DISASTROUS FLOODS.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIV, 28 June 1926, Page 5

DISASTROUS FLOODS.

MEXICAN TOWN DESTROYED. LARGE DEATH LIST. (Per Press Association —Copyright). MEXICO CITY, June 26. Floods swept the City of. Leon, in the State of Guanajuato from the river Gometi. The death list is expected to reach one thousand. Half of the city has* been destroyed, and 387 bodies have been recovered. Twenty thousand mud houses have been, destroyed. Relief workers, who are searching the ruins, declare that many other bodies are still buried in the mud, and many more are likely never to be recognised because the victims, were swept downstream in a raging torrent of water, now seven to ten feet deep. In the lower sections of the city, entire families were buried. The property losses are estimated at seven million pesos. Federal troops have been ordered to proceed to the scene to take up relief work. SAN FRANCISCO, June 26. A despatch received at Nogales (Arizona) on Saturday said that it is estimated that the floods following the overflow of . the Santiago river in , Guanajuato State, Mexico, claimed 1300 victims. All the bodies have been recovered. One fourth of the population is homeless and destitute. The value of the property damage is estimated at four million pesos. The waters are receding. Torrential rains during the past fortnight caused the greatest floods in the history of the region. The unharvested crops have been inundated, and entire business blocks in Leon swept away. Friends of the victims are passing through improvised morgues, in attempts to identify missing relatives. Efforts to bring food and medical supplies to the area are hampered by crippled rail facilities. Hunger is already beginning to show its ravages.