The Earthquake in Italy.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 14, 18 January 1915, Page 5

The Earthquake in Italy.

heart-rending details. UNPRECEDENTED VIOLENCE OF THE SHOCK. AFTER THE ROLL-CALL. By Butf.Tßio iBLiQRAPa —CoPTßieaij United Fbebb iABHOOUTXON. . Homo, January 16.

The disaster surpasses that of Messina in the low percentage of survivors. Only two or three per cent, escaped at Avez/.ano, while thirty per cent usrvived at Messina. The violence of the quake was unprecedented. A carter was passing fifty yards from a .house thirty feet high, when the house was literally hurled against him, burying the horse and cart.

Ave/i/.ano was ground to powder as by a gigantic machine. Corpses are petrifying, as the whole attention is devoted to encouraging the wounded under the ruins. The rescuers at the oueset were so few that they couldn t do more than mark the spotts where voices were-heard. When help was forthcoming the voices were silent. Two girls, protected under a piano, implored help for two days. They were slowly asphyxiated by dust.

Fires broke out at several points, and some were undoubtedly burned alive. The fire also completed the destruction of Maghane.

A hundred people were buried in a church at Custilliri during a funeral service.

Rescuers at Sora found seven nuns and a priest who had been killed at the altar during the communion. Sixty bodies were found in the wreckage of a room at the Girls’ College at Avezzano.

Seven-eighths of the population at Massadalbe, and the majority of the population at Cerchios were killed. Large numbers were buried under the churches. Much damage was caused at Subiaco, including the Benedictine Abbey.

■ Seven hundred bodies have been recovered from Sora.

It is estimated that one thousand are dead out of eighteen hundred inhabitants of Avezzano. in the Paterno district, and six hundred out of sixteen hundred at Lampelino, which is practically wiped out. Capella is one heap of ruins. The latest estimate gives thirty thousand dead in the Abruzzi, including fourteen thousand in the Avezzano district.

Countess Resta and her five sons were rescued alive at Avezzano. The Count clung Ho the ruins of the palace.. and spurned condolences. He worked tenaciously for two days and night to extricate his family.

Relief continues under the most dangerous conditions. Great crevasses have appeared in the cemetery at Soro, whence masses of boiling water are thrown up. .

SEISMOGRAPH RECORDS. '*' Sydney, January 17. Seismographs at Sydney and Melbourne disclosed slight earth tremors corresponding with the time of the Italian earthquake.