Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1907 — CITY SINKING INTO THE SEA. [ARTICLE]

CITY SINKING INTO THE SEA.

Bottom Falls Out of Harbor and New Peril Is Caused. The city of Kingston, rocked by an earthquake and almost destroyed by fire, next seemed in imminent danger of sinking into the sea altogether and disappearing utterly from the face of the earth. With the number of dead still not definitely known and estimates running from 1.000 to 1,500 and a property loss reaching into millions, fresh alarm was caused by dispatches from Port an Prince, Haiti, which said that the bed of the harbor was sinking and that it was dangerous for ships to approach. There are thousands of tourists in the vicinity of Ki ligston and t his fiews from there caused widespread unrest. The water along the front portion of Kingston is said to be 100 feet deep in many places and that other portions of the shore are rapidly sinking. The Plum point and Port Royal lighthouses are both at the bottom of the harbor.

The navigation channel has nYateriaily changed and in some places the depth of the harbor has been altered from forty to 100 feet. A circumstance that tends to uphold the new danger is a dispatch from Holland Bay, saying that the portion of the-town of Port Royal which sank 200 years ago is again under water. The news from Havana regarding the huge tidal wave that inundated the entire coast near Jamaica’s capital and changed the Jamaican coast line, fol-. lowing closely upon the heels of the cumulative details of the earthquake and fire, caused the most profound interest in Washington official circles. Naval officials were stirred. Secretary Metcalf expressed himself as greatly shocked at the advices from Jamaica.

Notes of the Disaster. The whole town is in ruins. The cable line from Kingston was broken. Many Americans were killed and have been buried. The body of Sir James Fergusson was found and buried. A school house fell at the first shock, kihing ninety children* -* The battleships Missouri and Indiana entered the harbor safely. A tidai wave inundated Anotta bay, washing out many houses. Appeals have been sent to all sections ■>f the island asking for assistance. Thirty-five out of a total of fifty-five employes in a tourist bureau were killed. The shock was severe at Richmond, and this town also was destroyed by fire. The topography of the country has been changed and the navigation into the harbor materially The Plum Point and Port Royal lighthcusfcs are both at the bottom of the harbor. There have been a number of other shocks since the first disastrous one, and the repetitions keep the people in a state of panic.