ITALIAN DISASTER

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10432, 25 September 1911, Page 5

ITALIAN DISASTER

(CABLE NEWS

United Press Association — By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.

DOES ENORMOUS DAMAGE.

A TOWNSHIP ENGULFED

(Received Last Night, 5.5 o'clock.)

ROME, September 23

A cloud-burst did incalculable damage in the neighbourhood of Mount Vesuvius.

The- township of Resina was engulfed with mud, which reached the first floors of the houses.

A mountain side torrent, l>earing huge boulders, shattered many of the houses, which contained women and children, creating an appalling sight. No effort- at escape was -possible. Many bodies were swept towards the sea.

Twenty -bodies of the victims have already been recovered. • Several of the palaces of-Neapolitan' nobility at Torre-del-Greco collapsed, burying the occupants. The disaster is popularly attributed to the failure of the "Miracle of the Blood of St. Januarius."

The hurrican has lasted for twentyfour hours, and is continuing. Details of the damage done by the disaster are lacking, owing to the interruption of communication. Huge deposits of volcanic ashes on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius have been washed into raging torrents, despite the vast concrete constructions. Mud avalanches 'have begun, working devastation in their descent, submerging cultivated fields, up-rooting trees, and deluging low-lying villages. Much damage was done at Torre-del - Greco, when tihe torrent readied the second floors of houses and washed away the railway line. Other villages have been buried in a slough six feet thick. Widespead darkness prevails.

Scores of houses have collapsed. In many cases the terrified inhabitants were unable to escape before their cottages were engulfed or battered by the giant boulders carried from the mountain-sides, together with trees.

Numerous carcases* of animals, besides the twenty corpses, have been recovered. The latter belong to two families.

Huiulreds of. villagers are still cut off, and are in danger of perishing; Soldiers, firemen and rescue parties have been sent from Naples. Great difficulty is being experienced in reaching the centre of the disaster. Great damage has been done by floods at Naples, where the trains have been stopped.

A cloud-hurst also occurred at Volterra, in Leghorn. Many workmen in Rome where in danger of drowning by the sudden flooding of basements. The water was three feet deep in the streets.

(St. Januarius was a martyr of the Christian faith under Diocletian. He was a native of Benevento, or at least became Bishop of that See in the latter -part of the third century. According to the Neapolitan tradition,.he was taken prisoner at Nola; and the place of his martyrdom, in 305, was Pozznoli, where many Chritsians suffered the same faith. His body is preserved at Naples, in the crypt "f the cathedra], and in the chapel of the same church are also preserved the head of the martyr, and two phials supposed to contain his blood. On three festivals of each year —the chief of which is the day of the martyrdom, September 19 —as well as on occasions of public danger or calamity, as earthquakes or eruptions, the head and the phials of the blood are carried in solemn possession to the 'highaltar of the cathedral, or of the church of St. Clare where, after prayer of longer or shorter duration, the blood, on the phials being brought into contact with the head, is believed to liquify, and in this condition is presented for the veneration of the people, or for the conviction of the (doubter. It occasionally happens that a considerable time elapses before the liquifaction takes place, and sometimes it altogether fails. The latter is regarded as an omen of the worst import.)