Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1918-04-25
QUAKE DESTROYS
CALIFORNIA TOWN
Hemet Practically Ruined-Score
of Other Cities and Towns
are Damaged
LOSS OF LIFE IS SMALL
Sunday Pleasure Seekers Mt Various Re.
sorts are Thrown Into Panic
Los Angeles Feels Tremor

SHOcK lett tnTOuBnOut
California at $3.50 this afternoon practical
~ destroyed the little hamlet, Is miles
south of Riverside, and did damage in a
score Of other towns and cities. Only one
death was reported early tonight, but
many persons were injured by shattered
plate glass or objects shaken from build
ings.
At San BernardinO the quake was said
by old residents to be the worst In years.
Scores Of plate glass windows were brok-
en-, a hundred feet Of brick wall from one
low building fell int the street and several
other walls we're cracked.
There was a panic at the ball grounds
where game was In progress and one
man was hurt In the rush to escape. An
other, running out of a theatre into the
street, was struck by a passing automobile
and seriously injured.
Riverside suffered a shock of similar in
tensity. Ornaments were shaken from the
court house cornice and windows smashed.
At Banning. the front of the Odd Eel
lows building fell out, striking two auto
mobiles which had just been vacated by
their passengers.
The tremor was first reported from
Barstow at $3.50 p. m. and appa rently
moved east and south from that point. 1t
became most severe in the Hemet and
San Jacinto section and farther north
about San Bernardino.
Coming on toward the coast, the tremor
did slight damage at Whittier and other
intervening points and then struck Los
Angeles at 1892 p. m, there being two
shocks.
In this city. the earthquake broke a
number of large plate glass windows In
office buildings. There was almost a
panic in the numerous theatres and pic
ture houses.
The city hall stands two inches from an
adjacent building. The tremor swayed
them together and crushed off brick and
stone dust.
At the city Jail, there was a panic
among the prisoners when glass crashed
from the upper windows. Bricks fell
from the cornice into the street. During
a meeting of the Half Century club, held
in the old normal center in the center of
the city, the chandeliers fell and a panic
was averted by the band playing my
Country. IT'S Of Thee"
At Santa Monica. a seaside town near
here, crowd was on the municipal pier,
which swayed perilously and in the rush
to escape, Frank E. DARRELL, a retired
manufacturer Of Los Angeles, was thrown
down and trampled to death.
The bath house at Santa Monica can
yon also was the scene of a panic when
the building swayed and creaked.
Feminine patrons. some of them I'M
clothed. scrambled from the dressing
rooms and rushed back to shelter.
Several hundred pleasure seekers on
the Redondo pier made a rush for land
when the pier began to sway and several
were slightly hurt In the resulting crash.
At Long Beach several large Office build
ings were severely shaken. numerous
windows broken and other minor damage
done. There were several small panics
in public meeting places. but it was re-
ported that no one had been seriously
hurt.
Helmet. Cal, April 2.-The earthquake
here to-day came with such warning as
was afforded by brief light shock last
Ing perhaps ten seconds and was the
most severe ever experienced here. For
30 seconds the buildings rocked and swayed
and the grounds heaved so that persons
standing In the streets and fleeing from
their homes were even thrown from their
feet.
AS the ground tremors increased the
walls of brick buildings In the business
| section toppled over. Roofs creaked and
groaned and then fell. often giving way
| before the sids walls had started to 90.
The hills surrounding the towns were
| obscured by a dense haze which many
people first believed presaged an eruption
from some old volcanic crater. but which
were caused by thick clouds of dust. One
man who was watching the hills at the
time Of the greatest disturbance, said
that Strawberry Peak, a large mountain
appeared to rise bodily then drop back into
place. No word has been received from
the numerous families settled on its slope
but 1t was assumed here that they es.
capped peronal harm as did most people in
the two towns.
There was no disorder at either town
the homo guards here having turned out
promptly and taken barge Of the policing
while hastily organized force Of citizens
performed the same service at San ia.
cinto. Owing to the fact that the bust.
ness districts, where the heaviest dam.
age occurred were practically deserted or
Sunday afternoon. the casualties were