The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1922-06-16
DEATH LIST GROWS
AS TOLL OF STORM
BELIEVED VICTIMS WILL TOTAL
FOUR SCORE
Two Hundred Boats Lost Near New
York-All Living Persons Re-
moved From Water

New York, June II (By the Asso-
ciated Press. Morgues and undertak-
ing shops of the Metropolitan area to-
night held the bodies of more than
three score men, women and children
victims of yesterdays brief cyclonic
thunderstorm. e
Marine police, who continued
throughout the day their work of
graphing in Pelham bay and Long Is
land sound off City island, where the
greatest toll was taken among Sun
day canoeists and fishermen, predic-
ted they would find at least a score
more victims-enough to push the
death toll past 80. Eye witnesses of
the swift tragedy placed the number
even higher.
At least $50 canoes, row boats and
small motor boats were bobbing ABOUT
off the island, witnesses said, when
the storm came screaming down on
the resort, at velocity Of so miles an
hour, or more Occupants of the little
craft, sensing their danger, made
run for shelter. But scarcely had they
got under way when they were en-
quilted in binding storm of rain and
hail
AS quickly as it had come, the
storm vanished. 1t had lasted less
than FIVE minutes. But scarcely doz-
en- of the small craft had survived.
Horror stricken, but helpless to aid,
the crowds on the beach and about
the casino pier saw scores of men and
women clinging to wrecked and over
turned craft in the choppy sound and
bay. One by one, they gave up the
struggle, and dropped quietly off to
be carried out toward the open by the
tide.
Bodies Never Recovered.
Some of the bodies, the police say,
probably never will be recovered.
The tide, turning, brought more than
score of them back today. Eye WIT
nesses estimated there were between
500 ad 750 prsons in the wrecked
crafts. Heroic work by the United
States life guard members of nearby
watch clubs and volunteers from the
shore crowd saved hundreds.
Among. the first to put out were
Jack Murray, J. c. Bower, Jack Nal
Low and Frank Warttinger. Manning
two small motor boats, they saved
more than a dozen men and women
whom they found clinging to over
turned canoes and row boats. They
were followed by others, and soon
more than so craft of all sorts were
out, dragging to safety the survivors
of the disaster. A score or more saw
ed themselves by clinging to the sides
of Cornelius Vanderbilt's schooner
watch. The waters had been cleared
bv nightfall of the living iout the
search for the dead continued through
the night. Guided by the searchlight
of the police boat John F. Hylan, a
score of boats cruised about, grap-
ping for, and occasionally finding
bodies.
Chaos on Shore
Meantime chaos reigned on shore,
where darkness descended unbroken
by the usual glare of electric lights.
The island power plant had been put
out of commission by the storm as
had the telephone and telegraph
lines.
Mothers, fathers and wives of the
missing besieged the police station
where temporary morgue had been
set up-gazing fearfully at the faces
of the dead by the fiickering light Of
candle and lanterns. Others crowded
the wreck-strewn beach waiting for
the rescue boats to come in with mors
bodies.
Fresh crowds hurried to the islanc
today, when they had the news of the
tragedy through the morning news
papers. Police directed them to the
Bronx morgue where the "a bodies sc
far recovered had been removed.
Tn City island calamity, while the
geatest, was not the only havoc
wrought by the storm.