A BIG EARTHQUAKE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17023, 7 August 1929, Page 8

A BIG EARTHQUAKE

IN TIIE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC New Zealand was not the only country to suffer from earthquake in the nioiith of June. On June 3, a fortnight before the big West Coast shake—English papers had news of a great upset in the Argentine. The message head as follows “Fifty people are believed to have been killed and 200 injured during a succession of earthquake shocks in the vicinity of Sail Rafael on Saturday afternoon. Thousands fled into the countryside, carrying their possessions, and are suffering from the extreme cold and exposure. Few tents are available, and the majority of the people spent the night round camp fires, some sleeping in railway trucks. The Argentine Bed Cross is expediting relief supplies. Eye-wit nesses descibe the scenes of suffering as intense, and state that many Lundies have saved only a few belongings. I lie Pacific Railway %as announced that the San Rafael service is again functioning, and food and relief supplies have arrived at Sail Rafael. The burial of the victims was started oil (Saturday afternoon, the entire village joining in the mourning. Seventy-five per cent, pt the population, it is stated, have deserted their homes. At Villa Atuel many people were buried on Saturday, and rescuers are still searching the ruins.”