Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-01-14
GREAT FLOODS AT ST. KITS.

Terrible Disaster in the West Indian
ArShiPe,aso A,s, % Limitations Washing the
Lives Lost.
News has just arrived of terrible floods
on the island of st. Kits. by which 200
lives have been lost, prope, y to the extent
of s25O,0O0 destroyed, and the whole
island wasted. The land sweeps up
from the shore, slowly at first. through
a rich, fertile and cultivated soil, and
then mounts abruptly toward the central
mass. the rugged peak whereof is known
by the name of Mount Misery. The eleva-
ton of this summit is nearly four thousand
feet, and it overhangs the broken walls of
an old crater-thc last remnant of an inner
cone that has been washed away. The
mountain is clothed with pasture and
woodland. and at its skirts. in the rich
valley of BasSeterre. is the arabic portion
of the island, which is mainly devoted to
sugar. The island itself. known us the
Mother of the Antilles is twenty-three
miles long, five miles broad, and covers an
area Of siXty-seven square miles.
The floods occurred on Sunday last.
The temperature had been unusually high
for the time of year. The winds were
blowing from the south at early morning.
Toward noon they changed to the north
east, and the temperature fell suddenly.
| The streams on the mountain side rapidly
! became torrents. COngregating into 4
gulch at the foot of Mount Misery. they
rose from their narrow channels and poured
down upon the arabic land in resist
less stream. The inhabitants were at
once alive to their danger. There was a
general stampede toward the coast. The
confusion was terrible. Blacks and whites,
natives and English, all made for the
nearest point of safety. The torrent
rolled on into the town of Basscterre,
among the newly built houses and public
editices, carrying with it rOottrces, ti,nbers
and branches of trees. Landslips added
to the terrOrs of the scene. Sugar fields
were levelled to the ground or torn up in
masses, deep gullies We're washed in the
roads, sugar houses and dwelling places
were borne bodily away, and the waters
rushed headlong to the sea with theiI
freight of drowned cattle and struggling
human beings.
The scene was pitiful. The whole pop.
ulation of the island does not exceed
twenty-five thousand, and of these two
hundred pershed and many of the rest
were homeless. People huddlcd together
on the roofs, wild with terror. The au-
thOrities went Immediately to work to
relieve the distress. But the task was toe
great for them. Large quantities of pro-
visions and all the sugar ready for ship
ment has been swept away. Earnest ap,
peals have been made for help. st. Kits has
known no such calamity since 1922, when
a terrific hurricane nearly destroyed the
island. But it is singular that on July 3,
1867, Basscterrc was destroyed by fire,
all the business portion of the town and
most of churches and dwellings reduced
to ashes, and five lives lost. A movement
is being set Oh foot for the relief OF the
devastated island. St. Christopher, or st.
Kits, was settled by English cOlonists
under Sir Thomas Warren in 1923, was
held afterward by the English and French,
and finally coded to Great Britain by the
treaty of Versailles in 1888. In 1872 it
joined the confederation of the Lcewartl
Islands, the legislature of which sits at
st. Johns, Antigua aud Basseterre in
alternate years. 1t belongs to Great
Britain, and is governed by "a president an
executive council appointed by the crown,
and a Legislative assembly, half of whose
members are elected. In 1869 the imports
were valued at e19S, 712; ; exports e2222,
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