TERRIBLE CALAMITY IN ITALY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7914, 25 September 1911, Page 1

TERRIBLE CALAMITY IN ITALY

(By Telegraph—Press Assomafcwm —Oop; ROME, September 23.

Incalculable damage lias been done by a cloudburst in the neighbourhood of Mount Vesuvius.

The town of Resina, six miles southeast of Naples, was engulfed by a river of mud, which reached to the first floors of the houses.

An impetuous torrent rushed down the mountain side, bearing hug© boulders and shattered houses. Women and children in the path of the torrent stood transfixed at the appalling sight, and made ho effort to escape.

Many of the bodies of the victims were swept towards the sea. So far twenty have been recovered. -At Torre del. Greco, seven miles south-east of Naples, at the south-west foot of Mount Vesuvius, several palaces of the “Neapolitan * nobility collapsed, burying their occupants in the rnins.

APPALLING. SCENES ’ VILLAGES ENGULFED IN MUD. HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE STILL IN DANGER. ; ROME, September 23. The hurricane lasted twenty-four hours, and still continues. Details of the disaster are lacking owing to the interruption of communications. Huge deposits of volcanic ashes on the slopes of • Mount Vesuvius were

CLOUDBURST AND FLOODS VERY SERIOUS LOSS OF LIFE AND PROPERTY APPALLING SCENES

might—Eeccivel September 24, K 5 p.m.) washed into raging torrents, and, despite vast concrete constructions, mud avalanches began their devastating descent, submerged cultivated fields, uprooted trees, and deluged the lowlying villages, particularly Torre del. Greco, where the torrent reached to the second floors of the houses. The river of mud washed away the railway line. Other villages were buried. A slough six feet deep spread in the darkness, and scores of houses collapsed. In many cases the terrified inhabitants were unable to escape before their cottages were engulfed or battered by the giant boulders which were carried from the mountain-sides, together with trees and carcases of animals. The twenty corpses recovered belong to two families. , Hundreds of villages are still cut off and in danger of perishing. Rescue parties of-soldiers and firemen have been sent from Naples, but it is difficult to reach the centra of the disaster.

Great damage has been, done by: flood? at Naples, where the trains were stopped. Cloudbursts also occurred at Veltorra and Leghorn.

Many workmen in Rome were in danger of drowning by the sudden flooding of tho basements, and water lies three or four ffeet deep in the streets. The disaster at (Mount Vesuvius is popularly attributed to the failure of the blood of St. Jan nanus to miraculously liquefy.