ALL WAS PLAIN HORROR.

Chronicle (Levin), 9 August 1949, Page 5

ALL WAS PLAIN HORROR.

Received Monday, 8 p.m. XMW YORIv, August 7. As buildings crashed in ruins around thein in the Ambato earthquakes men and women knelt and sliouted to beaven i'or 1'orgiveness, said an injured survivor in a graphic aecount. I Le said: "From the eai'ly niorning hours we heard inui'fled roars I'rom below the eai'tii but sinee that liappened frequently, nobody paid imieh attention. At 2.20 p.m., however. there were lieavv explosions. I l'elt the earth sink under me. I watehed buildings xtart to lotter. Some eolla]).sed with a roar. Ai'ter that all was plain horror with everyone kneeling or running temfied towards the City -(juare and open spaees. * The bi'ilge leading I'rom the t(.wn was bloeked with trueks and private cars which were unable to n-s.s because the bridge threateneo to colInp.se. Many people savecl themselves by crossing on foot. "Meanwhile large blocks from chureh towers and larger buildings, began falling on the panicstricken muiiitude. Only a muffled shriek was heard now and then, quickly drowned out by an iinrnense mass of cement and stone. "In oue church a great mass of people sought refuge. Someone elosed the main door to bloek the entrance of more refugees. It was a useless gesture because a few iiiinutes later the wliole. building caved in. The City Hall also buried a large number of victims wIk n it eollapsed. I remember • ruiiiiing away when i saw a threesiorey building begin to fall. It was appnreiitly a i'ragment of con--rele which bi'oke my leg and 1 ' uainod coiisciousness in a tent m.spitah" 'I he newspaper correspondent who seut llie survivor 's account, 1 he was a niember of the first lied ('ross mission to reacli Am-:-ato ai'tei' the eartlnjuake. Hiui•refls oi' people were seeking reuntler slielters oi' straw or 'ef-ts. Thousands oi' others were •' 'eing the city in terror, carrying "••asured belongings snatched ' "ia erumbling liouses. ' ' The macabre speetacle of completely destroyed Ambato baffled doscription. Hundreds of thousands of tons of concrete and steel choked the streets. Smaller buildings were smashed by the collapse of larger structures. Women and children poked through the rubble seeldng their loved ones or tl eirbodies. The unnatural silence of the tornb prevailed throughout the eity except when pierced by the laments of the bereaved or cries of imprisoned injured." Twenty additional hodies have bci-n i-emoved from the ruins of Ambato Cnthedral. "Water rationo u has been imposed in the city aml people have been warned to "■•:l all drinking water.