Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1903 — DIE IN TIDAL WAVE. [ARTICLE]

DIE IN TIDAL WAVE.

Over a Thousand South Pea Islanders Are Drowned. Over one thousand persons are said to have perished in a destructive storm that swept over the South Sea Islands. A huge tidal wave, accompanied by a terrific hurricane, attacked the Society Islands and the lUnmotu group with fearful force, causing death nnd devastation never before equaled in a land of dreaded storms. The storm reigned several days, reaching its maximum strength between Jan. 14 and Jan. 16. The first news of the disaster arrived at Papeete, Tahiti, Jan. 26, on the schooner Eimeo. The captain placed the fatalities at 500. Teh steamer Excelsior arrived at Papeete the following day with -100 destitute survivors. Tbe captain of the Excelsior estimated the loss ofi life to be 800. These figures comprised only the deaths gp the three islands of Hao, Hikuera and Makokau, whose ordinary population is 1,800. On Hikuera Island, where 1,000 inhabitants were engnged in pearl diving, nearly onehalf were drowned. On an adjacent island 100 more were washed out to the sea.

Makokau and Hao are depopulated. Conservative estimates at Tahiti place the number of islands visited by tidals wave and hurrienue at eighty. All of them are under the control of the French governor at Tahiti. The surviving inhabitants arc left destitute of food, shelter and clothing, everything having been swept away by the storm.' The French government took prompt relief measures, dispatching two war ships with fresh water and provisions. The Italinu man-of-war Calabria aided in the errand of mercy. As the islands were barely twenty feet above the sea level nnd not surrounded by coral reefs it was necessary for nil the inhabitants to take to the cocoauut tapes when the tidal wave began to covet* the land; These trees grow to an immense height, many reaching an altitude of 100 feet. The natives in the taller trees were safe until the foots gave way, and then they were swept far out into the sea. The 400 survivors brought by the Excelsior to Papeete gained the ship’s side by swimming three and four miles from the tops of the cooauut trees.