The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-09-04
Hurricane Sueeps
 Camps OF Veterans
Treasurer
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NCOutlHuSU sign of life. Hotels, hospitals, houses, and docks were gone blown or flooded away.
 There was no sign of the vet erans' camps where hundreds of men lived" she said. There was no sign of life or buildings from Grassy Key to Islamorado and Me- tacombe Key. Most of Metacombe was covered with water.
 I've looked for the train sent to evacuate the veterans. We could only see something that may have been half a car.
 Large parts of the Florida East Coast railroad trestle were gone. Bridges were gone and docks van ished.
 "The Carabe Colony hotel and Metacombc hotel were swept out of existence. The hospital was gone."
 Coast Guards Report It
 Washington, Sept. 4.-(UP)- EZRA camps Nos. 1 and on the Matecumbe Keys in the Florida hurricane belt were reduced to a mass of wreckage, the coast guard reported to-day after an aerial survey. Two coast guard air. planes left Miami at 5:50 a. m. to- day to survey the federal emergen- cy relief camps for veterans on the upper and lower Metacombe Keys. to the camps hous- ing several hundred veterans have been cut off since the hurricane struck yesterday.
 The report said: Camp No. on upper Matecombe Key completely demolished. Engine only thing left standing on track. All build- ings wrecked" Camp No. 5 on lower Matecombe Key reduced to wreckage. No buildings left stand ing" It was not possible to de- termine definitely from the air whether any of the camp resi- dents had been killed, but from ap- pearances 1t was feared the loss of life would be heavy. One report was brought out from the islands that 400 to 500 veterans had been killed. The coast guard was un- able to verify this report.
 Undertaken At Scene
 Miami, Sept. 4-(UP)-Between 400 and 800 were killed by the hur- ricane at the Veterans Camp on upper Metacombe Key, Jack Combs a Miami undertaken sent there to collection of bodies, re- ported by wireless to the Red Cross today.
 Combs reported that if deaths in other parts of the Florida Keys had been proportionally as large, the disaster might prove worse than the Belle Glade hurricane of 1926 that took 2,000 lives.
 Combs had just finished close of the camp which housed more than coo war ceterans by the EZRA on road making project from the mainland to Key West.
 Short wave messages from this camp last night saying 75 had been killed, gave first intimations of the tragic dimensions of the disaster.
 Two of Seven Hundred
 Miami, Fla, Sept. 4-(UP)- Two survivors of nearly 700 war veterans in camp on Metacombe Key told the Miami Beach Daily Tribune that 5O5 men were killed in yesterdays hurricane and 47 are missing. The Tribune said in a story that the two sur vivors shouted across an impassa ble inlet to a correspondent that 250 ttt a
 Tt was at the three veterans rehabilitation corps camps-Num- bcra 1, 8 and 5-at Metacombe Key that the worst casualties occurred" :" the Tribune said. Five hundred veterans, including four corps doc tors, were killed, 120 injured many seriously-andt the remaining 45 of the colony of men and off, cers are missing"
 Homes Battcned Down
 Tampa, Florida, September IA UP) - Residents along northern Floridas west. coast "battened down" to day to meet the shock of the hurricane which swept southern Florida.
 Borne along by 70 mile an hour wind, the tropical storm moved up the coast after battering this area. Subsiding winds here allowed a hurried check of destruc- tion. No deaths were reported in the Tampa section but trees were uprooted and small buildings were unroofed.
 The hurricane dashed St. Peters burg. Two fishermen, Jesse Glea- ton and Virgil Pegg. were missing in their small boat. Advance warnings sent several hundred other crafts to safety.
 By 10 a. m., EDIT, winds at Tampa had subsided to 20 miles an hour, but Clearwater and St. Petersburg reported a 7O-mile gale. lines were down at Sarasota.
 The storms center was reported about 80 miles north of Tampa al 8 a. m., E.D.T., moving In n path that paralleled the West Florida coast.
 In the wake of the storm were disrupted communication wires companies said their line were either cut entirely or badly impaired at Cedar Key Sarasota, St. Petersburg, Clear water, Brandenton, Palmetto. Mur' dock, Boco Grande, Fit. Springs Limestone, Arcadia, Frost Proof Winterhaven and Lake Wales.
 Weather Warming .
 Miami, Fla, September -(UP) The Miami Bureau of the Fed eral Hurricane Warning System is. sued the following advisory warn ing at 9:30 a. m.
 Southeast storm warnings or dered north of Jacksonville to New Bern. N. c. Tropical disturbance of hurricane intensity approachinl Cedar Keys, Florida, moving north