of Mexico in the state of Tamaulipas. It stands on the river Panuco near its entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, 206 miles north-e-ast of Mexico City. It carries on an active trade, the chief articles of export being rubber, sugar, maize, asphalt and oil. During the revolution in 1914 it was cantured by the Constitutionalists, and it has rapidly grown in importance since the exploitation of the oilfields. The population is over 35,000.