HOLIDAY RESORT WRECKED

Southland Times, Issue 23624, 27 September 1938, Page 3

HOLIDAY RESORT WRECKED

AT LEAST 200 DEAD ACTOR AMONG MISSING NEW YORK, September 25. When the coastguard cutter Chelan reached Watch Hill, a summer resort at the tip of Rhode Island, 200 or more persons were found dead as a result of the hurricane. The sea cut a swathe through Watch Hill, engulfing 68 houses and drowning whole families. This was one of the many moving tragedies revealed as the storm and floods subsided. Exclusive week-end resorts were wiped off the map. The known death-roll is now near 600. It reads like a page torn from the social register. Workers are feverishly engaged in strengthening damaged dykes, but with the Connecticut river slowly receding from the 35ft level the danger has passed. Altogether 150,000 persons are engaged in recovering bodies and restoring communications. Airmen, fearing an epidemic, are distributing anti-tetanus and antityphoid serum by parachute. Looters are active. The militia fired on numbers of them and wounded one at Buzzards Bay, aptly named. The actor, James Cagney, is missing. The body of Mrs Helen Lewis, first Republican woman candidate for the post ;of Secretary of State, was washed ashore. Her wealthy husband was drowned when the tidal wave engulfed Thimble Island.