The star of Pascagoula. [volume] (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1873-1878, 1877-01-12
THE BENGAL CYCLONE.
Particular Of It's Destructive Effects
Thousands Of sleeping H""nn
Heing. swept into ~ wnirrs
.Grnye-An Overw helm
Ing Disaster.

Particulars OF us ofst hFtsff y
Thousand. of %sleeping Human
Being. swept into - wnirrs
Grnye-An Oyerw heint'
Ing Disaster.
The Calcutta correspondent of the
| London Times, writing under date OF
November 18th, furnishes the following
particulars concerning the appalling cy-
lone in Bengal.
ORIGIN OF II CYCLONE.
The cyclone appears to have had its
| origin somew here in the eastern portion
of the bay of Bengal, probably a little
to the north of the Anamans. Proceed
ing in a northerly direction, it struck
| the land ut the island of Sundeep on the
coast of Chittagong. 1t would then ap-
pear to have gone north, and, after get
ting to some distant inland, to have
tarned and swept down the Meghna, car
| rying with it IN enormous storm wave,
or, | should say rather, a succession OF
storm waves. At any rate this descrip-
ton of the course Of the cyclone is APP
parently the only one which will account
for the difference i'll the marks left at
Dalhin, Shahabazpore and Haitian from
IllISt 10 llt tdSU III lDuilNlttD anu SIlllld-
gong. In the two tirst.named places the
lie of the trees and ruins would seem to
indicate that they We're blown down or
u@nrooted by a storm or wave from the
north, while in the other two the des.
truction seems have come from a south
erly quarter.
APPALLING SCENES AND TERRIFIC LOSS
OF LIFE.
Be this as it may, there a be no
doubt of the fact that about midnight,
and without warning of any kind, the
| three islands of Dakhin Shahabazpore,
Haitian and Sundeep ~were.entirely SUBJ
merged. A number of the inhabitants,
startled from their sleep, took refuge in
the trees, which most fortunately sur
rounded every village, and they alone
were saved. Many, unable to reach the
trees, climbed on the roofs of their homes.
There they found only temporary safety,
for the water, rushing into the houses to
the depth of twenty feet, soon burst off
the roofs, and the receding waves carried
them out to sea, with the unhappy
wretches still clinging to them. Some
few of the people of Sundeep were
drifted on roofs or planks across the
channel to the mainland, a distance of
ten miles. Every soul who was caught
by the water before he had made for a
tree or a roof was drowned at ono and
it is hardly an exaggeration to say that
the early morning Of the first saw all the
survivors of the population of the three
islands / have named, as well as of the
seaboard of the adjoining mainland,
perched in the trees which alone,'remained
visible above the water. 1t is difficult to
say, and perhaps it will never be accu-
rately known, what was the exact loss OF
life on that night. The first reports we re-
ceived in Calcutta put it at twenty
thousand. Subsequently that number
was said to be forty thousand, and then
one hundred and fifty thousand but since
the return of the lieutenant governors
party | have learned that after a careful
examination of the reports from the sew.
eral police stations, the loss of life cannot
have been less than two hundred and
fifteen thousand persons. When we re-
member that three islands, themselves
containing at least three hundred and
forty thousand souls, were almost in a;
moment submerged underr>from twenty
~to-thirty feet Of water, the storm-wave
from the sea meeting the storm.waye
from the Magma, a terrific gale blowing
all the time and not an inch of high
ground on which to take refuge, nothing,
in fact, but the trees-when we remem-
Der all this, the only marvel is that a
single person escaped to tell the tale of
the awful night. 1t was remarked by
the lieutenant governors party, during
their tour through the districts and
islands, that in every house at which
they made inquiries they were told that
one or more members of the family had
persisted.
PROBABLE OUTBREAK OF EPIDEMIC DIS
EASE.
1t is some satisfaction to know that
this calamity is not likely TO give rise to
much material distress among the peo-
pie. If the people of B~ackergunge and
Noakholly can only tide over the next
two or three weeks no apprehension
need be entertained. Meanwhile relief
centres have been established, and the
officers of the government have been in
structed to give assistance to all who
really need it. An outbreak of epidemic
disease is what is now most to be feared,
and it is said that cholera has already
made its appearance in Noakholly. See
ing that dead bodies of men and cattle,
and debris of all kinds are scattered over
the country, it seems likely that the dis
ease may spread to B~ackergunge, Chitta-
gong and other distr cts. Among the
other inconvenience suffered by the peo-
pie Is the loss eff their bosts-no slight
calamity in the Gangetic delta-where
wheeled conveyances are unknown. The
cattle, too. have been almest all swept
away. Society was, for a time at least,
utterly ~disorganized. The police were
drowned, almost TO a man, and most of
the civil officers on the islands persisted
In former days the people of those parts
bore an evil name, and were reputed to
be given to robbery and theft. For a
few days it appeared as il, among the
general confusion, the survivors we're
about to fall back on the ways of their
But the energy Of the district
officers, backed by a large body of po-
lice from the neighboring collectorates,
aoon restored order, and now everything
l. ouiet and ncacaahle