GAPING EARTH SWALLOWED ROWS OF HOMES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23020, 10 August 1949, Page 7

GAPING EARTH SWALLOWED ROWS OF HOMES

GO a.m.) NEW YORK, Aug. 9. Stories of Ecuador’s earthquake disaster continue to come in.

Reuter’s Quito correspondent says the Ambato arae is a nightmare of destruction. The Indans’ straw-thatched, mud huts on the outskirts of Ambato are crushed as if a giant had walked over them, while about 75 per cent of the buildings in the city have been destroyed or will have to be razed because of their dangerous condition. Ambato’s squares and parks are filled with people who fled from their homes. Planes are constantly shuttling back and forth, bringing in medical and relief supplies and evacuating the injured to other centres. The worst destruction was in the Patate and Pastaza Valleys. In the town of Pelileo, which was completely destroyed, the earth gaped open, swallowing street upon street of houses. The survivors fled to the hills and no one knows how many are buried in the ruins. Rescuers on reaching Pelileo on Saturday heard shrieks coming from the debris and found some villagers feeding buried victims through holes they had dug in the ruins, but today the stench of death has driven away all the survivors.

What happened farther dawn the valley is still a matter of conjecture. The correspondent says that other villages, the biggest of which is Patate, still cannot be reached. A large hill crashed down into the Patate River, blocking it completely, but engineers hesitate to dynamite it for fear that the sudden rush of accumulated water will destroy villages, plantations and bridges farther downstream..

The waters are rising slowly and people are praying that no greater disaster may befall them.