Villages Ovewhelmed.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 17, 11 May 1914, Page 5

Villages Ovewhelmed.

CALAMATOUS EARTHQUAKE

ANOTHER ITALIAN SEISMIC CATASTROPHE.

LOSS OF LIFE AND PROPERTY.

[By EiikcTMO Telegraph—CopybighiJ [UNITED PBISB ASSOCIATION. 1 Borne, May 9. An earthquake severely damaged Acirale and neighbouring villages. Doctors and nurses with tents have been sent to succour the homeless. Thirty dead and o»« Hundred and twenty badly injured nave been extricated from the debris. Many of the small villages were stricken during the night, and it is expected that the list of casualties will be doubled. At Santa Catalina the population of 2183 was destroyed. Hundreds of houses and churches have collapsed elsewhere. Mount Etna is increasingly active. HOMELESS AND FOODLESS. SOLDIERS WORK LIKE TROJANS.

(Received 8.25 a.m.) Rome, May 10. Warning shocks caused the populance of Catania to abandon their dwellings, minimising fatalities. The patients fled from the hospitals in panic. Rescue work at Linera and other villages on Friday night w r as rendered almost vain by the darkness, the destruction of telegraphic communication and the lack of tools; but soldiers have since arrived and are working like Ti-ojans, Sixty bodies were recovered by Sunday morning. Hundreds are homeless and foodless. The survivors are thronging the military relief kitchens. Many are camping in the vineyards.

HEAVY TOLL AT CATANIA. SHOCKS AS SEVERE AS IN MESSINA DISASTER. (Received 9.15 a.m.) , .Some, May 10. Tremors were felt in the vicinity of Etna xor the past fortnight. There were severe shocks on Thursday, reaching the maximum on Friday evening. They: equalled in intensity those which, destroyed Messina.

Many hundreds are dead, and at least a thousand injured in Catania. There were no fatalities, but much damage at Acireale, Forty bodies were recovered in the village of Linera, which was completely destroyed. A hundred are still antQmbed.in. the debris. V The railway was torn up for seven hundred yards at Mangano. Four hundred troops have been sent to the scene.

All the towns mentioned in the messages are on the east coast of Sicily, lying east or south-east .of Mt. Etna, on or near the coast. Messing, which was destroyed by the earthquake of ; 1.908, is near the north-eastern point of Sicaly, and just across the narrow strait from the mainland town of Reggio, which also suffered severely.

Following is a list of the most severe earthquakes in recent years with the number of casualties resulting:— 1905. Lives lost. April, North India.... 20,000 September 8, Calabria over 5,000 1906. January 4, Nicaragua Many thousands Feb. 14-21, Colombia ......over 2,000 March and April, Formosa... 1,200 April 18, San Francisco 1,000 August 16-20, Chile Many thousands 1907. Jan., Jamaica (Kingston)... 1,000 Jan. 22, Isle of Simalu, at Simatra 1,500 October 23,' Calabria. 600 1908. Dec. 28, Messina, Keggio, etc 200,000 1909. January 23, Luristan ......5,000-6,000 April 23, Lisbon 40 1910. May 4, Cartago, Costa Rica 500 1911. June 7, Mexico (earthquake and volcano) 1,300 1912. August 9, Constantinople, Adrianople, and Sea of Marmora (killed and injured) .: 6,000