Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-09-20
RUSH TO REBUILD
. FLORIDA IS BEGUN.
Railroad and Steamship Men
Preparing to Handle Huge
Quantities of Supplies.

Special Dispatch to The star.

Special Dispatch to The star.
NEW YORK. September 20.-Rail
road and steamship men hurried prep
arationS today TO rush supplies ana
materials to the stricken section or
Florida. No accurate estimate of the
financial loss caused by the West In
dian hurricane which swept the south
eastern side Of the peninsula is pos
sible as yet, but the damage to prop
erty and loss to business, immediate
and prospective, undoubtedly will be
tremendous.
No doubt was expressed by trans.
portation men or material distributors
that the ruined sections will be rebuilt
with the utmost dispatch, and this VIII
mean a heavy demand for building
materials, food and labor.
The railroads. remembering the
blockade of freight last year. have put
their equipment and schedules in such
q position that they can be counted on
to handle the necessary freight with
dispatch. IT is certain. however, that
all traffic for Florida east coast points
south of Delray will be subject 10
delay until the. debris of the storm IS
cleaned up, as will traffic bound from
the port Of Miami 10 southwest Florida
points
Plenty of Ships Available.
Shipping men say there are ample
vessels available to care for the Miami
water-borne traffic. In fact, the storm
may be the means Of lifting the coast
whise shipping industry out OF the
slump into which it fell tarlier this
year. The Atlantic, Gulf and West
Indies lines, leading factor in this
trade, experienced a drop in surplus
of nearly S1,000,000 for the first half
year, as compared with tht first part
of 1925.
Funds for starting the rehabilitation
OF the damaged towns are not likely
to be lacking. Payments of insurance
companies will be extremely heavy.
Concerns writing various kinds of in
surance suffered heavy loss, but the
business was so well distributed that
1t is unlikely that any one company
has suffered a Gripping blow.
The people who had heavy mort
cages on their property probably were
best protected in the matter OF 1nsuf-
ance. The large mortgage companies
and other loaning institutions have
required windstorm insurance in order
to protect their mortgage interests
The windStorm rates are so h1gh IN
Florida that it is believed few unin-
numbered property owners were pro
tected in this regard. Many OF the
more ambitious developments, now
ever. are still under mortgage. The
loss to writer's of plate glass insurance
will be extremely heavy.
The small property owners in gen
eral, however, did not take the hurri-
cane menace very seriously, and built
and financed accordingly. No severe
hurricanes had struck southern tIorl-
da since the great resort development
started, around 1920. Many of those
who built were from other sections
and never experienced a severe tropi
cal Windstorm.
Issued Many Warnings.
Od-timers issued warning after
warning. especially in the section
around Miami where the position of
Miami Beach was specially vulnerable.
Many of the buildings erected were
not designed to Withstand terrific wind
pressureS. AS was the case in Cali
fornia after the San Francisco fire, the
rebuilding which Will be done will
probably take these special dangers
into consideration.
Building activity in the stricken sec
ton had just begun to pick up after
a Midsummer slump and in the last
month permits were issued in Miami
and Miami Beach for construction IN
volving about $2,500,000.
The Florida East Coast Railway In
the last three years has spent about
$4o,00O,000 in extensions and improve
ments in the territory hit by the
storm and will spend $21 100000 more
before the end of this year. The ter
minal at Hialeah, which was nearing
completion at the time of the storm,
would have increased Miamis termi-
nal facilities by $50 per cent.