SERIES OF QUAKES

Wairarapa Daily Times, 25 January 1932, Page 5

SERIES OF QUAKES

VOLCANOES ERUPT TOWNS DESTROYED. Press Association Electric Telegraph—Copyright NEW YORK, Saturday. A message from San Salvador states that the Guatemalan volcano Agua erupted with sharp detonations, which were heard here, where the populace rushed into the streets, praying and carrying images. The superstitious were particularly terrified, due to the fact that January 21st commemorates the centenary of tho famous eruption of Coseguina, in Nicaragua. Ashes are still falling from the Mexican frontier to Nicaragua. Santa Ana City is reported to be covered to a depth of live hundred quintals to the acre. The Antiguans are wading kneedeep in a heavy fall of ashes, close to the volcanoes, where they are one metre deep in some sections, destroying all coffee and other crops. The earth is also said to be badly cracked in the affected area.

A message from Guatemala City states that disrupted communications prevent the reception of detailed but it is feared that great damage ■ was done by the sudden eruption, thirty miles from here, of the volcanoes Fuego and Acatenango. The towns of Antigua, Santa Luicia and Cotzumalhuara, as well as several smaller comniunities j are reported to be 'destroyed. The entire republic of Guatemala was terrified by a series of earthquakes, ten of which were violent and were centred in the vicinity of Zacatepequez. These were followed by approximately fifty further shocks. Dense clouds of smoke, filled with fiery streaks and ashes, shot from the volcanoes, and were carried in the wind as far as San Salvador. The streets and roof-tops of San Salvador City were covered with ashes. The shocks have now apparently ceased, but citizens are still much alarmed.