The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-09-23
HURRICANE HORRORS.
Some Details Of Devastation
Wrought in the Wind
ward Islands,
Many Dead.
TBy Gable to The Associated Preas.l


KINGSTON, Jamaica. Sept. 23 1885,
Mail advices which reached here today
brought melancholy relief TO the suspense
experienced regarding the full extent of
the hurricane disaster at the Islands of
St. Vincent. St. Lucia and Barbadoes,
showing that the first accounts were not
exaggerated, although based on inference,
the cable station at Sit Vincent being
submerged under the sea and cutting off
st. Vincent and Barbados from commu
nication with the other two islands.
AT ST. Vincent about three hundred
lives have been lost, not counting the
loss of life suffered through the destruc
ton of shipping. The coast is strewn
with the wrecks of vessels, many OF which
We're from Barbados.
The storm ragged from ten o'clock in the
morning Sunday, September 49, until
two o'clock in the afternoon, completely
wreeking the islands At the capital,
Kingston, fully two hundred houses We're
demolished, while the suburbs, Goxheath
and Montebello. were obliterated Among
the principal buildings destroyed are the
Anglican and Catholic Churches, the fine
newfhospital and Fort Charlotte. All the
other public buildings were more or less
injured. Cloud-bursts from the noun
tains swept much of the ruins into the
sea, including several dead and injured
persons.
Throughout the island the destruction
was on a wholesale scale, nearly all the
estates and buildings being razed and
cultivation being obiterated-
The following towns or villages were
destroy d.-Roseplaee Grandosable, Ar
nosVale. Mount Pleasant, Argyle, Walhla-
bo. Barrouallie, Layon and Buccament,
and. the second city, Georgetown, was
considerably damaged.
No approximate estimate of the value
of the damage done has been reached; !;
but the island is practically ruined.
st. Lucia suffered mostly from rain and
landsiides. the de1uge lasting ten hours.
Cul de Sac and Rousseau Valleys. the
We're converted into lakes and partly
filled with debris from the mountains,
which ruined the crops, while many Plan
tations elsewhere were wrecked. Serious
damage was sustained especially at
AIornetabae which pfecipitated an ava
lanche three miles long, covering the val
ley to the width of mile and over
whelming Ruby and a couple of other
estates. Similar avalanches partly de-
stroyed the Diamond. Pearl and San Jae-
ques eacao plantations. The city of
Castries suffered somewhat, chiefly from
a tidal wave which swept over half the
town and wrecked a portion of Bay
street Thirteen lives were lost. The full
extent of the damage has not been COM
puted, but it is incomparably less than
at ST. Vincent.
The hurricane struck the Island of Bar
bados on the night of the tenth, com
pletely wrecking that fiat exposed island
and sweeping away ten thousand houses
while damaging thousands more. This
left three-quarters of the. Inhabitants
homeless. Over one hundred people were
killed, so far as known.
The City of Bridgetown was partially
destroyed and the suberbs, St. Michael
and Bellowille were entirely demolished.
All the shipping was wrecked or blown
out to sea In the country the desola-
ton is awful, owing to the destruction of
the previsin grounds on which the popula-
ton depended.
While all the parishes suffered the
greatest distress in st. Michael, Christ
Church and st. Philip. All the sugar es-
tates are. damaged and many of them
are completely wrecked. But while the
cultivation of cane has suffered consider
ably the cane has not been totally ruin-
ed, as at first reported, the damage not
exceeding one-ffth of the cane. The total
estimated damage, besides the loss from
the cane crop and provisions is about
81 500 600 at Barbados.