CO885-(11-12) — Page 150

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PECORD OFFICE

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE. LONDON

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Enclosure 6 in No. 11.

REPORT FROM DR. J. MAINGARD, GOVERNMENT MEDICAL OFFICER,

PLAINES WILHEMS.

I beg to submit the following report on the effects of the cyclone in my District and the measures taken by me for the relief of the sufferers.

2. Plaines Wilhems South, Vacoas, Curepipe, and Midlands are the places that suffered most from the cyclone of the 5th instant.

3. The places in Vacoas that have suffered more severely are La Caverne, Camp Roches, Camp Mapou, Henrietta, Solferino, and Glen Park. According to the Police, 106 dwellings have been destroyed or damaged.

4. Curepipe has been very badly treated, in the northern part of the town outside the limits, Camp Fouquereaux, Engrais Cathan and Martial, Allée Brillant, Couvent de Lorette, and Eau Coulée, thousands of persons were homeless and 282 huts or dwellings have been blown down.

In the town limits, more than 200 houses, according to the Board of Curepipe, have been destroyed or ondered uninhabitable.

At Forest Side, about 80 huts or dwellings have been destroyed. According to the census made by the Board of Curepipe, with our co-operation, over 2,000 persons were left homeless after the cyclone.

In Midlands, practically all the thatched houses have been blown down. I found and counted 534 persons who had suffered severely from the cyclone and who were practically homeless.

On Thursday the 5th instant, I called at Curepipe Police Station to see whether any assistance was necessary. I was informed that the Sub-Inspector was out; no assistance then seemed to be neces- sary. I went to the Dispensary and got everything ready for any case of energency, and ordered the Dispenser and his staff to stand by and await my orders.

In the afternoon, while visiting the upper part of the town, I came across a few persons whose houses had been more or less damaged by the wind. There were not, in my opinion, many homeless persons on the early part of Thursday; water had evidently entered many houses, rendering the place practically uninhabitable—Thursday night and more especially Friday were the worst moments for Curepipe.

On Thursday afternoon I got a crowd of about 60 persons to shelter in the house of Mr. Aristide Leblanc in Collier Street, Forest Side, with the engagement, on my part, to come for them the next morning.

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For those of Brown Sequard area, I advised them to go to the (Government School-about 40 persons were sheltered there.

Early on Friday morning, I called for Sub-Inspector Moussié and we went round the town in my car. I was then convinced of the great urgency of giving assistance to many persons who were in need.

My first action was in Floreal where a hut had been blown down and two persons injured the woman died and the man was saved by us. I took him, after first treatment, immediately to Victoria Hospital in my car. The road to Victoria Hospital was completely blocked by trees and fallen electric poles. I opened it to traffic with the party of men I had with me, thereby re-establishing the communication between that Hospital and Curepipe. But the weather was too bad and the journey too long for that Hospital to be of any avail to us. I was, therefore, confronted with a very grave problem, for then the wind was at its highest and houses, under our eyes, were being blown like." castles in the air."

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I decided to open the Royal College to shelter all the homeless persons. Mr. Lamb refused to give me the keys of the College without written authority from the Rector or Government. threatened to break open the doors and eventually I had to call on the Colonial Secretary and Procureur-General who, after having been informed by me of the condition in Curepipe, gave me authority and a free hand.

The College was opened. I established there (1) a first-aid station under the charge of Miss Guimbeau, the Dispensary Nurse; (2) a kitchen where hot tea and fool was being prepared unceas- ingly under the charge of our first two refugees and P.C. Fraser ; (3) male wards under the charge of Sergeant Powell and Mr. Lamb, who had changed his mind and had joined us; and (4) female and children wards under the charge of Miss Guimbeau. Sub-Inspector Moussié and my chauffeur were given my car, and I took the wheel of the ambulance with Dispenser Ignace and led the way to rescue the homeless and sufferers.

We had to open communication between the Royal College and the places that suffered from the cyclone by cutting fallen trees and removing the electric poles and wires that were obstructing the streets. By 10 p.m. about 450 persons had been safely removed to the Royal College.

My car was then accidentally put out of action and could no more be used; Sub-Inspector Moussié joined us and by the early morning of Saturday, 600 persons were safely sheltered in the Royal College.

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Amongst those that were taken to the College, some 200 persons, especially children and elderly people, were admitted practically pulseless and dying from cold and inanition.

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I purchased 20 cunilies--only stock obtainable in Curepipe-aud arranged about 20 camp fires in the College hall and class rooms to warm them. They were undressed in batches, wrapped in the cumlies and taken near the fire while their clothing was being dried.

To a great many refugees camphorated oil and ether had to be injected. Hot drinks and brandy were also used to bring them round-we only had two deaths. One, a child of six years who died of pneumonia in the College, and the other a woman who having given birth to a child just before the cyclone died from exposure and puerperal fever at Victoria Hospital where she was removed from the Royal College on the Monday. Two women were confined in the College and safely gave birth to a child each— mothers and children progressed well.

During the whole of the cyclone my organized kitchen worked splendidly, cooked food and tea for adults, milk and chocolate for children and babies were plentiful, and everybody had a proper and good supply at every moment, night or day.

I must also mention here that I took on myself to requisition the milk of the Government dairy for the great number of children I had to feed at the College.

During the whole of Saturday the ambulance continued its round to places where houses had been blown down, and another fifty persons were removed and taken into the Royal College.

On that afternoon the ambulance was also used to take food to persons who had been sheltered by neighbours, but who were starving.

During the whole of Sunday morning I was out with Sub- Inspector Moussié on domiciliary visits to people who were in need of food. We distributed food to about 300.persons.

So by noon on Sunday practically everyone in Curepipe who had suffered from the cyclone had been relieved by us, either in shelter and food at the Royal College or by food composed of rice, lentils, sugar, and tea in their respective places.

We then proceeded straightaway to Vacoas, where I repaired and opened the road to the Dispensary and established there a dis- tribution centre. The Dispenser and Poor Law Clerk, Mr. Nayna, was sent with food and necessary articles to places where people were more in need, and by Monday 830 families amounting to 4,089 persons had been relieved by that centre.

On Sunday afternoon I had distributed food to many persons who had come from Midlands.

On Monday the 9th I went with Sub. Inspector Moussié to Midlands to visit the village and to assist all

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those who were in need. We made domiciliary visits and distributed rice, lentils, sugar and tea individually to 537 persons.

The Governor's instruction reached me on Monday at about 11 a.m. just as we were leaving for Midlands with all our stock of pro- visions. As you can see from the above report, I had taken all necessary measures for shelter and relief and the position was well in hand when these instructions were received; nothing more could be done so far as my District was concerned.

After the Governor's instructions I had an interview with the President and the Secretary of the Board of Curepipe, when it was decided, in view of all the relief done by me during the cyclone and the fact of my organized relief centre, that I should continue and that the Board will co-operate with me to the full extent of their ability.

Five young men were immediately employed by the Board to make a census of the sufferers of the town, and all those in need were directed to me at the Royal College where relief in kind was given to them.

Those who were homeless were sheltered at the Royal College and cooked food was given to them as well as to those who, although having a place to sleep, could not shift for themselves. Special care was taken not to relieve, of course, those that could work and could provide for themselves.

Apart from the College, the Board had built improvised dwellings at the Curepipe Sporting Club where 12 homeless families are now sheltered.

The Curepipe Dispensary and Dispenser's quarters, from which we have moved, with the kind permission of the Director, in order to facilitate our work, have also been used up to now to shelter homeless persons who can shift for themselves.

The problem of shelter was evidently a very big one, and we have had to find some more suitable place than the Royal College which we could not keep indefinitely. The Training College was found to be the only and best building that could be used for the purpose, and, at our request, was very kindly handed over to us by Mr. de Lingen.

I have immediately turned this College into a little Cottage Hospital or infirmary, and with the very kind help of the Officer Commanding the Troops, the Inspector-General of Police, the Director of the Medical and Health Department, and the Board of Curepipe, I have been able to put it on such a footing and so furnished as to be the very thing wanted to cope with the question ; for now 120 destitute persons are sheltered and fed there, amongst whom are 30 sick who receive all necessary care.