Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1930-09-06
CHECK SHOWS
STORM DAMAGE
IS APPALLING
Thirty Thousand Are
Homeless With
No Water
BY RENE vi. PEPERvANCHE
ASSOCIATED Press Correspondent

(COpyT1gnt, 1851, al lieANS S
served by The Associated Press
sANTO DOMINGO. Sept. 6.-P
Relief agencies speeding to the
assistance Of this stricken city to-
day encountered conditions Of hor-
ror accentuated rather than miti-
gated since the storm wednesday.
Between 1900 and 1000 persons,
A. Is estimated now, died in the
hurricane which swept Santo Do
mingo. cradle Of the white race In
the new world. More than 5000
were injured. Thirty thousand are
homeless and or 10000 buildings
but 400 are left standing. Property
damage will pass s2O,OOO.OO
United States Marine Corps
offiSer who flew over from Port Au
Prince commented: 1T is as If a
giant hand had smeared the town
down like q toy ard then had
stirred the pieces with a stick.
Water Gone
There is no water lit to drink.
The waterworks IS demolished, the
river is a sea Of mud and the dead
are still uncounted.
Floods have washed out the
newly buried dead In the cemete-
ries and collins float around like
corks. The dead are being collected
in mounds and heaps and trenches
and are being burned above ground.
Concrete cisterns are being used as
funeral pyres. cremating as many
as so bodies at a time.
4~Even at a distance Of ten miles
And ar an altitude Of 1000 feet III
the air it was apparent bodies were
being burned. When W. landed, we
could see wagons pass by loaded
with dead. The driver would shout
and curse and cry, more dead, more
dead
Mine out OF every ten trees are
down and the tops OF the few left
standing have been cut off as If
by a great knife. The Ozama river
Is ont or It's banks north and east
OF the city and those sections are
completely inundated.
Men and appear with
little or no clothes on. There IS
almost no clothing to be had and
children and older people make
out as best they can. The people
appear 70 be in a daze and almost
h~ysterical."
Hard TO Land
While the landing field here has
been cleared sufficiently 10 per-
NIT landing Of relief planes from
Port Au Prince, Havana, the Unit
ed STATES and Porto Rico, the land
ing byships Is not SO simple. The
Ozania river Is a raging torrent
pouring out over a bar at its n
trance, which effectively blocks
what was the old harbor. one
authority said he did not believe
even a Navy launch could cross
the bar.
The suggestion has been made
ard ID appears plausible-that the
relief ships may disembark their
cargoes and men at San Geronimo,
four kilometers south Of the capital.
where there is a good beach.
Some supplies. food. medicines
and even shelters have already ar
rived here by airplane which also
brought doctors for treatment OF
the sick and injured, and 1t is un-
derstood others are enroute here
aboard ships from Porto Rico. one
Of which is the Naval Tug Grebe,
due today.
Pr~ofiteering stopped
The president stopped food pro-
fiteering yesterday with All order
that all food was TO be sold at cost
under pain OF court martial. He
also called physicians serving the
Ill and injured together at the
fortress and designated places IN
the city which they might have for
first aid stations.
Among the few buildings left
standing In the city by the wind.
which attained a velocity OF $50
miles an hour, were the 400 year
old cathedral and other old spanish
buildings. The reputed tomb OF
&IinIlQuc LArlAt tAl% AGAAlCOA a. d4cS
was not touched.
Reports from the northern Sec
ton of the republic were that dam
ages we're not so heavy as in Santo
Domingo. The cities of Santiago de
los Saballeros. La Vega and Puerto
Plata were not damaged al all.
villa Duarte. a village housing 1900
for the poorer classes, literally was
blown off the map.