Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1937-08-12
DISASTERS HARRIED
WORLD DURING 1886
Floods, Earthquakes, Fires
Take Heavy Toll.

Washington, D. c. - Zone of the
most spectacular of the worlds ma
tural disasters of 1886 was fall
of rock into cliff-rimmed Leon lake.
Norway, which threw up a 300
foot flood wave that wiped out two
villages" says the National Geo
graphic society.
"Most devastating disaster of the
year was the spring famine in the
SZechwan and Honan provinces OF
China, in which thirty million people
faced starvation. This was an added
blow to a country which, since 1920,
has been Frustrated by sixty-eight
floods and famines.
''The United States had it's share
of miSfortuneS with drouth, fires,
floods, and tornadoes. In summer
the most serious drouth in the coun
try's history for scores of years
parched the northwest and central
states, burning up wheat and corn
crops and killing cattle. The &C
companying prolonged heat waves
of approximately 100 degrees, which
also assailed the eastern states, took
the lives of more than 1000 people.
SIN August and September forest
fires devoured thousands of dry
acres in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Cal
ifornia, and southwest Oregon.
Floods in East.
"Although the West suffered for
lack of water in summer, the East
was deluged with it in spring. March
floods ravaged thirteen eastern
states, destroying millions of dol
lars worth of property, and 1863
lives. Johnstown, Pennsylvania, par
alyzed by an eight-foot flood, re-
called its famous disaster of 1889.
In western Pennsylvania and north
ern West Virginia, blizzard in
creased suffering of the homeless.
"Floods inundated southern Eng
land and France in January, and
Luzon island in the Philippines in
December.
"On November 20, the dam of a
copper mine reservoir in Japan col
lapsed and at least 300 people were
killed by the released poisonous
solution.
wind and weather reached their
climax in February. Gales, snow
storms, and extreme cold swept &C
ross twelve countries of Europe and
the Near East, killing hundreds,
wrecking shipping, and causing ire
mendous property damage. A ter
rifle blizzard, the worst there in
decades, swept through central
Japan.
1.-THE United States was struck by
a severe cold wave, and on its heels
dust storms harassed Texas, Okla
homa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Col
orado, and caused brown snow to
fall in New England.
During the same month, in north
ern Transvaal, South Africa, hail
fell three feet deep, killing crops,
cattle and nineteen natives, some
of whom had to be dug from their
blanket of ice.
'Tornadoes harried Florid :,
Georgia, and Alabama in January,
southern California in February,
and, in April, dashed through six
Southern states, killing 421 persons,
and causing damage amounting to
millions of dollars. In September a
hurricane ragged up the Atlantic sea-
board.
Villages Swallowed Up.
"Typhoons did their share of dam
age in the Pacific. In August they
destroyed crops in the Philippines
and in October took 80 lives there.
In August, 1,516 persons persisted
in Chosen (Korea) in it's worst ty-
phoon of recent years.
''Landslides following a violent
earthquake killed approximately 300
people in January in Colombia.
Two hundred persisted when the vii
lage of La Chorrera was swallowed
up by the earth and its place taken
by roaring volcano. Earthquakes
killed several hundred in China in
May, destroyed Tuquerres, Colom-
bia in July, and leveled the city of
San Vicente, Ell Salvador in Deem
Der.
Mounts Vesuvius and Stromboli,
Italy, and Mount Asama, Japan,
erupted during the year."