The Red Cloud chief., 1918-01-31
Mrs. Herbert Cook Tells
Of Guatemala Disaster
lCnniinn,. [ ON pa.e y

ing this night Of horrors did either
Herbert or 1 lose u nerve. How WI
kept cool and calm with continuous
earthquakes for eight hours only
hesven knows, but we did. /
| After several hours of sitting around
on the ground, the night growing
| colder with each successive hour, we
| decided the best thing we could do
was to try and get a little sleep so
lay down with Herbert on n side Of
me and a very nice Guatimalteco of
1.-THE pcon persuasion on the other and
| slept for at least two hours. The
| only other person who retained her
| euuinamity was Lorenza, wonderful
Lorenza. She wandered about all
night. When the quakes were at
their worst she returned to the house
and brought out q hat for Herbert
and-save the mark-a boudoir cap
for me, fearful we'd catch cold in the
| night air unless our heads were COW
eredi. With Herbert's big Nash light
in her hand and Iona 70 accompany
her she wandered seeking adventure.
She helped dig out . wonan caught
BY the falling walls Of the. Conception
church, then went to offer her services
| when the house Of o poor Turk (bad
cess TO him) burned down near the
Parochia vie;a. Was on the spot when
the police commenced TO s1oos Roters
and, in fact, seemed to be oruxfpresent,
popping up every once in Q while to
fnd out II mo sc les. .ofrece NADIA"
Blessed daylight. came ct last and
commenced . new day, December, 26th
"Wednesday. As soon as itf was sui.
ifcientiy' li1ht- we went back to the
house and found devastation well-nigh
complete so far as the house itself
was concerned. The only room which
completely escaped dSmaRS was the
bath Room. The rest were in. v pitt.
able condition. Between o10p bedroom
and the sewing room the wall MD
come down It's entire height for about
three feet wide-oyerp the d9or--the
Sala Grande, great mounds of plaster
covered overriding the same as the
tlSalits, and Kitchen and dining room
MY beantifMs Terms lay a. sorry mess
ali over the patio. The furniture by
. sohGe' miracle escaped all except my
. lovely lamp, the envy Of, every one
itwhoo dsawstit.. So. many, strange evi
1dences OF, the freakish actlpnsl of. tn
Earthquake there Were Ohef foot from
!, tbs, edge s9f the break in TIC wall O
HLapr bedroom hung, my picture no
nJevenSaskeW. The plates hahging -ol
1.-THE walls 81 the dining room and thos.
oIStandinK' In the china closets hadn'
y moved fA916&rter. of1an inch tho tn
walls ispSfe sefacked sliteraHy through
I1n In the !hhlf@fuhled Kitchen Lorenz,
made coffee betweeu shakes which vi
drank with Joy, ,goodthot coffee afteI
that freezing cold. night believe i
was the coldest night evef known ii
Well, we dressed and statted.out TO
the Clarks- to see what. had happened
to them and Incidentally TO- the city
1T vas awful! House after nous
down and those standing cracked from
roof to base ready, to fall. All tn,
portales down. The, Twelve Apostle
around the "atrio".6 the Cathedra
decapitated. The Van der Put: two
story place leaning over the sidewall
at least six or eight inches. Churcl
after church down completely. Indies
cribable destruction on every. side an,
over all q glorious sun beating dow
tmerciless clarity. After many en-
counters with others worse off or bet
ter than we we managed to reach tn
d. Clarks only to find" their place ais,
uninhabitable tho not so bad as ours
They had the Reaches attached t,
them and Morley, the archaeologist
who vas q guest Of the Reaches. Ais,
they had with them MI. and Mrs
Sara. Poor Ned's wedding trip proved
q tragic one. Caught in the Imperie
motel whose third story came dow
she was frantic. However they 20
out without harm. and found thei
way to the Clarks. . Mrs. Clark tol,
me they were going down to the sta
ition to live IN the car, that the Roach
es and Morley were geing with Their
and IF there was room they woul
let Us know and we could 20 also.
Needless to say, ] had no intention q
accepting IN Invitation given in ths
way way, nor did Herbert when l n
ipeated Il, TO him.
| We stayed at the Clarks' q sho,
time and left to return I'd the Roller
at the Sn. Sebastian plaza. Durin
the night, Of. rather towards dawn IL
e,J kQllNFs, also at the Sn. Sebastia
ITtfsAaS. 6SSaAhsAs.. They were. with n
tArenaiesS bpt IteGftSs 1ogadAastQ
tStleft them. Dhft. clalE' 70 Gsssss Sgk3IsM
fsfiehrned lathe plaza people We
there by tho hundreds already col
structing shelter OF every descriptit
] Our "find" was a coach under VIII,
we stretched two mattresses, one u
der the body of the coach for the m,
and the other under the front pa
for Mrs. Roller and me. The CROW
was so thick and our. neighbors
close | could stretch out my hand o.
touch the head of a young man.
Mexican, who with some ladies, al
Mexicans, was camping next US. v
were about sixty feet from the sout
west tower of the church and duril
the sever shakes of the night /,
could see the towers rock in the brig
tmOonlight--rock SO that it seemedth
they must 60 down, ones nery
drawn ,taut waiting for the crash
tons of brick and mortar only to s
them settle back into place ags
waiting for another shake! iT,
I slept that night like q log, OF
Weakening for the severest shakes 4
light ones were almost continuous. I