The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-11-25
a Town Destroyed I'm Five Minutes
The Terrible Hurricane in Sicily.
Syracuse Sicily Gazette

a Town Destroyed I'm Five Minutes
The Terrible Hurricane ira Sicily.
Syracuse Sicily Gasctte.l
dreadful calamity has bciallcn the lively
and smiling town Of Paaz2olo. Wher,
| only few hours since there Were the twt
populollS wards of Glmrdia and Fiumc
grandc, where 4 new theatre and seyera
elegant mansions Termed the ornaments 0
the place, there Is now only heap Of ruin:
and rubbish, miserable sight to the be
holder. Five minutes of an indesCrihahlC
hurricane have been sufficient to change The
whole look Of things, and to plunge hun
drcds OF families into utter misery. There
has been no instance Of such calamity within
| the memory Of living man. No earthquake
ever caused 50 much destruction. There arr
houses ruined, houses fallen 10 the very
ground. walls cleft from end TO end, wall.
hanging OutWaru>. as il 70 rest on the aG
joining houses. There are roofs wholly
swept away, sunkcn vaults, balconies tori
from their places, windows and shutter:
either entirely carried off or banging loose
from the walls, lamp-postS forced from theil
sockets, uprootcd trceS-and this is oil one
sees along the northeast side of tie town.
NOT A SINGLE HOUSE REMAINS
in which the whole roof and windows dc
not require thorough repair. All on one
line on the side wc mentioned there is tho
Church of St. Sebastian the front part o.
which has been torn asunder from the resi-
OF the building, and the whole will have tC
come down. There is nunnery, all the
walls of which are demolished. There was
the theatre, of which only the front wall is
standing. There was the new House oil
Bibbia, With the adjoining hotel and the tx.
else office, which WIS literally lcvclIcd with
the ground. burying more than ten persons
under lis ruins. There were. i'll short, ever
50 many twc-storied buildings, of which
there is left here Il wall and there corner, q
| floor. or shattered ceiling. The streets are 9
mass of fragments and rubbish. The Incl.
| dents of the disaster are so strange rs TO be
| almost incredible. There was d store Will
twenty-five hectoiitrcS OF wheat, Of which
not a trace is anywhere to be seen
| Land Registry offices have vanished
| found here and there ct great distances
In one house al the copper r;itchen-utcnSii>
were blown through the roof; III another
| benches and heavy chests few through tn,
| windows. The iron bars of one balcony arr
to be seen curled up one way. those Of IN
other twisted up another way. There is thl
pillar of a palace which has been moved tol
ward one foot without breaking. and stand
up isolated all in one place. There is tn
wall of another palace which has fallen hacl
more than three feet without Il crack. Herr
| is the beam Of one house which has thrus
itself into another house. 'lhcie is half
hedstcad, the other half Of which lies no on
| hn t,l.> ,,t h,,iI ~,
are buddicd together in one spot on the roo
crushed and broken w small, lis If they hat
| been pounded. The raftci8 Of another build
Ing are all bare the tiles have Gown, no on
can see where. 1t is ali Il muddl"--
AN IMMENSE MIDDLE.
| In Il stable. on tie bare ground, men az
| having the bodies one by one As they ar
l.eing dug out. Most Of thcn are in tlei
nicht-drcssc>. ba, inS been crushed as the
were quietly sleeping. Their features an,
| forms are so distgurcd that one cannot Iool
at them without si!uudcring. Their nostri!>
ears, and moilthS arc stopped up With earth
The white dust has everywhere pierce
through the skin. Here is the body OF Il ma
holding close to bis hcurt Il chld--probab
his own child; the skulls of both are shat
tered. There are two young men in etc
others nrms--proJahly brothers; The chest
and backs Of both are crushed. Near then
is another youth. covered with blood b
was 4 clerk in 4 Government Office. He ba
his eyc-glass still stuck III his right eye; h
was probably reading or writing when Ii
was struck. There are seine malllcd ras
recognition; others seem unhuIt, aud loo
as if they were sleeping.
WHAT sCE&E THAT srABLEIs
What anxious inquiries! What awful meet
inys. Whnt heart rcnding t'rcwcllS! Who
ever enters it is sure TO come out horrorstrllc
: and bcwildered. TO condCn:c the narrs
: Tive, be it sufficient to SAY, without cXa"g,
ration. that ouethird Of the town is d:nIll.
tied and that more than Il thousand imnie
are literally without Il home. About II thou
sand more have only one little corner Of VIII;
was once their house to shelter them. I'll
damage in the town is rcckoned at NOR
than a million francs. The dead are 81 ; tn
seriously hurt about half Il score besides
The Project of the province aud other autht
rites have hastened to the spot to provid
for the most urgent wants to the best I
their abilities. Soldiers and gendarmes al
hard at work searching the ruins ard Pre-
tecting what private property remains there
\ commission of relief has been appointed
and an appeal is to be made to all the prt
vlnces und townships OF Sicily.
|.