SEVERE EARTHQUAKE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27057, 16 April 1949, Page 7

SEVERE EARTHQUAKE

NORTH-WEST AMERICA ROCKED EIGHT PERSONS KILLED > NZPA—Copyright NEW YORK, Apl. 13. A severe earthquake shook a wide area of the Pacific North-west to-day, killing eight persons, injuring many, and causing damage amounting to 10,000,000 dollars. Those killed included a school child at Tacoma, in Washington State, and a high school student at Castle Rock, also in Washington State. Both were killed when sections of their schools collapsed. The earthquake shock was felt in the four north-west American Statesi and British. Columbia, but was heaviest in the Puget Sound area. Every one of the eight buildings in the State Capitol group at Olympia, Washington, was damaged, while in other cities walls of concrete buildings cracked, cornices fell, fire escapes were ripped and loose windows and water mains were broken. Office workers in many buildings were hurled from their chairs. People fled into the streets from swaying buildings. All the available firemen, policemen and ambulance men rushed to the danger areas and supervised the evacuation of office buildings and schools. Deoris littered the, streets of many cities and towns. Cracks opened in the earth near Seattle’s Green Lake.