People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 November 1893 — HUNDREDS LOST. [ARTICLE]

HUNDREDS LOST.

Awful Ravages of Recent Floods in Japanese Provinces. Beaidea Destroying Nearly 4,000 House, and Wrecking Over SOO Veaaela, More Than 1,500 Persons Lost Their Lives. WOE IN JAPAN. San Francisco, Nov. 16.—Further details have been received of frightful loss of life and tremendous destitution by the floods in the southern and middle provinces of Japan. Following are the returns of the outcome of the inundation up to October 21: Deaths, 1,557; persons missing, 627; vessels wrecked, 577; houses entirely destroyed, 3,908. The greatest loss of life reported up to date is 950 in the province of In aba. At Okayama nearly 1,400 houses were destroyed. At Oita 144 vessels were wrecked, but Ehime exceeds this number by twenty more. In the flood at Oita 300 persons were drowned. Fortyfour fishing boats foundered off the western coast during a typhoon, and all their occupants were lost, numbering 142 men. At Minomua the water attained a height of 30 feet, sweeping away many houses. It was still worse in the neighboring prefect of Ekayema, where at Kawabe the river rose 18 feet and broke down a great embankment, carrying away >2OO houses. About 100 persons are unaccounted for. The police station was demolished and the chief killed. Going northward, the storm beat with violence on the island of Sado, where it broke to pieces ' six vessels in the port of Yebisu and nine others at Suisu, whereby four | seamen lost their lives. Before going so far northward it touched at Toya-ma-Ken and carried away forty-eight houses. At the Cify of Toyama eighty houses were carried away and over 1,000 are under water. The Yoshino yose 27 feet in Tokusshima-Ken, and many houses were demolished. In Kawabe and the neighborhood 400 houses were carried away and the fate of over 200 persons is as yet uncertain, while a similar number. of houses have been swept away at Kuboya. Up to the present the report of the greatest loss of life so far as actually known comes from Futakata-Gun, in Hyogo-Ken. where a mountain side gave way, burying two villages and killing fifty persons. At Misumi, in Kumamotoken, 120 vessels were shattered to splinters, but the number of men drowned has not been ascertained. The wharf at Oita harbor is half destroyed and a majority of the houses are demolished. Thirty large junks have been cast ashore and damaged, and Mount Takaski gave way inflicting further serious damage. The Tsurusakigaiva river burst its batiks and carried many houses to sea. In all sections innumerable bodies of men and cattle are to be seen in heaps. At Moji twenty-four vessels foundered. Off Tanowia seven others were wrecked, and the crews were seen clinging to the topmasts and crying for help, but no help could be given and they sank into the sea. The total number of vessels wrecked in that neighborhood cannot be much under seventy. At Kawabe water rose 18 feet and embankments were burst in ten places. The total number of houses carried away at Kawabe and other villages is about 400, and the fate of over 200 persons is uncertain. From reports the neighborhood of Tamajima appears to have suffered terribly. Embankments have been burst in Kayo and Kuboya districts, in the latter of which 400 houses were carried away. At Osaka sixty or seventy junks and fishing boats foundered. At the port of Tanoura sixteen junks were smashed to pieces. At Nagasaki eighteen or twenty junks went ashore and most of i them are broken beyond repair. The Mitsu Bishi collieries alone have lost eleven junks sunk and nineteen darn- : aged, and at the mines seven sunk and five damaged. About twenty cargo ' boats have also been lost. Reported i loss of life is thirty, but this is not yet ' confirmed. The Abot volcano of Mount Mazon, in extreme southeast of Luzon, Philippine islands, was in a violent state of eruption from October sto 11. On the evening of the sth lava and ashes commenced to pour forth without intermission from the left outlet of mountains. On the following day streams of lata and ashes increased in volume and alarming subterrannean noises were heard. The hamlet of Bunqueroham was in danger of being overwhelmed by a lava stream flowing down the mountain. Inhabitants both there and all over the neighborhood hurried away with whatever property they could. The volcano continued to belch forth its fiery stream until October 11 when eruption ceased. No casualties j are reported.