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Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 73, 29 May 1852, Page 8

Five Hundred Persons destroyed by a Water Spout. — The Morning Chronicle, of December Istb, states that intelligence bad just been received at Lloyds', dated Malta, the Bth of that month, of a most awful occurrence at the Island of. Sicily, which had been swept by two enormous water-spouts, accompanied by a terrific hurricane. Those who wit-j nessed the phenomenon describe the water- *" spouts as two immense spherical bodies ofjwater reaching from the clouds, their cones nearly touching the .earth, and, as far as could be judged, at a quarter of a mile apart, travelling : with immense velocity. They passed over \h<f <> island near Marsala. In their progress houses were unroofed, trees uprooted, men and women, horses, cattle, and sheep were raised up, drawn into the vonex, and borne on to destruction ; during their passage rain descended in cataracts accompanied with hailstones of enormous size and masses of ice, Going over Castellmare, near Stabia, it destroyed half the town, and washed 200 of the inhabitants into the sea, who all perished. Upwards of 500 persons have been destroyed by this terrible visitation, and an immense amount of property, the country being laid waste for miles.