The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-05-25
HURRICANE At VA VAU
VERY GREAT DESTRUCTION is
WROUGHT.
over Fifty Churches Destroyed and the
Whole Population Rendered Home
less-Orange Crop is Totally Ruined.

APIA, May 1.-THE Samoa Weekly
Herald publishes the following account
from it's special correspondent, of ter
rife hurricane which lately swept Va
vau, the northern group of the Friendly
Islands:
ION the night of April Vavau was
visited by the most severe hurricane
that has been experienced for a great
many years; in fact, more damage has
been done amongst European built
houses than has been known before.
In the town of Nei-afu almost without
exception, every house has suffered
more or less: a few to the extent of
some sheets of roof iron gone or fences
blown down, but most of them more
seriously, being either shifted bodily
off their blocks, or so strained that they
will have to be pulled to pieces before
being repaired. Many others are just
heaps of ruins, roof, sides, floor and
household furniture being mixed up in
linextricable confusion. In the case of
many smaller houses only the blocks
remain, the rest of the material is scat
tered in every direction. Sheets of iron
can be seen in the trees crumpled up
like paper, and a good deal is supposed
to have been blown into the harbor.
1.-The big Free Church of Tonga and
the Wesleyan church close by, are both
utterly demolished. The concrete Rom
an Catholic church is only slightly
damaged, and the priests house partly
unrOofed. The new Government offices
and postoffice are also destroyed.
THE public wharf is not much in
jured, but all the private wharves are
badly knocked about. Large concrete
blocks of two or three tons in weight
have been completely turned over, and
the wharf decking washed away, and
the each all around the harbor is COW
cred with broken boats and innumer-
able other fragments Reports from
other parts of the Island bring the same
disheartening news, and it is said that
at least fifty churches and hundreds
of native houses are more or less de-
molished.
I'm the bush the state of confusion
battles description. All kinds of trees
are lying about in every direction, MAX
ing the roads and tracks almost i'm
passable. In one space of about hun
| bred yards, thirty cOcoanut trees We're
counted uprooted clear out of the
ground.
1.-The orange crop is practically des-
troyed for this year and the ground is
covered with decaying fruit and very
serious loss in the cobra crop may be
expected, as in addition to the damage
done by the wind, the weather since
| the gale, has been unusually dry and
hot, thus preventing much of the recov-
cry the trees would have made had
rainy weather followed. Traders say
that under favorable circumstances it
will take two years to recover. Alto
gether in the short space of about four
| hours, Vavau, from being one of the
most beautiful harbors in this part of
the Pacific, has been changed to one
of the most forlorn wreck bestrewn
looking places IT is possible to imagine.
Fortunately the loss of life is very
slight under the circumstances. only
one native child, so far as is known.
This is nothing less than a miracle,
considering the way the native houses
are levelled and in many instances have
altogether disappeared"