Hurricane and Tidal Wave in the Society Islands
THE first great disaster of the new year, paralleling the great calamities of 1902, is reported from the Society Islands, in the South Pacific. These islands and the Puamotu Group, eighty in number, were visited January 13 by a hurricane and tidal wave, which wrought wholesale destruction of life and property. The number of lives lost is said to be at least 1,000, and it is feared that many more than this number perished. The survivors are left without food or shelter. “Old inhabitants on the island of Raiatea,” the account says, “declare the storm was the worst they had ever seen.” We are in the time of the fulfillment of Christ’s words, “The sea and the waves roaring.” The world hears the sound of the chariot wheels of the coming King.