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Show I .Further News of Earthquake Received Many graphic newspaper accounts of the recent earthquake in California Califor-nia have been read with interest by local citizens, many of whom have close relatives and friends in the stricken areas. However, according !to personal letter accounts coming through since, in them plain lang-'uage lang-'uage "you a'int heard nothin' yet", following is a letter received by Mr. and Mrs. John Hunter from Mr. and I Mrs. Bert Householder, with whom they were visiting in Los Angeles when the earthquake occurred. The Hunters were due home and had to leave before people were allowed to visit the most seriously affected I parts, which were all placed under martial law. The letter in part follows: Monday, March 20, 1933. Dear Aunt Betsy and Uncle John: We've been kicking ourselves all jOver for letting you folks go home. I Really you didn't see anything and the more we realize it the madder we get. , We left here at about 7:30 a. m. Saturday morning and went down thru all the earthquake area and say! all the reports over the radio and the pictures in the papers don't begin to tell half the story. It is the most desolate picture of disaster you could imagine. We didn't even feel it. Compton Main street is lying flat on the ground. The only business busi-ness buildings standing were wrecked wreck-ed by fire. For blocks everything was demolished and there are scores f buildings where rescue work hasn't even begun. You'll never see in the papers or hear of the number that were killed as they are hushing it up as much as possible. Last week they dug out 23 bodies from one building and found one man who had been buried alive and had gone mad. They didn't publish a thing about it but as one of Bert's men live there and saw the whole thing we knew it was so. A friend of ours has relatives in Compton and they saw a large market collapse, which was crowded and the authorities haven't started' digging there yet. Every day they uncover dozens of bodies and the papers say no more about it. They are even sending two men on a tour of the country to j try to convince people that it was a I mere shaking up and practically no damage done. How these native sons hate to have anything happen detrimental detri-mental to the community! It really would be funny if it werent so tragic. Huntington Park high school covers cov-ers a whole block and it is a total wreck. It was still burning when we were there and only a few walls standing. It was dreadful. All along the way houses were thrown right off their foundations, and almost every dwelling was damaged in some way. A theatre building was flat on the ground with the exception of the front wall and dozens were buried in the place. We couldn't begin to tell you all and oh, how we regret the fact that you didn't get to see it! |