INUNDATION OF POET ELIZABETH. 341 



been called into requisition, which happily they were not, they would have 

 been but of little avail owing to the fury of the tempest. 



" As the night wore on the storm seemed to increase in violence rather 

 than to abate its fury, and few people, we venture to say, had an hour's 

 repose throughout the night. Every one had his own particular grief thrust 

 sudde'nly upon his hands, and some had more than they could attend to. 

 It was a busy, melancholy time with all, and the worst of it was that the 

 storm raged with such fury that no one knew what misery it would bring 

 or how it would all end. 



" Out at the South End, and more particularly in Kudolph Street, the 

 storm was playing fearful havoc. The rushing waters came on as a mighty 

 torrent from the rising ground beyond, and carried away pailings and 

 stoeps ; and then gathering force, ripped up the road, and drove the sand of 

 which it was composed before it in its onward course to the sea. It was a 

 fearful time for the poor residents here. Now that a gully had been opened 

 the waters from all the surrounding places seemed to find an egress down 

 this doomed street until the guUy assumed the dimensions of a river. First 

 one and then another house was undermined, and down it came with a 

 fearful crash into the seething bubbling stream, now some twenty feet wide 

 by eight and twelve feet deep. It might be supposed that the debris from 

 these disasters would dam up the stream. Not so, however. The rush of 

 waters, too powerful to be stayed, swept all impediments before it, or if 

 diverted for a moment only made the breach wider. The alarm, as we have 

 said, was intense, and this was increased by the darkness of the night. No 

 one could ensure an hour's security. The waters of this newly-made river, 

 which had been strong before, now became stronger, and took a wider range 

 in their course, and, as a consequence, house after house, to the number of 

 twenty, fell victims to its inroads. One poor child, named Harvey, ignorant 

 of the danger which threatened her, left her mother's house in search of 

 help, and, falling into the rushing torrent before the door, -n as carried away 

 to the Harbour Board Bridge, where she was found some six hours after- 

 wards buried in the sand. It is difficult to depict the horror of the scene. 

 Here were poor houseless women and children — almost clotheless — running 

 about in the darkfor shelter; while stronghardy men were running hither and 

 thither with lanterns to render all the help they could ; and it is to the 

 credit of the occupants of all the houses left standing that they were thrown 

 open for the shelter of those who had been so suddenly and so fearfully 

 deprived of their homes. 



" The street — as our readers will easily conceive from the above de- 

 scription — is a complete wreck, and the loss to the poor people, mostly 

 Malays, who had expended their means in erecting these houses for their 

 own occupation, will be something that will take them years to replace. 



" The tramway bridge erected by the Harbour Board at the foot of this 

 street was also carried away by the fury of the storm, while the bridge 

 which spans Baaken's Eiver lost the southern buttress, and may be said 

 to be in a shaky condition. 



" Before leaving the south side of the town, we must mention the fact 

 that Mrs Hayes and her child, a boy about seven years of age, had a 

 narrow escape. They were found buried beneath a wall in a most ex- 

 hausted state, and removed to the hospital. A man named Martin Devitt 

 also escaped, as it were by miracle. He had just left his stable, where _ 

 he had gone to see how his horse fared, when it fell in and killed the animal. 



