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Show Consternation Reigns in Italy I I Twenty Towns Are Laid Waste I i VOLCANIC ERUPTION AND FIRE I DESTROYS MANY VILLAGES I Terrified People Rush From Slopes of Mt. Etna, Sicily, Before Daybreak Bringing Stories of Ruin and Disaster Many Are Killed Hundreds Are Injured Property Loss Reported to Be as Great as in Messina Disaster of 1908. RAILROAD TRACKS TORN UP WIRES DOWN Churches Razed to Ground, Houses Shaken to Ruin and General Gen-eral Desolation Over Radius of Miles Around Catania Army, Navy and Civilian Authorities Ordered to Aid Stricken Section Red Cross Quickly Enlisted En-listed Scene Heartrending. Catania, May fi Earthquake and vo) anii eruption, followed by fire, destroyed many villages on the slopes of Mount Etna last night. The dls aster caused the death of at least ' ir!5 persons The number of injured will reach several hundred. Refu gees declared the property loss is as great as In the Messina disaster of 1908. Railroad tracks were torn up, churches razed to the ground, houses shaken to ruin, and telegraph poles overturned over a radius of several miles around Catania. Terror-stricken people rushed from the villages Into Catania before daybreak day-break today, bringing stories of ruin and disaster. Their reports caused Hie authorities to take immediate steps to start measures of relief. The army, the navy and the civilian au-" au-" thoritles received orders from" Rome I to render aid in the work of rescue. 1 The aid of the Red Cross was quickly enlisted. Interruption of railroads and telegraphs tele-graphs made it impossible to obtain any accurate details as to the loss ot life. Official reports late today placed the number of dead at 135 and the in- : jurcd at 283. These figures will prob- ablv will be increased by more com plete advices from the wrecked vil- I lages. Fifty persons are known to nave been killed in the village of Linera. which was destroyed. Among the ruins of Pa8sopomo. Bongiardo and Malati. twenty bodies have been found this morning. Premier Minervini of Catania and all i he officials under his superintendence superintend-ence were called together before daybreak day-break and received orders to do their utmost to aid the afflicted inhabitant They have since been working inde-fatigably. inde-fatigably. The soldiers are aiding in the endeavor en-deavor to rescue those still alive be-ncath be-ncath the ruins and to extricate the dead. All Available Nurses Mobilized. Ml the available nurses were mobilized mo-bilized and are assisting in gathering the bomelcH and children who have loat their parenLs Temporary shelter is being provided hero for the refu- r,e"ong the principal highways in the Btrlcken district, the Bcene of deBo la! ion was heart-rending. Groups of refugees were frequently encountered and manv of these were burdened with improvised Utters made of branches of trees and bushes, on which they were carrying injured and dying re a lives to the temporary surgical stations sta-tions established by the surgeons and nurses. M , , Great Number of Injured. II In the neighborhood of Santa e-noyna e-noyna the number of Injured was The authorities have commandeered nil available automobiles to assist In ai the work of re?cue. For several days earthquake shocks 9 had been felt at frequent lervals ac- V companled by eruptions of Mount Et na No particular attention, howev- er, was paid to the occurrences The first severe shock was felt at 7 o'clock last evening. The extent It the catastrophe was not realised until ibis morning when terror-str.ck-e groups of refugees began streaming stream-ing into Uwn.v DMth $t The center of the disturbance was icfr at the village of Linera. Here the nm nortion of dead and Injured was 1 w ! heav v The victims were mosi , ly women and children The vicinity of Catania, the scene of last, night s earthqoake, has probably prob-ably 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 of Etna, and most of its streets are paved with lava. Catania has a population of 140,-000, 140,-000, and is the largest city in Sicily It lies to the south of Mc?stna on the east coast. Ever since its foundation, foun-dation, in B. C. 729. it has been visited vis-ited frequently by earthquakes In 121 A. D, it was partly destroyed by an eruption of Mount Etna. In H69 it suffered severely from an earthquake. In. 1669. during an eruption erup-tion of Etna, a great stream of lava flowed toward Catania, but its course was diverted and the town saved. In 1693, when the whole of the Island of Sicily was affected by an earthquake. earth-quake. Catania was destroyed. In the earthquake and tidal wave at Calabria on December 2S, 190S, official figures gave the number of deaths as 77,283, but it was unofficially unoffi-cially estimated that from 150,000 to 200,000 people lost their lives. The damage to property amounted to about a billion dollars. Catania, Sicily. May 9. A violent earthquake greatly resembling that at Messina in 1908, last night destroyed destroy-ed about a dozen villages in this vicinity. vi-cinity. No estimate of the number of casualties has yet been made, but it is known that the damage was enormous. The great gravity of the disaster was not realized until this morning when reports came in from the surrounding sur-rounding country. The villages of Linera and Consen-tini Consen-tini were transformed into heaps of ruins. At Zafferana every' house was destroyed de-stroyed Enormous damage was caused at Santa Vencrlna Roofs fell in and walls collapsed in the hamlets of Santa Maria Am-malati. Am-malati. Carico, Guardia. Margano, Santa San-ta Tecla and Bongardlo. The village of Santa Maria Vergine Catenan was razed |
