Aftermath

Postlude. The gentle winds that languished over the Caribbean and Florida last week played a melancholy postlude to the doomsday wind-music of the week before. There were fervid, efficient rescue workers in Florida, Porto Rico, Guadeloupe and the smaller West Indian islands. They performed emergency miracles. But everywhere they looked they saw twisted wreckage, bruised crops and foliage, substance for a long, necessarily patient renascence. And in the lush Everglades of Florida were corpses in piles, other corpses floating in ooze, while greedy buzzards spiralled overhead.

Florida. The carnage in Florida came as a surprise to those who read the early reports. With the hurricane, centering at West Palm Beach, the barometer dropped to 27.57, believed to be the lowest reading ever recorded in the U. S. During the first frenzied days of relief work the death total reached at least 1,500. Unnumbered thousands were injured, 15,000 were homeless, and property losses of $50,000,000 or even $75,000,000 seemed likely.

The seacoast cities of West Palm Beach, Palm Beach, Lake Worth, Delray, Boynton, Jupiter and Stuart were glutted with wreckage. At Palm Beach many fastidiously designed homes (Stotesbury, Wanamaker, Frazier) became ugly shards of architecture. The seaside Royal Poinciana, famed hostelry of social idlers, was totally wrecked. The Breakers, newer, more substantial, lost the roofs of its north and south wings. But on the seacoast few lives were lost.

It was not so inland. Fifty miles west of Palm Beach lies Lake Okeechobee in the tangled Everglades. It is 45 miles long. The surrounding country is lower than the lake and is protected by dikes. There are hundreds of small farms, sugar cane fields, blackamoor shacks. During the hurricane Lake Okeechobee burst the dikes. The rich land became a morass; in certain places water rose to the height of 10 feet. Hundreds, mostly Negroes, were drowned. Relief workers found the water filled with floating bodies, so decomposed that skin color was no longer determinable. One surviving family had lived on peanuts for three days. Throughout the whole region the air was noxious with fumes of decay. Immediate cremation of the dead was ordered. Quarantine of the entire district was imminent. It was a nauseous vale of murk and putrescence.

Porto Rico. Elmer Ellsworth, son of James D. Ellsworth, of American Telephone & Telegraph Co., lives at Cidra, near the centre of Porto Rico. "As I stand in my home on the hilltop," he said, "and look out over the hills and valleys, I do not see Porto Rico, but a landscape that reminds me of the barren lands of Arizona or New Mexico. The country is blasted. Land under cultivation before the storm is now as hard as concrete. There is no human life apparent, but at night here and there fires may be seen, and where those fires are homes had been and homes are being restarted." A grim optimism, like Mr. Ellsworth's, came out of Porto Rico. Governor Horace Mann Tower reported that there was no need for martial law; the island police and 2,000 national guardsmen were in control. Communication of one sort or another had been established throughout the island. Roads were nearly cleared. The population was brave. The Red Cross and the U. S. Army were distributing tents, blankets, food, other commodities. Local banks had advanced $60,000 'relief fund. Henry M. Baker, National Director of Disaster Relief, had arrived with five assistants and was organizing the work. The death total had increased from 263 to 1,000. Physicians and investigators, reporting from the rural districts, suggested a much higher figure. Disease was no longer a threat; it became a grave actuality. There were 15,000 cases of influenza, 5,000 of malaria, measles and other diseases. A more careful estimate of agricultural loss percentages resulted as follows: 1) Sugar cane125%; 2) Tobacco-- 50%; 3) Coffee--75%; 4) Fruit--100%. A government survey of losses was begun.

Many were the grotesqueries of the hurricane. At the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel in San Juan the fragile French windows were closed against a rising wind. The guests continued dancing. The ostracized winds shrieked around the building. BLAM! A mighty percussion drowned the drums. Into the ballroom burst a wave of water bearing beams and tree trunks. Chandeliers crashed. Ladies and gentlemen scuttled.

In San Juan huge sheets of zinc were loosed from the roofs. They swooped through the air like giant scythes, decapitating, mangling.

Guadeloupe. On the island of Guadeloupe in the French West Indies the same holocaust prevailed. A death total of 1,000 was officially reported, with 3,500 injured, 150,000 homeless and property losses to the extent of $23,000,000.

Other Islands. Extensive damage but no loss of life was reported from the Bahamas. Communication remained unsatisfactory.

In the Virgin Islands (St. Croix, St. Thomas) six were reported dead, 100 injured, 3,000 homeless. Property loss of $300,000 was sustained in the towns.

The Leeward Islands (Montserrat, Nevis, St. Kitts, Dominica, Antigua) reported 66 dead, 120 injured, 1,000 homeless and property loss of $1,000,000.

Northward. Increasing in radius, diminishing in force, the hurricane whirled northward along the Atlantic seaboard. New Jersey coast resorts were ineffectually buffeted by a 72 m. p. h. wind. A butcher was electrocuted when he touched a fallen wire, a bayman was drowned in his foundering cabin cruiser. Squalls and gusts visited the New York area for a day. Then the effete hurricane passed impotently northward.

Relief. President Coolidge issued a nationwide appeal for help. In the first few days of the campaign $879,377 was subscribed. The American Red Cross sought $5,000,000. Two army transports carrying a total of 1,200 tons of food were diverted to Porto Rico. Also to Porto Rico went the naval supply ship Bridge, loaded in New York with 3,490 tons of miscellaneous supplies. On board the San Lorenzo, sailing with ten days provisions for 100,000 people was Brig. Gen. Hugh A. Drum and his staff, who were to have complete supervision of relief.

Summary. A tentative summary of the

hurricane damage was as follows: Dead

2,472; Injured--3,620 (exclusive of unnumbered thousands in Florida and Porto Rico); Homeless--876,000; Property damage--$156,000,000.