The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-09-23

Haverhill last night and riverbank residents and merchants moved their furnishings to high land. The business section still was dry.
 At Lawrence dam, the Merriinack river at 10 6. m. (EDT) was only three feet below the lo36 flood peak of 4S.18 feet and was rising ct the rate of an inch an hour.
 Five thousand Lawrence mill workers were thrown out of work temporarily as rising waters Tapped the floors of the Wood worsted mill, the Pacific print works, the Farwell bleachery, the Aver mill and the Pacific mill. Police and firemen 'n rowhoats removed marooned South Lawrence and Shawsheen village residents.
 State of Emergency
 The state of emergency continued in Massachusetts with acute flood shortages reported in the flooded central section and hurricane wracked southeastern and Cape Cod area. Disease also was Q potent menace.
 National Guard planes were due to drop food and anti.typhoid serum in isolated oilbertsville and Ware. Trucks and boats were utilized to bring supplies to Barre, South Barre. Barre Plains, Brookfield and Wareham.
 Some 100 adults and 200 children x,iaaaa 1aAsSa aa IgAfA eUyAF1k au0V in the hurricane and resultant tidal wave at Wareham on Buzzards Bay were quartered in 6 refugee camp established by the National Guard. Glad only in pajamas and bath- robes, they were badly in need of clothing.
 A breakdown of the sewer system worried Fitchburg health authori. ties.
 Massachusetts also sent vaccine to stricken communities In New Hamp- shire and Rhode Island. Little Rhody Hard Hit
 It was little Rhode Island that bore the brunt of Wednesday nights i00-mile- e-an-hour hurricane. The full scope of the storms horror grad- ually was becoming apparent as severed communication lines were patched and wrecked highways re- stored.
 Men and women drowned in downtown streets of Providence, Rhode Islands capital and New Enklands second largest city, as Q hurricane whipped tidal wave swell- cd the Providence river 20 feet above It's normal level and turned the city Into e lake. Bodies of other drowning victims were found in the streets of Portsmouth, New port and Westerly.
 Though the waters receded within few hours Wednesday night, the streets still were filtered with debris today. Overturned automobiles, sodden merchandise and shattered glass forced pedestrians to pick their way carefully. National guardsmen patroled the city last night to pre- vent c recurrence Of footing that broke out immediately after the storm subsided.
 Merchants doubted they would be able to reopen stores before Monday. Banks still were on c holiday" with vaults flooded.
 400 Houses Out to Sea
 At least 400 houses were wrecked or carried seaward by the tidal wave along the Rhode Island coast. Relief workers found dwellings at Charlestown, Misquamicut and Isle and Park, c section of Portsmouth, reduced to matchwood on the east- ern shore of Narragansett Bay. Newport, the social capital, likewise was hit hard.
 Large sections of 0alilee c small fishing village, and Matunuck, . summer restort, were leveled, as was block Island. ib miles from the coast.
 Across the state line, the MaSsa. chusetts communities of New Bed- ford, Mattapoisett, Marion, Ware- ham. Onset, Bourne, Falmouth and Woods Hole on Buszards Bay were engulfed by the tidal wave. Most of Massachusetts known deAd were in this area. Many drowned as their homes or cottages were ripped from their foundations and carried to sea. Cape Cod Canal was vir- tually blocked by floating dwellings and debris.
 An aerial survey of Marthas vine- yard Island by coast guards dis- closed that the nshing villages of Menemsha and Lohstervilie were wiped out by the tidal wave. At Chilmark, cook drowned when he was swept out to sea in e wrecked cottage.
 " |. Lewis, stratfcrd oyster Ccm- panY nfiielai. iIia wife. RAnihlInan