ITALIAN DISASTER.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 419, 30 January 1909, Page 6

ITALIAN DISASTER.

,' CLAMOROUS REFUGEES. , PEOPLE CHARCED BY SOLDIERS. /SI igLEGUIPH— fEESS ASSOCIATION—COPTMOHT.) Rome, January 28. Crowds of homeless wanderers from the recent earthquakes parade the streets of Delianuova, in' tho province of Reggio, Calabria, qhouting: "We want shelter 1" They. were.charged by tho troops, several being killed or injured.. 'TERREMOTO." THE STORY OF EARTHQUAKE, FIRE, AND TIDAL WAVE. . SCENES IN THE EUINS.OF MESSINA. , \ Fromantle, January 29. > Particulars are to hand by mail of the terrible earthquake disaster 'in Sicily and Calabria. ■ ' ' ' ' ■ Most of the people in tho various towns . wero asleep at the time of tho shock, which came without warning a little after 5 in the morning. It lasted over SO seconds, and literally swung buildings out of the perpendicular and let them crash in a heap of ruins. Then came fires, and explosions of gasometers. JTmally, a huge seismic wave , of liquid mud, which swept over the quays, engulfed the low-lying portions of the towns, drowning the miserable beings pinned beneath tho ruined buildings. 'This is why no ' satisfactory estimate- of tho probablo deaths has yet been made. j How the Earth-Movement Developed. A young doctor of Messina, named 'Aliotto Rossi, tells the following story—"l rose early on Monday morning, intending to leave Messina by an early train. Jt was still .dark,' and I was waiting ready to start, when the profound t silence which precedes the dawn was brolien by an extraordinary noise. I can best describe it as like the bursting of u thousand bombs. This was / followed by rushing, torrential rain; then there was a sinister whistling, as if thousands of redhot iron Tods were hissing in icy water. I did not realise what was happening, until suddenly the violent and rhythmic \ movements surrounding walls made me .Tealise tho awful fact that an earthquake ■was in_ progress. Around me splintered glass fell thickly. , The roof burst, giving off thick clouds of choking dust, which added to i ( iho horror of the situation, while the ground was shaken by an extraordinary double movement, as .if, rising and falling, which had * tho peculiar effect of .making' me imagine teat I Jiad been seized suddenly ill. , _ "For a moment I was in a dazed condition, till the thunder of falling stones from crumb-, ling walls made mo reabso that if I was to escape with life there was not a moment to be lost. I rushed into the roqm where my mother , and sister slept, and succeeded with tho help of a strong cord in rescuing not only thean, but other people m .the dwelling, who had given themselves up for lost. Then, with;the help of passing soldiers, I out several women and children from undor, tottering walls of half-destroyed palaces, which soon after came down, with a crash, i . • > ''Frenzied Rescue Efforts. \ "There were'scencs of indescribable horror. It was difficult. l to see in tho dust-laden halfdarkness, but at every turn one could not help noticing' tho ghastly spectacle of > human limbs sticking out from a mass of> ruins. ■Frenzied relatives/ with bare, bleeding hands, sought to'dig oat their dear ones from under fallen masonry,' though often 'walls which bad not altogether , collapsed camedown suddenly, and buried' them with their dead :e----latives-, in a common' , grave. All the while shrieks and imprecations were heard from miserable-raving> fugitives, who rushed halfBaked and bleeding through the streets, op* n string like spectres -in the lurid« atmosphere, which began' to . Tie lit up by fires which , broke out/among the nuns. having been'broken, o pur, sufferings' were r intensified, by of,; drinking water. We Vere driven to,assuage our burning thirst by 'rinsingi our mouths with Eea-water, wherewith we washed even our wounds. All this time there was almost furious 'rainstorm, which' came down like a waterspout, deluging the ruins, and even threatening the unfortunate fugitives with drowning -in the mire left by >the receding sea. Finally we succeedediin reaching the English steamer Ebro!" ''* ' \ A Woman's Itnpresslcns.

Here is n typical story toldvhy, a woman Itfho reached Palermo from''Messina:—"lt was a hellish scene.' We were still sleeping when we were ■ suddenly • awakened by a 1 strange noise! ■ Tho windows were all rattling, ' and the doorSf burst open _> with-, a bang. Some of us were thrown out of bed <by tho violence of the shock. A deluge of'rain was falling, and it was very dark. ' 'i i " "Terreraotol ter'romotol' we shrieked, all shivering with , terror. Scarcely half-clothed, , I fled with myibrother and sister, but 1 , lost them in the, street. Other people werft running to and fro, crying desperately, ehoMng for help, and invoking the Madonna Saints. i , i "All around us were , crumbling walls, crashing windows, and splintering'woodwork. The water camo up to our knees, and near the sea front all the steamers were flooded. The muddy water roared terribly, and battered everything with incredible violence." Most of the fugitives who have given accounts of the catastrophe were too much under tho influence of terror, or too full v of their agonised search • for relatives who ' were lost, to give any detailed narratives.

(Rec., January 29, 5.40 p.m.) Messina Like a City of the Dead. Many scenes of savagery were witnessed. !A. crowd of persons of all descriptions and , every ago, some naked, the others half-clothed, and nearly all injured, rushed to the Customs % officers, who were quite capable to offer re- \ sistance to tho frenzied mob. t Suddenly reports of revolvers rang out, and,the people wore seen fighting among themselves for a handful of vegetables or a email piece of bread. From the decks of steamers the sight ,of tho fighting was terrifying. Another aspect of tho disaster is described by a chemist named ; Pulco,' who : was ■ in a ferry boat. Ho was crossing tho Straits in tho early morning from Messina to Reggio. Suddenly a galo aroso, bringing with it a huge sea. Tho boat seemed to be made of paper, ns it was dashed into the shore, and swept back again by the receding wave. Most of tho people on board were drowned, but the boat, by a curious chance, floated, end escaped serious injury. Pulco and a few other survivors, after the first panic, mado their way on shore to Messina, and found it like, a city of the doad. ; There was nobody about, and the profound silenco was only broken by the moans, groans, end shrieks of the injured. Pulco and his companions tried to rescue eome of them, but tho task was beyond their powers owing to tho condition of tho wrecked nouses. Miraculous Escape of Babes—The Fate of i Reggio. ( The captain of the Russian cruiser Admiral Makaroffi told of-'similar , experiences. -Ho said that after tb;o shock thcro were no fewer than four groat wave 9 in succession, the sea rising from 12 to 24 and ovon to ,30 feet. Ho saw a few survivors wandering about on shore, half-naked, starved, and mad with , terror, ; Under a bod, which miraculously lodged "en a piece of wreckage, two babies ncre found gravely-playing with buttons. Many ; chil- s dren were found clinging despairingly to the dead bodies <if their mothors. Russian . sailors saved number of children, many of irhom wero mere babies, and carried them MT board tho cruiser. v Several of tho persons rescued wore stricken rith madness, and tottered on dock shielding their heads with their arms, as thongh still n the midst of'falling masonry. In all,-tho ftimnn sailors saved more ..than.a thousand Kvinle in Messina. , Wrecked bv earthquake and half-obliterated by the s'ea, Reggio (in Calabria) was forsaken ?or three wholo days. It was only after the arrival of King Victor that systematic rescue work was attempted. Every town witfiin 25 miles had been , wrecked. Tho Bank of Naples and tho Bank of Italy were about the only buildings left standing in Reggio. Tho water supply completely disappeared, and no bread was available,