ITALIAN DISASTER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3105, 30 January 1909, Page 5

ITALIAN DISASTER.

" WE WANT SHELTER." HOMELESS WANDERERS. CHARGED BY TROOPS. SEVERAL KILLED. Received January 23, 8.50 a.m. ROME, January 28. Crowds of homeless wanderers from the recent earthquakes parade the streets of Delianuova, in the province of Raffgio, Cahbria, shouting: "We want shtlter!" They were charged by the troops, several being killed or injured.

THRILLING NARRATIVES. STORY OF THE EARTHQUAKE. BUILDINGS CRASH DOWN IN RUINS. FIRES AND IMMENSE WAVES. Received January 29, 0.20 a.m. FREMANTLE, January 29. Particulars are to hand by mail of the terrible earthquake disaster in Sicily and Calabria. Most of the people in the various towns were asleep at the time of the shock, which came without warn ing a little in the morning. It lasted over 30 seconds, ar.d literally swung buildings out of the perpendicular and let them crash in a heap of ruin's. Then came fires, and explosions of gasometers. • Finally, a huge seismic wave of liquid mud, which swept over the quays, engulfed the low-lying portions of the towns, drowning the miserable beings pinned beneath the ruined buildings. This is why no satisfactory estimate of the probable deaths has yet been made. A TYPICAL STORY. Here is a typical story told by a woman who reached Palermo from Messina:—"lt was a hellish scene. We were still sleeping when we were suddenly awakened by a strange noise. The windows were all rattling ; and the doors burst open with a bang. Some of us were thrown out of bfd by the violence of the shock. A deluge of rain was falling, and it was very dark. '"Terremoto! terremoto!' N we shrieked, all

SHIVERING WITH TERROR. Scarcely half-clothed, I fled with my brother and sister, but lost them in the street. Other people were running to and fro, crying desperately, shouting for help, and invoking the Madonna and the Saints. "All around us were crumbling walls, crashing windows, and splintering woodwork. The water came up to our knees, and near the sea front all the steamers were flooded. The muddy water roared terribly, and battered everything with incredible violence."

A young doctor of Messina, named Aliotto Rossi, tells the folbwirg story : "I rose early on Monday morning, intending to leave Messina by an early train. It wds still dark, and I was waiting ready to start, when the profound silence which precedes the dawn was broken by an extraordinary noise. I can best describe it as like the BURSTING OF A THOUSAND BOMBS. This was followed by rushing torrential rain; then there was a sinister whistling, 33 if thousands of redhot iron rods were hissing in icy water.

" I did not realise what was happening, until suddenly the violent and rhythmic movements of the surrounding walls made me realise the awful fact that an earthquake was in progress. Around me splintered glass fell thickly. The roof burst, gi"ing off thick clouds of choking dust, which added to the horror of the sittfation, while the ground was shaken by an extraordinary double movement, as if rising and falling, which had the pecular effect of making me imagine that I had been seized suddenly ill. "For a moment I wa3 in a dared condition, till the

THUNDER OF FALLING STONES from crumbling walls made me realise that if I was to escape with life there was not a moment to be lost. I rushed into the room where my mother and sister slept, and succeeded with the help of a strong cord in rescuing not only them, but thirtysix other people in the dwelling who had given themselves up for lost. Then, with th help of passing soldiers, I dragged oat several women and children from under tottering walls of half - destroyed places, , which soon after came down with a crash.

"There were scenes of indescrib- ! able horror. It was difficult to see in the dust-laden half-darkness, but at every turn one could not help noticing THE GHASTLY SPECTACLE of human limbs sticking out from a mass of ruins. Frenzied relatives, with bare, bleeding hands, sought to dig out their dear ones from under fallen masonry, though often walls which had not altogether collapsed came down suddenly, and buried them with their dead relatives in a common grave, "All the while shriens and impre-

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cations were heard from miserable raving fugitives, who rushed halfnaked and bleeding through the streets, appealing like spectres in the lurid atmosphere, which began to be lit up by fires which bmke out among the ruins. "The waterpipes having been broken, our sufferings were intensified by the lack of drinking water. We were driven to assauge our burning thirst by rinsing our mouths with sea-water, wherewith we washed even our wounds. All this time there was a most furious rainstorm, which came down like a water-spout, deluging the ruins, and even threatening the unfortunate fugitives with drowning in the mire left by the receding sea. Finally we succeeded in reaching the English steamer Ebro." Most of the fugitives who have given accounts of the catastrophe were too much under the influence of terror, or too full of their agonised search for relatives who were lost, to give any detailed narratives.

TERRIBLE SCENES OF ■ SAVAGERY. FIGHTING FOR VEGETABLES. SURVIVORS MAD WITH TERKOK. splendid work of russian Sailors. Received January 29, 4.40 p.m. FREMANTLE, January 29. Terrible scenes of savagery were witnessed. A crowd of persons of all descriptions and every age, some naked and others half-clothed and nearly all injured, rushed to the Customs, where the officers were quite incapable of offering resistance to the frenzied mob, and suddenly REPORTS OF REVOLVERS rang out, and soon the people were fighting among themselves for a handful of vegetables or a small piece cf bread. From the deck of a steamer the sight of the fighting was terrifying. Another aspect of the disaster id described by a chemist, named Pulco, who was in a ferry boat. He was crossing in the early morning from Messina to Reggio, when suddenly a gale arose, bringing with it a huge sea. The boat seemed to be made of paper as it was clashed into the shore and swept back again by the receding wave.- Most of the people on board wer« drowned, but the boat, by a curious floated and escaped serious injury. ?'«%o and a few other survivors after rhe first panic made their way on shore' to' Messina, and found it like a city of tine dead.--There was nobody about, and the 1 profound 1 silence was only broken by'the MOANS, GROANS AND SHttHiKS of the injured. Pulco and his coir,-' panions tried to rescue some of them, but the task whs beyond their powers owing to the condition of wrecked houses. The captain of the Russian trailer, Admiral Makaroff told similar experiences. After the shock he said thers were no fewer than four great waves in succession, the sea rising froTi 12 to 24 feet, even 30ft. He I saw a few survivors wandering about the shore half naked, starved and MAD WITH TERROR. Under a bed miraculously lodged on a piece of wreckage two babies were found, gravely playing with buttons. Many children were found clinging despairingly to the dead bodies of their mothers. Russian sailors saved numbers of children, many of whom were mere babies and 2arried them on board. Several were stricken with madness, and tottered on deck, shielding their heads with their arms as though still in the midst of the falling masonry. In all the Russian sailors saved more than a "thousand people in Messina. Wrecked by earthquake and half obliterated by sea, Reggio was forsaken for three whole days, and it was only after the arrival of King Victor that systematic rescue work was attempted. Every town within 25 miles had been wrecked, and the Bank of Naples and the Bank of Italy were about the only buildings left . standing at Reggo. The water supply : completely disappeared and no bread was available.

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