American Typhoon

Waikato Times, Volume 123, Issue 20612, 26 September 1938, Page 8

American Typhoon

DEATH ROLL REACHES 700 TRAIN PASSENGERS’ ORDEAL SOME TERRIFYING EXPERIENCES (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) NEW YORK, Sept. 24 With the partial restoration of communications, the fantastic story of the wreck of the Bostonian, the crack Boston-New York express train, in Wednesday's hurricane has been told by the railway company. It has been revealed that a tital wave swept all but the engine and the first carriage from the rails. As the gale had earlier smashed every windown, the water surged in, drowning two people. With open throttle the locomotive plunged through wreckage and rising water. Terrified passengers, clinging to Ihe sides and roof of the carriage, saw a two-masted schooner bearing ■down on the train, rolling broadside on the wind. It reeled across the track ahead of the train and vanished into the flying scud. The train finally reached a comparatively protected area where It has since been marooned by the flood. Shoot to Kill The death roll is likely to be nearly 700 and the damage certainly amounts to 350,000,000 dollars. As looting is spreading, the militia has been instructed tP shoot to kill. The coastguard cutter Chelan sent a wireless message to-night stating she had reached Watch Hill Point, the centurv-old summer resort at the tip of Rhode Island, and had found that 200 people or more were deal. The known death-roll reads like a page torn from the social register. A total of 150,000 are engaged in recovering bodies and restoring communication. Film Star Missing Efforts to communicate with the screen actor James Cagney at his Martha’s Vineyard home have failed. The body of Mrs Helen Lewis, the first Republican woman candidate for the position of Secretary of State, has been washed ashore. The film actress Katherine Hepburn, with her parents, waded to safety from their summer home at Fenwick.