THE EARTHQUAKE IN CHILI.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8216, 21 August 1906, Page 5

THE EARTHQUAKE IN CHILI.

SEVERE fcSHOCKS AT SANTIAGO.

MANY PEOPLE KILLED,

Reoeived August 20. 10.13 a.m. LONDON, August 13. Router's agent a'tatee that the shooks at Santiago, which began at 8 o'clock on Thursday evening, were the severest felt in the memory of the oldest living inhabitant. Many houseß fell, and the Btreets were filled witn hysterical people, wailing and praying. The eleotrio light failed, snd the ringing of the flrebells added to the confusion. The chief sh~ck lasted three and a-half minutes. Several people were killed. Ihe firemen promptly extinguished several fires. Heavy showers of rain followed the earthquakes. Half the population spent the night in the streets. Thirty people perished at Santiago. The damage estimated at two million dollars. The seismograph at the Isle of Wight recorded the earthquake twelve minutes after it commenced at Valparaiso. Private messages received in London state that business has been re sumed at Valparaiso, and that the fires are being subdued. The nitrate grounds are not damaged.

ESTIMATES OF THE LOSSES

Received August 20, 10.13 a.m. LONDON, August 19. Mounted messengers from Valparaiso arriving at Quellota estimate that 500 people were killed at Valparaiso. Falling walls killed many and injured hundreds. A number of pillagers were shot. Every bridge and tunnel in tbe Andes has been wrecked.

FIRE STILL SPREADING

Received August 20, 10.30 a.m. NEW YORK, August 19. The New York Herald's Valparaiso correspondent on Saturday telegraphed that tbe dead and injured there will number thousands. Most of the damage was dope on Friday, the yorst shooks being experienced in tbe morning. The panio, states the correspondent, is appalling. The fire is still spreading, tbe lack of to the difficulties of ooping with the flames.

THE EXTENT OF THE DISTURBANCES.

TIDAL WAVE AT HAWAII.

FURTHER SHOCKS EXPERIENCED.

Received August 20, 10.30 a.m. LONDON, Augußt 19. Later particulars regarding the earthquake show that the disturbances were felt in Taona (a province bordering on Peru).,. Rumblings were heard st Serena, aud slight shocks were felt at Jamaica and St. Lucia. A tidal wave five feet high was experienced at Hawaii. Messages received, after communication was partly restored, looated the area of the disturbances as between Los Andes, sixty miles from Valparaiso, and Valparaiso. Further shooks were experienced on the Chilian side of the Andes on Friday.

LOS ANDES ALMOST TOTALLY DESTROYED.

Received August 20, 10.30 a.m. LONDON, August 19. Los Andes is almost totally destroyed.

THE SUPPOSED CAUSE OF THE EARTHQUAKE.

A VOLCANO IN ERUPTION

HEARTRENDING SCENES

SEVERAL VILLAGES IN RUINS.

WHOLE STREETS DISAPPEAR.

Received August 20, 9.37 p.m. LONDON", August 20. The eruption of a volcano near Junen de los Andes, is supposed to have been the cause of the earthquake, which spread over a zone of nearly two degrees. Parliament buildings, the Town Hall, and the President's residence at Santiago were badly shaken. Hfcart-rending suenos occurred in the Hospital. In the gaols the prisoners made a wild rush to escape. The warders fired in the air iu order to drive them back. The villages'of-Elaillai, Casa Rlanoa Quillota, Vindelmar, Melipilla, San Antonia, Quilpue, Raneagua, Illcpet Valtenar and San Felipe are in ruins. Most of the damage at Valparaiso has been done in tbe centre of the town. Whole streets have disappeared. The arsenal, Naval School, Customs and Naval offices and several banks have collaped. > The de&d include many prominent residents. Eight persons were killed and many injured at Takal. There were several fatalities at Rengo and San Fernando.

CABLE NEWS. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.

The shocks continued on Saturday. Numbers of^peopl' l at Valparaiso haye taken refuge in the holds of vessels. Numerous fires have occurred in the Almandral quarter.

EIGHTY-TWO SHOOKS EXPERIENCED.

TWO THOUSAND ESTIMATED TO BE KILLED.

FOOD VERY SCARCE

PEOPLE SUFFERING GREATLY.

CONDITIONS WORSE THAN AT SAN FRANCISCO.

Reoeived August 20, 9.37 p.m. LONDON, August 20. Many firemen at Santiago have gone to Valparaiso. New York advices state that eighty-two shooks occurred on Thursday n'ght at Valparaiso. Two thousand is considered a fair estimate of. the number of dead. Food is very scarce, and the nights are cold and windy, adding greatly to the people's suffering. Tbe conditions are worse than those • which existed at San Francisco. Active steps for relief are being taken. The money whioh was intended for festivals throughout Chili, in honour of the election of Senor Pedro Montt as President-elect, is being used as a nucleus of a relief fund.

ESTIMATED LOSS OF PROPERTY AT VALPARAISO.

Reoeived August 21, 12.13 a.m. LONDON, Augußt 20. News from ChUi is fragmentary. It is feared that tbe loss of life in the towns between the coast and Los Andes will exceed that of Vaparaiso. An unconfirmed estimate from Valparaiso declares that the loss of property at Valparaiso is probably fifty million sterling. Labourers and others who have been crossed Into service by the military are carrying on the work of rescue. Rents a,hundred feet wide and fifty feet deep have been made in the ground in the country. King Edward is much distressed at the calamity. v Reuter's correspondent at Santiago, in a message on Sunday, states that tbe bursting of the mams flooded Valparaiso. There is now a lack of drinking water. Tbe latest arrivals minimise the loss to 100 lives.

TWO SHOCKS PECORPED IN SYDNEY. Received August 21, 12.22 a.m. « SYDNEY, August 20. The seismograph at the Observatory recorded a Bbock at 10.36 o'clock on Friday morning. The shook lasted four minutes At 5.15 o'clock on Saturday evening a second shook was recorded, lasting twenty minutes, bat not so powerful as the first. Reoeived August 21. 12.22 a.m. SYDNEY August 20. It is believed at Newcastle that the disaster will have an important effect on the coal trade with South America. There are at present fifteen steamers and sailers waiting for aoal cargoes for the West Coast ports, and it is likely some of them will have their destinies changed.

PREVIOUS DISASTERS.

Valparaiso has been several times previously visited by serious earthquakes. In November, 1822, it suffered by the catastrophe whioh permanently raised the coast of Chili. Its next serious visitation was in 1829, whilst in April 1851 an : upheaval struck the city and de-/ stroyed more than four hundred houses. Again, in 1880, lllapel, a few miles north of Valparaiso, was destroyed, two hundred persons perishing. The peculiar susceptibility of this coast to earthquakes is shown by the following instances: —As far back as 1586, Lima, Peru, suffered from awful earthquakes, and again in 1630 and 1687. Then on October 28tb, 1746, both Lima and Callao were demolished and 18,000 persons buried in the ruins. Botb on this occasion and in 1687 Callao was destroyed by mountainous waves following i>pon the earthquakes. On February 4th, 1797, I'the city of Quito, capital oE Ecuador (Equator) was almost overwhelmed, forty thousand persons being buried in one second. On this occasion the whole oountry between Santa Fa and Panama was destroyed Since then violent but less disastrous shocks occurred, till on March 22nd, 1859, whan about five thousand persons were killed, and an immense amount of property wan destroyed. Cumana was ruined in December, 1797. On March 26th, 1812, Venezuela was visited by an awful earthquake, which destroyed tho capital, Caracas, and several other towns, together with twenty thousand people. Many others perished of hunger and iu other ways. Concepoion, in Chili, was destroyed on February 20th, 1835, and San Salvador on April 16th, 1854. Mendoza (Argentine Republic) was all but destroyed on March 20th, 1860, by one of tbe most fearful earthquakes reoorded. Over seven thousand persons perished. Between August 13tb and !stb, 1868, there was a most terrible upheaval along the west coast of South America, when the cities of Arequipa, Inuique, Tacna, and / Chenoha, and many smaller towns in Peru fand Ecuador were destroyed. About 150, uiiles of the coast was submerged by a huge tidal wave, which carried many ships inland. Abont 25,000 lives were lost, in this fearsome oatastrophe, and 30,000 people were rendered homeless. The

CABLEJVE W S. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.

loss of property was estimated at sixty million sterling, and about £II,OOO was collected in Loudon to relieve the sufferers. There was a groat earthquake and tidal at Callao, the port of Lima, on May 9th and 10th, 1877. It travelled southward, destroying much shipping aad several towns. There wbb not, however, a great deal of mortality. On April 14th in the following year Venezuela was again visited, the town of Cua being nearly destroyed and ibreo hundred people killed. The Argentine was visited on October 27th, 1894, when San Juan experienced a destructive earthquake, with great loss of life.