AN AVALANCHE.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 444, 8 February 1890, Page 5

AN AVALANCHE.

HOMES WRECKED IN SIERRA CITY. SEVEN PERSONS CRUSHED TO DEATH. A snow-slide came rushing down the hillside upon Sierra • City, California, on January 3, destroying the Roman Catholic church and several houses, carrying a number of others from their foundations, and causing the death of seven persons, and probably of nine. The snow, which lay a dozen feet deep, starred at the Sierra Butte flume, on the hillside above the town, and swept down upon it with resistless force, carrying everything before it. Some almost miraculous escapes from death occurred. As soon as possible the survivors began digging in the debris, and up to this writing seven bodies have been recovered. All is confusion at the scene of the accident and it is impossible as yet to obtain any particulars, so sudden was the disaster. More bodies may be bui-ied in the mass of snow, logs, timbers, furniture and general wreckage. One Chinaman and a little girl are reported as certainly in the ruins. A spark of life remained in two of the recovered bodies, but help came too late, and they died almost immediately after being taken out. More slides are expected and the people are in constant dread, but the snow is so deep that flight is impossible. All they can do is to wait and hope that the immense weight of snow now hanging on the mountain sides may not become loosened and complete the awful work of destruction. The roads are impassable, but thus far the telegraph lines have remained intact.