New Britain herald., 1914-05-09
SEVER AL SICILIAN VILLAGES DESTROYED BY EARTHQUAKE Many Lives Lost, Hundreds Injured and Enormous Damage Caused by Last
 Nights Catastrophe.
Scenes of DesOlatiOn Are Heartrending-Rescue and
 Relief Parties Formed.

eruption, followed by fire, destroyed many villages and, according to of ficial reports, caused the death of 1855 people in the vicinity of this town last night, besides injuring 283 others. It was regarded as probable that the figures of dead and injured would prove to be much greater, as it is thought many were buried in the ruins. The final and most disastrous earthquake had been preceded by sixty others during the past two days, and many of the population had aban- doned their houses and fled into the open country.
 Several Sicilian Villages. ... :.
 Railroad tracks were torn up, churches razed, houses shaken to ruins and telegraph poles overturned within a radius of several miles of Catania at the foot of Mt. Etna, the center of disturbance.
 Terror stricken people rushed from the villages into Catania bringing stories of ruin and disaster and re- lating that the damage was as great as during the earthquake in 1908.
 Relief Measures Taken.
 Immediate measures of relief were taken by the authorities. Military, naval and civilian officials received or ders from the government in Rome to render aid in the work of rescue and in giving surgical assistance, and their efforts were aided by those of the Red Cross
 The difficulty of communicating, ow- ing to the interruption of railroads and telegraphs made it impossible to obtain an accurate estimate of the damage and loss of life.
 In the village of Cosentini twenty bodies were discovered and at Santa Maria. another six.
 Several Hamlets Devastated.
 Several hamlets in the neighbor- hood of Aoireale also were devastated and number of people were killed and injured.
 In many cases people found their way to the villages obstructed by. broken bridges and ruined roads, ,while heaps of debris lay everywhere in the village streets.
 Heaps of Ruins.
 The villages of Linera and Con- sentini were transformed into heaps of ruins.
 At Zafferana every house was de- stroyed.
 Enormous damage was caused at Santa Venerina.
 Roofs fell in and walls collapsed in the hamlets of Santa Maria Ann malati, Carico, Guardia, Mangano and Santa Teola and Bongiardo. The village of Sapta Maria vergine Catena was razed to the ground
 Many Lives Lost.
 Fifty persons are known to have been killed in the destruction of the village of Linera while among the ruins of Passopomo, Bongiardo and Malati twenty bodies have been found up to the present.
 Catania, the scene of last nights earthquake, has suffered probably more than any other city in the world from volcanic eruptions and earth quakes, owing to its proximity to the volcano of Etna. The town itself is built on 8 bed of lava and most of it's streets are paved with the same ma teria1. The town, which has a popu- lation of 140,00O, lies to the south of Messina, on the east coast of Sicily. Ever since it's foundation in B. c. 729 it has been visited frequently by earthquakes. Tn 121 A. D. it was partly destroyed by an eruption of Mt. Etna, and in 1169 it again suffered severely by an earthquake. Once more in 1869, during an eruption of Mount Etna, great stream of lava flowed toward Catania, but by some means it's course was diverted and the town was saved. Twenty-four years later the whole of the island of Sicily nE l1~i,, H. Catania was destroyed.
 Rescue Parties Formed.
 Prefect Minervini, of Catania, and all the officials under his superin- tendence were called together early today and given orders to do all in their power to aid the afflicted in- habitants. They have since been working indefatigably together with all the soldiers in the district, in the endeavor to rescue those still alive be- heath the ruins and in extricating the dead from the debris.
 All the available nurses have been mobilized and are assisting in gath ering the homeless and the children who have lost their parents, for whom temporary shelter is being provided.
 Scene Is Heartrending.
 Along the roads from the village to another the scene of desolation is heartrending. Groups of people pass along carrying on improvised filters their injured and dying relatives to the temporary surgical stations. In the neighborhood of Santa Venerina the number of the injured is very large.