The Penn's Grove record., 1915-01-22
DEATH ROLL
IS SWELLED BY THOUSANDS
Exposure and Hunger Kill Many Of Wounded Survivors and
There Is Lack Of Surgical and Medical Aid
RESCUE WORKD THE STRICKEN TERRITORY GOES ON

dead. San Benedetto reports at least
5000 dead. Then come the hundred
other towns and villages, each with
a list of dead ranging from q few to a
thousand or more.
The effect of the shock on Sora
was terrific beyond imagination. 1t is
declared that some OF the buildings
were not only destroyed, but were lift
ed entirely clear Of their foundations
and overturned some distance from
their original positions. The great dis
turbance caused the Liri River to rise
into a huge food, and as the river cuts
a semi-circle about the town, which
lies in a plain, the indications are
that OF the thousands killed many
must have died from drowning.
There are long rows of the rescued
railroad tracks, and countless of these
bodies prove that death did not come
to them from being crushed under
%crumbling walls, but from starvation,
shock and exposure to cold through
the long hours OF the winter night
and dawn while they awaited some
effort to reach them from the outside
world.
There are two reasons advanced
why the havoc was so enormous in
Avezzano and the surrounding towns.
One OF these is that there had been a
heavy snowfall during the night, which
stilled all the ordinary morning sounds
in the valley, so that the inhabitants
slept late and were, the most Of them.
abed when the shock came. The other
reason is that, unlike the houses in
Messina, which are built solidly of big
blocks of stone, those of A%vezzano
and Sora and others of the Central
Apennine country are built OF much
lighter masonry and in the mighty up
heaval were ground to mere fragments
and to mounds of dust.
A few authorities who have been in
to the wrecked zone place the dead
at $4,000 and the injured at twice that
number.
From the ruins of the railway sta
ton was taken the body of a man on
whom were found $500 in United
States money and papers that showed
he had. arrived in Avezzano from Am
erica on an early train that morn
ing, where he was planning to pur-
chase a small bit of land and settle
down in his old age. He had evil
IDENTIFY just stepped outside the rail-
road station when the building col
lapsed and crushed him.
In digging in the ruins r%escuers
came upon a %protruding feminine
hand. 1t was blue with cold, butt a
physician who felt the pulse said the
woman was still alive. But she was
hopelessly held. Hours of work could
only bare her arm. To move another
stone probably meant to bring the
| debris into collapse. The doctor look
ed up suddenly and told the rescuer
to desist, for the woman was dead.
Four thousand persons are buried
in ruins of houses at Avezzano and
nearby towns. The work OF rescue is
hampered by the panic and demoraliz-
ed transportation facilities.
Unofficial estimates of the damage
run as high as $100, 900, 900. In some
places, particularly Rome, where seri-
GUS loss was caused to famous build
ings, the damage can never be repair
| ed. 1t is being further increased b,
tremors more or less severe that have
been felt ever since the main earth
quake shock. Nearly 200 of such trem
ors have been recorded in forty-eight
hours.
All the hospitals of Rome are filed
with injured men, women and chill
dren brought here from points which
the rescue trains succeeded in reach
ing. There are already 5000 of these
sufferers here and private homes and
public buildings have been thrown OPP
en- for their care.
Thirty thousand Italian soldiers are
conducting the rescue work in the
district. They dug for the dead and
living in the ruins Of Avezzano and
Sora, weber the loss of life was heav-
lest. Their work was facilitated as
far as possible by searchlights that had
been sent from Rome on one of the
trains carrying nurses, physicians and
medical supplies.
King Victor Emanuel went to Sora
from Avezzano and took charge of the
work in the former beautiful town Of
10000 inhabitants. The King wept
when he saw the desolation wrought
by the earthquake there.
Even the cemetery of this city was
affected, collins. being thrown to the
surface of the earth by the convul-
sions adding to the terror. The sur
Vivors are camped about the stricken
city in a state Of panic. Nearly all
OF the living have lost relatives. One
hundred dead were taken from one
house.
There was a heavy fall of snow in