The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-11-12
CUBAN REFUGEES Tell
OF TIDAL WAVE HORROR:
DEATH TOLL IS GROWING
Most of 1900 Who Fled
From Destroyed City
Are Injured.
'SOUL-SICKENING SIGHT
Relief Worker Says He Is
Sure 1000 PeriShed in
Hurricane.
BY LAWRENCE HAAS
United Press STAFF Correspondent


CAMAGUEY, Cuba, Nov.
1.-THE last pitiful contin-
gent of the 1900 refugees.
from the stricken town of
Santa Cruz del Sur, wiped off
the map by a tidal wave in
Wednesdays hurricane, was
distributed among the emer-
gency hospitals here today.
Most of them were injured.
Estimates of the dead in the OBJ
liberated town ranged from an I'M
deniably conservative 1000 to as
high as 1000.
In addition, many more dead we're
reported from other parts of CANA
guey province, and from Santa
Clara province.
An official telegram to President
Gerardo Machado from Naricso
Onetti, secretary of public works,
who is directing relief in Santa
Cruz, estimated probably 1000 dead
and 700 injured.
Soul-Sickening Spectacle
Dario Castillo, Camaguey attor-
ney, who returned here after aiding
the relief work. said:
/ am sure 1000 persisted. The
site where Santa Cruz stood is a
Soul-sickening spectacle that I will
never forget.
1t is a city of the past. Nobody
remains except few distracted.
opourate refugees searching among
the dead for relatives, and small
squads OF volunteer workers.
The latter buried 472 bodies to-
day. They will burn the other
nodles, which still are strewn for
several miles around"
Inc last survivors, numbering
ABOUT 800, arrived in train of ten
coaches shortly before midnight
All were UNDERGRAD and some had
no clothes at all. Barefooted women
were wrapped in sheets and towels.
Groups of survivors, who had ar
rived on earlier trains, searched
Valnly and in tears for missing rel
ativeS.
Fail to Find Children
! The United Press correspondents
IalIed TO note a single ioyous re-
union as bereft mothers and fathers
plteously scanned the faces of the
arrivals, looking for their chill
dren.
The women of Camaguey from
those high in society to the work
ing class, labored faithfully night
and day in the emergency hos
pitfalls, some of which still were
nghted by candles and oil Ianps.
pending full restoration of the cleo
trio service. Lack of water caused
great hardship.
The pain of many was accentlI-
ated by grief over the fate of their
relatives.
Blinded in Rescue Work
AS typical case, the writer saw
one comely young mother living
swathed in bandages in DIR. Lamar's
emergency hospital. She had lost
one child by drowning and her
other two died after emergency
operations here. She had not vet
been Informed of their death.
One man arrived at the hospital
carrying in his arms a 2-year-old
child suffering from a bad wound in
the head. The man dazed. said he
did not know who the bow was or
where he had picked him up.
DR.. Micheul Agramonte, a Santa
cruz lawyer, among the injured
survivors, nearly was blinded by the
water while engaged in rescue work.
L tried to rescue my fiancee and
her mother in the swirling water
but I lost them both. Swimming
and struggling against the current.
l mad mold OF my 1ancee, but when
l olVed Tor her mother. she sanb
searched among the bodies for
hours after the water receded. but
could not find either of them"
Shoots Self in Grief
A leading resident Of Santa Cruz.
Lingo San Pelayo, shot himself IN.
death in grief when he identified
the bodies of his mother, his sister
and his fiancee.
Vivar Hoffman, editor of the local
newspaper Camagueyano, who Wis
lted Santa Cruz, told the United
Press he saw hundreds Of dead Wing
IN the ruins and some hanging in
fences and tree branches where thev
were left by the receding waters.
he reported twenty dead in Bocar.
mile from the water, where thew
| sought refuge. but were rrnurnna