THE MEXICAN FLOODS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2595, 1 September 1909, Page 5

THE MEXICAN FLOODS.

1200 DEAD AND 15,000 HOMELESS. MONETARY DAMAGE £4,000,000. United Press Association —Copyright LONDON, August 30. Reuter’s Mexican correspondent reports that 1200 are dead and 15,000 homeless. ; > The monetary damage amounts .fto £4,000,000' ■ ' S^Over seventeen inches of rain fell on Friday/ Saturday,, and Sunday. . The greatest losses occurred on Saturday, when great buildings began to crumble and fall. Many of tbe roofs were crowded 1 with hundreds of people, most of whom disappeared in the ruins. Ninety women and children took refuge in a school house. The rising water drove them from floor to floor. While two priests were blessing them the walls collapsed and all were drowned. DEVASTATION AT MONTEREY. ONE-FOURTH OF THE CITY INUNDATED. (Received August 31, 9.35 p.m.) MEXICO, August 31. Fourteen hundred persons perished at Monterey, and one-fourth of the city was destroyed. The water mains were rendered useless, consequently there is no drinking water. A famine is feared. A thousand persons took refuge in the cathedral, churches, and schools. Many buildings, soaked with water, continue to collapse, slowly adding to the death Toll. The collapse of the reservoir dam was the chief cause of the fatalities at Monterey, which lies in the centre, of a cup-like valley, with steep mountains on three sides. The waters rushed in a swelling current like a river. Subscriptions for the relief of the sufferers are pouring in from all parts of Mexico.