Enclosure 3.
tracted from the
South China Morning Post
dated 4th, Sept. 1937.
34
+
TAIPO TIDAL WAVE TOLL
200 BELIEVED DEAD
DEAD
RESIDENTS ISOLATED FOR TWO DAYS
SHATAUKOK FISHING FLEET SUFFERS HEAVILY
POSITIONS OF SHIPS
Yesterday's assessment of the toll of death and damage caused by Thursday morning's typhoon, revealed that the New Territories was one of the biggest sufferers, with at least 200 dead as a result mainly of tidal wave which carried all before it for a quarter of a mile inland. Four miles of railway track was destroyed.
Inspection of the grounded ships that lie along the harbour's edge showed that several of them will be very difficult to move and may prove a total loss. No ships were got off yesterday, though attempts are planned to-day on the Asama Maru among others.
Mortuary figures are mounting as bodies are drifting in from the waters still strewn with wreckage. Though major catastrophes on the island were limited to the West Point fire, nearly every large building in the Colony suffered minor damage, and it will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair Government buildings alone.
Most of the New Territories area has been isolated from the outside world since the typhoon.
A tidal wave more than six feet high rose in Tolo Bay harbour short- ly after 3 a.m on Thursday, swept down the entire length of the nar- rowing inlet, wiped out the fishing fleet of Shataukok, and devastated Taipo Old Market, after which it continued for a quarter of a mile inland,
The trail of death and destruction was surveyed yesterday by the Dis- trict Officer North and police, who were on their feet from dawn till nightfall directing succour and the work of recovering lost bodies.
An old resident of Taipo who was spoken to on the telephone, com- munication having been restored earlier in the day, asked for the day's news "of the outside world." When he was told Friday's news he pro- tested that he could not connect events, having been shut off from Hongkong for two days,
"There is
Hundreds Killed
was
A most pathetic scene
wit- nessed at Taipo Market late yes- terday afternoon, when a reporter of the S. C. M. Post visited there and found that the vacant ground attach- ed to the Taipo Post Office next to the Station of the China Light and Power Company, had been turned into a temporary mortuary with scores of bodies placed in coffins awaiting burial. Inspector A. W. Smith, who was assisted by a num- ber of European and Chinese police officers attending to the dead and injured villagers, told the reporter that so far 110 bodies had been dis- į covered at Taipo Market alone, and only 54 had been identified.
Most of the bodies had been cover- ed with mattresses or odd clothes. While the police officers and coolies were working under the debris, searching for further victims, many of the villagers were burying their relatives on the hills opposite the railway station, or at places nearby, without any ceremony or even the presence of a Chinese priest.
Among those killed were many women and children who were caught by the tidal wave, which Tai- po residents described as occurring | between 3.30 and 5 a.m. on Thurs- day. One very old resident said that the typhoon was certainly the worst since 1906, when on that occasion enormous destruction was done to New Territory property, but this time many more people were killed. Streets in Taipo Market and Taipo Old Market (better known as Taipo Hui) were many feet below water during the storm.
Scenes of Desolation
There were scenes of desolation all over Taipo and Taipo Hui, where residents had put out their belong- ings and clothes and shop-keepers their goods, mostly rice and other food-stuffs, under the sun to dry. Thousands of bags of rice were spoilt by water, and the total damage to property and cattle alone must be
enormous.
"We have only just this minute
still without water" he said. had the light turned on, but we are
Ten two-storey houses opposite the
he said:
Describing the scene at Shataukok, Taipo Post Office were demolished evidence that a tidal wave between along the walls, as though they had very strong having big holes in every roof, and five and seven feet high struck the been bombarded. coast early in the hours of Thursday Except for a very few cement con- morning. The wave hit Shataukok! and destroyed practically all fish- ing boats, drowning about 30 peoplely all farm-houses and business pre- crete houses it can be said that near- there.
mises in Taipo and Taipo Hui suf- fered some form of damage or other.
"The village houses stood up fairly well to the wind, but wherever the water struck the result was disas- he found even more terrible scenes As the reporter explored further, trous. The wave must have come off Tolo Harbour and flung itself that some 200 people must have been at Taipo Hui, where villagers said onto Taipo Old Market, causing killed. Bodies were still strewn about 90 deaths there, so far. It along the streets, and went over the wall of the Market, wreckage of demolished dwellings, over the through the houses, and continued despite the fact that police and for a quarter of a mile inland, carry-sanitary coolies had worked the ' ing the debris with it. The water whole day clearing the dead away as at this place was 20 feet higher than
I have ever known.
"Altogether in this part of the New Territories I should say there are 150 deaths."
quickly as identification permitted dead showed that the majority of their early burial. The bodies of the them had drowned.
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