BURIED ALIVE

Otago Witness, Issue 3442, 2 March 1920, Page 43

BURIED ALIVE

EARTHQUAKE SENSATION IN MEXICO. Reports from the San Miguel district indicate that the eruption of the new crater, which opened there as a result of the earthquake on the night of January 3, is decreasing in violence. A telegram received from the Mayor of Chalchicomula, State of Puebla, says shocks have been numerous there since the first earthquake, and that he has received information that the Towns of Saltillo, _ Lafragua, and Chichotla, near-by, have been entirely destroyed. Special investigators sent from Mexico City into the earthquake zone have reported from Jalapa that on Sunday the number of dead in" that city was 50, and that 200 injured had been given treatment. The city was badly damaged by the earthquake, and is still covered by a pall of dust) arising from falling structures. Advices from Vera Cruz and Puebla over Sunday failed to make any change in previous estimates of the number of victims and of the towns and villages destroyed or damaged. * Unique in the annals of the disaster is tho experience of the family of Professor Francisco Rivcros, of Barranca Nueva. _ Tho earthquake opened a great chasm in the earth, in which their home was engulfed. For more than a week members of the family have been living- in the bottom of this abyss, at least 140 ft below the surface of the earth Surviving neighbours have been lowering food and water to them at the imminent risk of dislodging rocks, which might fall and crush those beneath. Belief is expressed that rain or new shocks would mean the deaths of those imprisoned in the gulf.