Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1907-01-24
PROPERTY LOSS IS ENORMOUS.
Cables Snapped by Shock and Meager
Details Tell Story.

Nearly 1000 persons are reported
dead at least $4,000 more have been
wounded more or less seriously and
property loss estimated at S25,O00yO00
wrought by Il terrible earthquake which
visited the city of Kingston and the
southern coast of Jamaica late Monday
afternoon. Fire followed the wrecking
of the city, as was the case in the San
Francisco disaster.
The disaster at Kingston, Jamaica,
seems to have been as great as the
calamities at San Francisco and Val
paraiSo. The number of dead Will
never be definitely known, and the
property loss is likely to reach $23,O00,-
600. The whole town was left in ru-
ms and hundreds of dead bodies were
taken from the debris. Many bodies
in a state of decomposition or charred
beyond recognition had to be burned.
The earthquake came as a sudden
oscillation, not from any particular di-
rection, but up and down. Thousands
of persons were on the streets of
Kingston at the time and great num-
bers of them were crushed. Many
Americans in Kingston were killed and
have been buried.
Realizing the possibility of famine,
the people made attempts to loot. The
military, however, at once took pos
session of the foodstuffs. Detachments
Of ho
placed on guard. They were concen-
trated in a central position. No one
was allowed to pass through the ruin
ed sections of the city.
Famine and pestilence threatened to
add their horrors to the situation at
Kingston. The provision stores We're
destroyed and the only food within
reach of the thousands of homeless
poor was fruit. The stencil from de-
caying bodies scattered through the de-
bris threatened an epidemic, and the
few doctors in Kingston, although
working night and day, were unable to
cope with the threatened plague. The
ships in the harbor were crowded with
injured people. and corpseS lay in the
streets until thrown into trenches or
burned.
Business was at 4 standStilI. Some
shops were opened by Cinnamon, who
raised the prices on goods 1000 per
cent. This so angered the people that
the Cinnamon were driven out and
their shops looted.
Direct communication with Kingston
was cut off when the earthquake
snapped the cables to America. Tenn
porary land lines were established,
however, connecting with other cable
lines. through which sources meager
details of the disaster were received
Kingston was overwhelmed by the
earthquake. All the houses within
radius of ten miles were damaged and
nearly every house in the city was de-
stroyed. Fire broke out after the earth
quake and completed the ruin. The
business section of Kingston is heap
of smolderng ashes. The killed num-
Der about 1000 and thousands were in
jured.
Fires broke out again Tuesday night
The negroes looted the rumshops 4
dispatch says that 1,200 persons have
been killed. There were weird and ter
rible scenes. Forty-five invalid sol
diers were burned to death in the mill
tary hospital. Several shocks We're felt
Wednesday.
Cables from Colon indicate that
many. victims were burned ID death
the operator using the words furnace
of human souls He also described
the dead by hundreds
Hospitals Choked with Wounded.
The hospitals that remain standing
were choked with injured: dead lay in
all portions of the city and some of the
bodies were burned up by the flames
which swept over the place.
Jamaica. being d great winter resort,
with the city of Kingston the main
point of interest, attracted hundreds of
pleasure seekers to its shores. and
alarm was felt all over America for
persons from this country who We're
near the scene of the seismic disturb
ance.