RED WAVE OF LAVA.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 10743, 14 November 1928, Page 5

RED WAVE OF LAVA.

SPILLS OVER ETNA’S EDGE. ' THREE TOWNS WIRED OUT. ‘ ANOTHER DOOMED. PATHETIC SIGHTS AT EVACUATION. United Press Assn, by El. Tel. Copyright (Australian Press Assn.) h A graphic picture of Etna’s desolation is specially cabled to the. Evening Standard from Sicily. The disaster has: rendered 5000' families homeless. It has wiped out three towns and 760 houses, and 2700 acres. The wine crop is withered. One of the world’s richest lemon. tree valleys is buried. Bridges, railways and roads have been overwhelmed. . * The eruption continues unabated. Great clouds of smoke and'fire are corning from a neiv crater far trom the summit. The correspondent followed the lava stream ior six miles, starting a few hundred yards from the crater, where the intense heat brpught him to a standstill. He say 3: “A smoke pall a mile high hangs over the crater and now and again a gigantic wall of sweeps skywards. The air is thick with small pellets and hot rocks. A red wave spills over the edge and forces its way downwards. Each gust adds thousands of tons'.to the stream, which means that it progresses at least live yards further. After a five hours’ walk I reached Mascali. Here there is a solid wall 100 ft high vertically across the onetime town square. Only seven houses are left. In the meanwhile the stream is flowing on the eastward of Mascali. The roar and smoke are unceasing as the trees and isolated houses are devoured.;., “Carraba is as yet untouched, although its doom is sealed. The lava is to-day on the outskirts, but-it is with the utmost difficulty that the peasants can be induced to leave. The evacuation is a more pathetic sight than the desolation. It is impossible to forecast a cessation. Last night the crater was quieter, but to-dav it is more active. “The township of Giarre must be saved at all costs. . Happilv the danger is not immediate. The. stream will probably reach the sea and form a new headland, just as the neighboring headland was formed 4000 years ago.” - - -