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Show larthquake Shocks and Volcanic Eruptions Destroy De-stroy Scores of Villages That Are Built on the Slopes of Fiery Mount Etna. UIN AND DEATH VISIT PROVINCE ' D8S of Property Will Probably Equal That Caused by the Famous Messina Calamity of ; 1908; Prompt Relief Is I Given by Government. : CATANIA, May 9. Late reports -" from the stricken district add to I..'." She death list. At Passopomo t welve persons were killed, at Ma- U twelve, at San Vereri six, Santa ' J Cecil two, Santa Maria Vergine , ,'ght, Garbati four. V MANIA, Sicily, May 9. An earth-ike earth-ike JaBt night brought death and traction to many villages near lint Etna. The number of dead up this evening is officially given as with about 350 injured; but as ' J a large portion "of the devastated V -'itory has not been inspected. 'he affected zone extends from Zaf--: ma, the highest village on Mount ; ., a. to the sea between Aci Eeale on south and Giarre on the north. It ides Linera, the center of the dis-.'j,;: dis-.'j,;: Jaoce. Pisano and Santa Venfcrina. tf Linera alone 110 persons were killed 300 injured. In the village of Riardo, thirteen dead and twenty-...:in twenty-...:in injured have been taken from the . is- At Cosentini sixteen were killed i-: ' many injured. These villages and "'I. . ly smaller places were practically pr; utomobiles which made the trip to-:- - through the devastated region were ' ' "i forced to make a long detour to the deep fissures across the 'Vll- The district presented a spectacle y.r isolation, ruin and death. Peasants I l1 d to meet the automobiles, im--"-lag aid. From the debris agonizing I could still be heard. Others asked ' their injured relatives be trans-td trans-td to Catania, as all train service : been abandoned, owing to the col-'; col-'; e of bridges, broken tracks and tucted tunnels. ; ished to Death. centuries this region has suf-1 suf-1 from earthquakes, owing to the -ity of Mount Etna. Yet it is rela-I rela-I .t'lick.!v populated, as the laud ost fertile, vincvurds growing with 4 J Mtentioa. . Near, the- centra" point -':' ,e 1,strbauce dozens of bodies were '- rvea lying along the road. Many ;!t . ocin were unrecognizable, as tliev ' crushed. Heart-rending lamenta-i lamenta-i aro. on all sides, and the injured sj,",lu" open awaiting assistance been sent to them. !L Linera stood is a mass of i : 1.?oso houses which did not col-fc' col-fc' 1, .'vre -v were so broken as to em-'ho em-'ho completeness of the disas- lit 7 ? consisted of about 800 i.j I A maioritv of the people a because the shock occurred ' , mer and some of the women sun working in the fields. From yej-ards tliev saw their houses ". ; f ' '"n .when they arrived, breath-tbnT. breath-tbnT. homes, they found onlv A u Wlth 801,1(5 of tbeir people ... "?,""'h Tn'3 accounts for ln 'hat most of the victims at ,r"-fr I? women 311(5 children. The ' i,n,1(; with terror and grief, at- ' tnejiebi-is with their bare hands 1 (Continued" o:j Page Tnrea.) 11 mi SICILY DISASTER (Continued from Page One.) ; in an effort to savo their wives or ' children. Ucnerals Trnbucchi and Moccaatta , are in command of the work of rescue, which is beiny expeditiously performed by soldiers, firemen, policemen and Red Cross volunteers. Jt is expected, however, how-ever, that weeks will pass before the full extent of the disaster can be ascertained, as-certained, as it is believed many peasants peas-ants are buried under their homes in the isolated districts. Many Towns Destroyed. At Zafferana every house was destroyed. Enormous damage was caused at Santa Venertna. Roofs fell in and walls collapsed in the hamlets of Santa Maria Ammalatl. Ca-rieo, Ca-rieo, Guardia, Margano, Santa Tecla and Bongiardo. The village of Santa Maria Vergine Catena was razed. Prefect Minervin! of Catania and all the officials under his superintendence were called together before daybreak, and received re-ceived orders to do their utmost to aid the affllrted inhabitants. They have since been working inde.fatigably. The soldiers in the district are aiding in endeavoring to rescue those still alive l?rieath the ruins and to extricate the dead from the debris. All available nurses were mobilized and are assisting in gathering the homeless a nd the children who have lost their parents. Temporary shelter is being provided pro-vided here for the refugees. Along the principal highways in the stricken district the scene of desolation was heartrending. Groups of refugees were frequently encountered. Refugees Carry Injured. Many of these were burdened with improvised im-provised litters made of branches of trees and bushes, on which they were carrying Injured and dying relatives to the temporary tem-porary surgical stations established by the surgeons and nurses. In the neighborhood neighbor-hood of Santa Venerina the number of injured was great. ( ; The authorities have commandeered all available automobiles to assist in the work of rescue. For several days earthquake shocks have been felt al frequent intervals, accompanied ac-companied by eruptions of Mount Etna: Xo particular attention, however, was paid to the occurrences. The first severe shock was felt at 7 o'clock last evening. The center of the disturbance was at the village of Einera. Here the proportion of dead and injured was very heavy. The victims were mostly women "and children. Scene of Frequent Disaster. The vicinity of Catania has probably suffered more than any other section in the world from volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Catania itself is built on a bed of lava at the foot of the volcano Etna, and most of its streets are paved with lava. Cat a nia has a population of 1 10,000, and is the la rges t c ;. ty in Sicily. It i i e"s to the south of Messina on the east coast. Ever since its foundation in B. C. 79, it has been visited frequently by eart h-quakes. h-quakes. In 121 A, D. it was partly destroyed de-stroyed by an eruption of Mount Etna. In 1 li)9 it suffered severely from an earthquake. earth-quake. In 1(169, during an eruption of Etna, a gyeat stream of lava flowed toward to-ward Catania, but its course was diverted and the town sa veJ. In 1G33. when the whole of the island of Sicily was affected by an earthquake, Catania was destroyed. In the earthquake and tidal wave at Calabria on December 2. IMS, official figures gave the number of deaths as 77".2S3, but it was unofficially estimated that from 1 "0.(ini.i to "OU.OOO people lost their lives. The da ma ye to property amounted to about a billion dollars. Interruption of railroads and telegraphs made it impossible to obtain any accurate details as to the loss of life. The great gravity of the disaster was not realized until this morning, when reports re-ports came in. from the surrounding dis-Iriets. dis-Iriets. The villages of Einera and Con-sentini Con-sentini were transformed into heaps of ruins. |