The Press., 1922-11-16
$1,441,486 A YEARS
 DISASTER RELIEF COST
Red Cross Aided 145,0O0 Vic- tins in United StateS-LoSSes
 Total $3O,OOO,OOO.

1 SeVenty-tWo disasters. with hun
 dreds reported killed and injured, anC
 more than 145,OO0 either homeless ol
 requiring assistance, called for emer-
 gency relief measures and the ex- penditure of $1 Al, ,486.36 by the 1 American Red Cross during the fiscal | year ending June 30, 1922, according
 to a statement based on the forth coming annual report of the Red
 Cross. The greatest toll of life was
 taken by hurricane and tornado,
 while the Overtlowing of rivers, the breaking of dams and tOrrential rains drove the greatest number of people | from their homes. The property loss
 was estimated at more than $3O,- | 100000.
 The years disasters reported in cluded twenty-six floods, nineteen tor
 nadoes, fifteen fires, four epidemics, two theatre cOllapses, two shipwrecks
 (One an airship). and bridge col
 lapse, mine explosion, railway cOlli-
 sion, and a drought. Of the floods in
 the United States. that at San An tonic, Texas, caused the greatest property loss, S6,OOOOOO and the high mark of fatalities, 100, while the flood in the vicinity of Vicksburg and Natchez, Miss, forced 31,OOO persons from their homes.
 A National Calamity
 In the Red Cross disaster relief records there will probably remain for many years one calamity which touched nearly every state with a sense of horror and of loss. This was the distressing collapse of the roof of the Knickerbocker Theatre in Washington, D. C., resulting in nine ty-six deaths and 125 persons injured. Situated in the center of the beauti- ful Northwest residential section, this motion picture theatre was patroniZed by many persons of prominence both in the official and civil life of the Ma tional Capital, whose family and per sonal connections radiated out over the entire country. The horror was intensified by a terrific snowstorm which, though 1t retarded. did not block Red Cross relief
 Alrship Crash Finds Aid at Hand
 The crash and destruction of the U. s. Army's large airship Roma in Vir- ginia last February with the loss of 34 officers and men and II injured was the first disaster of it's kind to call for Red Cross relief in this country. The audiences of the accident tested the preparedness of the organization and of the Chapter at Hampton, Va, but the response was immediate and relief furnished the survivors, also funds for the expenses of relatives of the dead, who came from long distances to claim their own. ....
 In the years oversea record for aid rendered by the Red Cross are two fires In the Philippines one in Manila, which destroyed 1000 homes, with a {! loss of $1,5Oo,0OO, and 5000 persons made homeless, the other at Tonic, | which drove 5000 from their dwellings l In medical relief that was quick and effective the smallpox epidemic in San Domingo, which had total of >22,00O l cases with 225 deaths in a single day | tested the readiness of the Red Cross for action, and the same can be said of the San Domingo hurricane, which killed F persons and reduced the l homes of 1S2 persons to wreckage. A food in San Salvador, with a death toll of 30 and 1000 refugees, was also effectua4y handled by the local Chap ter of the American Red Cross
 Relief Machinery Perfected
 The year has seen the further per lection of disaster relief administra- i've measures in every field of Ameri- 'an Red Cross activity, and that the work may be carried on to still greater the American Red Cross is appealing for widespread re- lewal of membership during the an- lual Roll Call to be conducted this rear from Armistice Day (November D to, and including, Thanksgiving { Day November 30l