HURRICANE HITS EASTERN U.S.A.

Southland Times, Issue 23000, 21 September 1936, Page 7

HURRICANE HITS EASTERN U.S.A.

Atlantic Coast Swept 54 PEOPLE BELIEVED DEAD HIGH SEAS DESTROY BUILDINGS (United Press Assn..—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 5.5 p.m.) New York, Sept. 19. Forty-five people were reported dead or missing as a result of a hurricane which swept the Atlantic seaboard at 75 miles an hour for 1000 miles, from Cape Fear (South Carolina) to Cape Cod (Massachusetts). Most of the casualties were the result of coastal craft foundering.

The New York Times estimates that at least 54 perished early on Saturday. The gale appears to have veered seaward and will probably miss New York.

Thirty-five were drowned from one fishing-boat. Points along the coast of New Jersey were hard hit, high seas destroying a number of buildings.

Communications were wrecked in North and South Carolina. A lightship is adrift off Virginia. Ocracoke Island, off North Carolina, was swept by a tidal wave; the 400 inhabitants were evacuated. Owing to the failure of power Atlantic City is in darkness, and schools and many businesses were forced to close. Seaside homes in the far north, at Asbury Park (New Jersey), were washed by an ocean of mountainous seas. Trans-Atlantic shipping from New York was held in the harbour owing to inability to leave. Heavy damage is reported at Cape Hatteras, and scores of communities throughout the area are isolated.