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The foregoing table only gives the number of people who were found dead or dying under the ruins of houses, but it is feared, although no record can be obtained, that a very large number have received bodily injuries, as it is known that as houses became unroofed and were threatened with annihilation, their inmates left them and went into the streets when the latter were quite dark when building débris, roofing tiles and other missiles were being hurled from every housetop with force almost bevond credence.
Towards 2 A.M., the violence of the wind had driven before it such a large volume of water in the harbour through the Lyeemoon Pass, that at this hour, which under ordinary circumstances should have been that of low water, the sea had risen considerably above the datum of high water and was washing over the lower portions of the City. Before 3 A.M., the Gas Works were submerged, and the gas supply being cut off, the City was during these most anxious moments suddenly plunged i darkness. About this time, Mr. CREAGH, the Deputy Superintendent of Police, and some other gent men who had collected together a few volunteers to put out a fire, which had broken out in Jerva Strect, report that the latter as well as the streets between it, Bonham Strand, and the Praya, we four feet under water, that the people were up to their waists in water, and that the waves were buff ing the fire engine so that it could not be used. This evidence is corroborated by the marks left many buildings after the sea retired, among others, the Harbour Master's Office had five feet of wate in its lower storey.
The entire sea frontage of the City has been very seriously damaged. The Praya wall for length of of a mile between the City Hall and Toong Kai Street has been broken up, and wi have to be entirely rebuilt with new material. From Toong Kai Street as far as the Sailors' Home, distance of one mile, the wall shows so many breaches, and is altogether so undermined that it is still a matter of doubt whether long sections of it may not require rebuilding in like manner. In mum places from the Eastern Guard House to East Point, the sea wall has also given way and will requin reconstruction on a more solid basis than has hitherto been adopted in Hongkong. But as the very important subject of the sea defence of the City is one of special Report, now under preparation it will be premature to dilate upon it in this memorandum.
After the sea retired, the Praya embankment, which previously formed one of the ag capacious business thoroughfares of the City, was left in places like a sloping beach covered with the stones and concrete débris of the sea wall together with wrecks and spars. All these heaped one up another, rendered the embankment almost impassable. In places where the sen wall was knocked dom and the embankment behind it scoured away, some of the large mansions fronting the sea, and which are occupied by the principal merchants of the Colony, were already being undermined by the warsS and they would have inevitably fallen had the gale lasted a few hours longer.
The wharves, both public and private, built out at right angles to the Praya along the wh extent of the City, have been swept away or otherwise injured, with the exception of the Peninsula and Oriental Steam Ship Company's new jetty and the Hongkong Pier, both timber structures. the Government piers, but few have been left in such a condition as to be worth repairing, and is deserving of attention that those apparently solid structures which were made of ashlar grante succumbed long before the timber jetties in their neighbourhood.
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In regard to Government buildings, I have the honour to report that nearly all have suffered to Some extent, and that estimates of the cost of their repairs are being prepared and will be duly submitted.
Government House, together with the Law Courts, the Lock Hospital, and the Government offices have escaped with greater immunity than any other buildings. In the latter, a chimney stack was blown down and fell through the roof; with the exception of this, and a few doors and windows blown in, there has been no damage of any consequence to report.
Government Civil Hospital.-This ricketty old structure has been left in so ruined a state as to be no longer habitable. During the earlier stages of the gale, the doors and windows fronting the North were blown in one after another, and the wind having found a vent into the upper storey soon upheaved the roof carrying away portions of it to a distance of 200 yards. The brick verandahs on the South side were forced out of the perpendicular until they toppled over, and a part of the ceilings of the wards fell in. For more than an hour the terrified patients ran considerable risk of being killed, and Dr. CLAPHAM, the Resident Surgeon, informs me that owing to the intense darkness and the deafening roar of the wind, it was with the utmost difficulty that he succeeded in getting them together and sheltering them in one room of the lower storey, which had fortunately been but lately repaired, so that it was able to hold out till daylight.
Victoria. Gaol has portious unroofed, some of the windows of the north-eastern frontage blown in and glass broken. A survey was held under my direction after the typhoon, but no part of the Gaol was found so unsafe as to render possible the escape of prisoners. The principal damages to this building have been since made good.
Stone Cutters' Island Gaol.-This huge and imposing pile, founded by SIR HERCULES ROBINSON and designed to accommodate a convict establishment of 600 persons is now a heap of ruins. Many of the main walls are so cracked and so much out of plumb that they will have to be knocked down to prevent future accidents. The greater portions of the roof fell in, carrying away and crushing under it, the long galleries which divided the lines of cells. The basement portion of the eastern wing which was used as a Powder Magazine was buried in débris and the fall of the building entailed no inconsiderable risk of an explosion. The powder was, however, subsequently removed from under the ruins, and safely stored in the Hulk which is anchored off the island. The upper floors of Stone Cutters' Island Gaol were fortunately not tenanted.
Central Police Barracks and Police Stations.-Of all the Police buildings, the Police Officers' These were unroofed and had some of the doors and windows in the quarters have fared worst. North front blown in. The house was otherwise very severely shaken, some of the chimneys being blown down through the roof. The Central Police Barracks have also been partially unroofed, and much of the woodwork is destroyed. In the outlying villages, the Police Stations of Shau-ki-Wán and Stanley have suffered most, both have been very severely shaken, and I fear the latter will have to be almost entirely rebuilt. The Police Station at Yow-ma-tec was for a time four feet under water, and when the sea receded, it left a steam launch and other craft stranded on its basement floor.
The whole of Victoria is drained and sewered into the harbour, the drainage being led out intervals along the Praya wall. The destruction of the wall, entailing the destruction of the sewe outlets, plugged for a time every channel of escape, and the sewage becoming dammed and stagnani, after twenty-four hours became putrid. The clog was rendered still more effective by the mass sand which the waves washed on to the ruins so that many of the sewers became tightly packed imbedded in it. The natural result was a most pestilential smell, rendered still more deleterious the deadly fœtor of decomposing human bodies which continued to be washed ashore for several days Happily, however, in spite of the hot weather which followed, the Public Health has not suffered, as after forty-eight hours, when the panic had in a measure subsided, and workmen could gradually got together, gangs were employed to clear away the débris and to restore things to their normais
condition.
In the country, many isolated houses have been knocked down, and the paddy fields and meados under cultivation, which skirt the foreshores of the island, have for the most part been inundated the sea.
The rice crops have been destroyed and much misery has been entailed upon the poorest the community.
I have the honour to append herewith an interesting report from the Superintendent of the Government Gardens, upon the damage done to the gardens and plantations of the Colony. We we call to mind the constant and laborious care which has been taken to induce upon this bare s ungenerous soil an artificial vegetation, and the successful and gratifying results which had so attended these efforts, we cannot but be disheartened at the disastrous finale which has closed the efforts of so many years. A large proportion of the handsome and well-grown Banians and Inda rubber trees which lined the streets of the City and the roads leading out of it, have been blown down, and so many have been injured that we may not enjoy their grateful shade for years to come.
The Government Telegraph lines throughout the island were destroyed, the wind in many instances snapping the telegraph poles close to the ground. The shore ends of the submarine cable were also broken and communication severed.
The General Post Office, though it does not show many external signs of injury, has been greatly strained, owing to the weakness of the roof timbers. These have been in many places hollowed out by white ants, which for a short time back have infested the roof. I fear that a new roof to a portion of the house will be necessary.
Markets.-The six principal markets of Victoria have experienced the fate of other buildings, in some cases, having their roofs untiled, in others as in the Central market, having portions of their outer walls blown in, or so shattered as to require rebuilding.
Public Schools.-The insecure foundations of the Central School, made manifest by the earthquake of five months ago, have become still more so since the typhoon. Portions of the roof have come part of the tiling over away from the walls, and these have got slightly out of the perpendicular.
western front.
the western Class Room has been stripped off, and some damage done to doors and windows. As it contemplated at no distant date to erect a new School with increased accommodation, it will not be necessary,
in regard to the Central School to go to greater expense than will suffice to maintain it safety for a year or two to come. Three out of the four other Public Schools of the City have escaped with trifling damages, but the fourth one, i. e., Syingpoon School, has lost the roof off its
The Police Courts have been partly unroofed, and the eastern verandahs laid in ruins. Harbour Master's Office.--The unsheltered site of this public office, which is only 50 feet away from the Praya wall, exposed it to two dangers, and it has come through the ordeal much better than could have been expected.
While the gale was stripping off the roofing, the sea that had At one time there were five feet of water in knocked down the Praya was battering against its walls.
In spite of this, the damage is the basement, and the breakers were sending their spray over its roof. surprisingly small, being limited to portions of the roof which are untiled and to doors and windows which are shattered and unhinged. The meteorological station was however entirely swept away, and not a trace of the instruments remains. The Harbour Officers' quarters have been very much shaken, and the tower over the building will have to be pulled down, as it is injured beyond repair.
The Clock Tower was much shaken, and the dials of the town clock were blown in and shattered to pieces.
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