MT ETNA ERUPTION

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 10 November 1928, Page 5

MT ETNA ERUPTION

RAIN OF STONES COMMENCED EVACUATION OF VILLAGES. CALMLY CARRIED OUT. ;nffd Press Association—By Electric Telegraph Copyright.; (Australian Press Association.) ROME, Nov. 8. . Professor Poste, director qf the Etna Observatory, has telegraphed Signor Mussolini saying that the eruptions of 1910 and 1911 lasted a fortnight. The present disturbances are far more violent and must extend much longer. Aeroplanes circling the summit are signalling any new phenomena. They .announced that a rain of stones and cinders had begun. It was accompanied bv explosions, which ■ were heard throughout the district like the roar of artillery. It has now been revealed that three men were incinerated in a farm house at Mascali. They had cleared out the women and children and were preparing tq leave themselves when boiling lava, encircled the house, which collapsed like a pack of cards. Of the vast crqwd assembled none could reach the men before they were swallowed up. Animals are reacting to the catastrophe strangely. Cats jump boldly into the advancing incandescent mass and are incinerated. Birds fly low uttering mournful death songs before fluttering downward to destruction. Only dogs are normal, barking violently as at the approach of an enemy. _ The evacuation of the villages is being carried on with wonderful discipline and calm, each family following a cart carrying their effects. One young widow tramped alongside the coffin of her recently dead husband. The woods and orange groves have been blotted out over a large area. The Minister of Works is supervising the evacuation. Detachments of troops are aiding, using explosives to form great; holes in the mountain .side in an attempt to check the progress of the lava. In addition to the lava incandescent boulders are now being vomited from the crater, some measure ten cubic feet, constituting a grave menace tp the water pipes, none of which could -withstand the impact should it be struck. Among the victims were an old couple living in a lonely cottage amid the orange groves. They lingered, hoping that'their home would be spared, but suddenly the lava sped over the cottage and the occupants disappeared in a stream of fire. A number of Mascali s homeless, who exceed 10,000, are m a pitiable condition, despite efforts to alleviate their suffering.