The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1876-12-31
4 BAD COUNTRY TO LIVE IN.
LIVES DESTROYED BY TENS OF THOUSANDS
IN FEW MINUTES.


LIVES DESTROYED BY TENS OF THOUSANDS
IN FEW MINUTES.
The London Tmss furnishes . few addi-
tiobal particulars concerning the enects OF
the cyclone wave which, on the 3ist OF
October, came upon the Numbering innao-
itapta of the BackeTguoge and neighborlng
districts like q thief in the night. Inc
Times says: "The comparatively few de-
tails that have yet reached us concerning
the effects of the lone wave which, ae
midnight on October 81, suddenly swooped
round the low-lyiog dlstrRt at the mouth
of the Gauges, are Sufficient to marx the
event as probably the moet destructive
catastrophe hS water on Authentic record
Il is TO be feared thar, when anything like
I'D accurate account has been taken of the
de s.ruction to life and property which was
exceed the estimate already made, apPat-
lingly high as that ID. IL is not easy to
form any adequate idea of the destruction
of life which has occ urred 2l5UOO lives
lost in a epace of time that might almost be
counted by minutes! The immediate cause
of the recent catastrophe in the Backer-
gunge and peighboriDg districts Was what
is known as cyclone wave, or storm wave.
at IL o'clock, we are told, on the night OF
the storm there were no sigps of danger !;
before midnight the cyclone wave swept
over an area of probably close on three
thousand square miles, to depth in places
of twenty feet, waking the sleeping m
habitsnts only To q consciousness of their
terrible fate.
CYCLONES OF OTHER PERIODS.
"One of the earliest cyclones of which
details have been recorded occurred, not in
the uaual season, but in December, 17e9.
l, was accompanied by huge storm wave,
" hich broke on the coast at Corlpgs, near
the mouth of the Godavery. In this case,
as in several other cases on record, the
coast was swept by three successive waves,
the first of which drove all before 1t and
flooded the town with several feet OF alter;
the second overtopped the first and covered
all the neighborDg districts, while the
third dashed lite waters over all. Nearly
all the town, with thirty thousand lDhab;-
tants, was destroyed, while the shipplrg at
anchor in the bay were thEo En far up or
to the land. This very spot was visited by
an almost equally destructive cyclobe wave
in 1889. On October 81, 1881, $50 miles Of
the country az the mouth of the Ganges
was swept by wave which Obliterated
800 native villages and destroyed 10000 of
the inhabitants. Other destructive hurrl-
canes are recorded as having occurred on
the same coast OCTOBER Z, lc52, ana sep
TENDER 81, 1899. On October 81, 1888,
wave swept the mouth of the Hooghly and
overwhelmed 10000 people; while on the
2Ist of the previous May, three successive
waves, as at Corinea, swept away GOO
villages and destroyed So 600 people. The
last of the three waves was nine feet higher
than the highest tide, and the barometer is
said to have suddenly iaiIen as Buca az
| two inches.
"In the Calcutta cyclone of October s.,
1864, the devastation was almost solely due
| to the ( feet of the cyclone wave, the ex-
tent of country laid under water having
been / 500 square miles. Ie was OF little
avail that the banks of the Hooghly and its
feeders, and the islands at it's mouth were
protected by bikes and embankments OF
| from eight TO ten feet high; these, even II
they had been strong enough to withstand
| the shock of the wave, were far ovcrtopped
by it; and the land inside laid uuder water
to a depth of from six to eighteen feet.
| 10 the hooghIy the greatest height OF tins
memorable cyclone wave recorded was lo5
! feet above high spring tide level, and about
81 feet above the mean level of the sea.
Even es far as Calcutta iE wac about the
same height as the higheet spring tide,
and 143 feet above mean sea level. The
loss CT lite directly caused By the storm
wave, was not lsss than so 600, and would
probably have been enormously greater had
the wave caught the people 4lseep, as has
been the css9 at Backergunge.
In the brief space of one month after the
| Hooehly disaster Of 1864, on Nuvemh Der 5
a scarcely less destructive wave Dashed
over the coast at Mascuiipatam; at the
mouth of the klstDah, where the curve O
tbs coast fs precisely OF a nature 10 inter
cept and concentrate the power of such 6
wave. The loss of life in ths case was
something like 35 OOO people. Only thres
years latter, November ], 1867, the Calcut
Ia district had another similar visitatloo
happily not nearly SO destructive, as only
600 lives we're lost, though 10000 native
huts were swept away.
oil rscnTtsi TFayinOa C3ta9tTnnhR6 q
this kind, the most terrible occurred in 1862
and the natives still remember it as the
banyd or food of 1929 B. s. This cyclone
appears to have had very wide range, ex
tending far inland and to the east, and f2l
beyond Calcutta to the west. 1t swep
over all the islands ct the mouth of IT,
Hooghly and over the neigh6uriDg coasts
Fortonately the wave broke in the earl!
evening, and, as the eye one had been rag
ing for some time, the people were in SOM
measure prepared. StilI, II il stated, lOO
900 of tne lohabt'aots aud as many cat.l
were destroyed, and property TO EEe ex