CALIFORNIAN 'QUAKE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 543, 29 May 1933, Page 3

CALIFORNIAN 'QUAKE

WOMAN'S FIRST-HAND STORY IN LETTER TO RELATIVE IN CHRISTCHURCH. A relative in Southern California, writing to Mr. Frank Browne, of Thames Street, St. Albans, describes the recent earthquake there which wrecked many towns, causing widespread damage and loss of life. "We were all at dinner that evening," she writes, "when, without any warning whatever, the lights gave a flicker and went out. The next instant, with a roaring sound, the house began to tremble and then shook and rattled with a force which made one think of a dog shaking a rat. Dishes fell; pictures fell from the walls; objects were hurled away across the room, and the brick chimney on the roof fell with a crash. After the first stunned moment we all ran for the nearest door. The floor was heaving so that we could hardly keep our feet, but we managed to get outside, and it was only by the goodness of Providence that we escaped death or injury, because as we ran down the steps on to the lawn the avalanche of bricks from the chimney simply grazed our heels. We were fortunate, for since then it has been proved that practically every one of the 115 people killed and the hundreds injured were hurt because of running outside under falling chimneys, brick fronts, etc. If they had stayed inside, the majority of them would be alive or unhurt now. "When we picked up courage to go inside again we found the house like a shambles, but fortunately, ^ittle real damage wa's done. The lights were out, and consequently we had no radio. So we lighted candles, and it was not till an h'our later, when my brother came over, that we learned how well we had fared in comparison with the outlying towns. My brother's radio had comq on shortly after the shock, and he learned immediately that Long Beach, Compton, Huntington Park, and a number of small towns within a radius of 18 or 20 miles from us had been completely laid low. We went over to his house to listen to the reports, and it was certainly horrifying — calls to all doctors and nurses to report to the nearest hospitals, calls for ambulances, for the police to report to headquarters, statements of hundreds killed, towns in a blaze, and all the garbled exaggerated reports incident to the first announcement of a disaster. We sat up most of the night listening to the radio, as it was impossible to go to bed on account of the constant shocks — we counted 27 in three hours. "The final and true estimate of th'e damage done gave the figures thus: 115 killed, 1500 injured, and about £6,000,000 damage to property. It was found that the modern, well-con-istructed buildings almost all stood up beautifully — it was mostly the brick buildings and those which were old and poorly constructed which fell. This was true in every town that was hit. The shock covered a radius of 60 miles. Of course, hundreds of people were rendered homeless, having lost everything they possessed in the world, and these were' cared for in camps in the parks and elsewh'ere by the Red Cross and all sorts of volunteer assistance. The courage of the people was amazing. Reconstruction and the clearing away of the debris st,arted with vim and enthusia&m, everyone being anxious to forget it all and take up the threads of their lives again where they were so' rudely broken."