The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1922-11-16
Quake and Tidal Wave
Take Heavy Toll In
Northern Chile.
TOWNS ARE INUNDATED
Three Towns Literally Buried
Beneath Flood of Water
LoOsed by Tidal Wave.
By LAWRENCE S. HAAS.

Omitted Press Staff Correspondent
Copyright, 1922, by the United Press)
Santiago = Fourteen hundred per-
sons lost their lives in devastating
earthquake and tidal wave which rent
the coast of northern Chile early Sat-
urday, according to the most accurate
available estimates today.
Starvation, pestilence and exposure
are claiming additional victims in the
wake of the disaster and relief cara
vans are pushing to aid homeless in
Habitants of the stricken territories.
Communication with the shattered
towns along the coast from Valparaiso
to Antufagasta, the district which bore
the brunt of the shock and the up
heaval of the Pacific, while still dis
rupted by the storm couriers brought
word to the capital of whole villages
levelled by the quake, with survivors,
wounded, lying by hundreds in the
streets.
Three Coastal Towns Suffer.
Vellenar, Copiapo and Coquimbo,
three little coastal towns, suffered
most from the great shock at 1920
a. M, Saturday. They were inundat-
ed by rush of the Pacific which fol-
lowed the first earth tremors. But lit
tie villages farther back in the hill
appear also to have suffered terrible
loss of life and destruction of prop
erty which it may never be possible
to estimate. There were reports that
whole communities were wiped out.
The largest quake, felt over the en-
tire South American continent and
registered on siesmographs all over
the world, lasted for over three hours,
although it was perceptible to human
senses only two minutes. That was
sufficient to drive those whose houses
withstood the shock in terror to the
streets where many, in coastal villag-
es, We're drowned by the terrific tidal
wave which lifted it's millions of tons
of water thousand feet over the I'M
protected houses along the shore.
Thousands Flee. From Homes.
Thousands slept in the open last
night, afraid to return to lettering
houses or even to those that had with
stood the shock, for fear sof repeti-
tion of the quake. Slight tremors were
felt Sunday afternoon, spreading panic
among the natives for three hundred
miles along the coast. Couriers came
to Santiago from Vallenar and Copi-
apo, to arrange for caravans to take
food and medicines to the stricken
towns. The former place, they declar-
ed, was practically oblitreated. All
the buildings, except the schoolhouse,
lay in ruined heaps of mortar, brick
and adobe.
Engineer Brings Report.
Ramon Alcayago, prominent Chile
an engineer, was one of the first to
bring a reliable eye witness story of
the desolation and disaster that 4was
spread through the NORTH He de-
clared contagious diseases are spread
ing like wild fire and that many are
threatened with death from exposure
and hunger.
Arriving at La Serena, Alcayago told
a dramatic story of the destruction of
the Jail at Vallenar, which, as usual,
was crowded with prisoners sentenced
for minor offenses.
The shock hurled down the adobe
walls of the little prison, injuring
many of the frightened inmates. Those
able to do so rushed from the jail but
made no attempt to flee farther, re.
naming shaking in terror in an open
space near the ruins of their late
prison. Troops today were standing
guard over the prisoners with no place
in which to lock them up.
Corpses Thrown From Graves.
At La Serena, which was spared the
worst of the shock but where some
were killed, the worst earth rent oc-
Cured on the site of the local ceme-
terry. Hundreds of corpses were
thrown from their graves, spreading
the danger of infection.
A dispatch from La Serena said that
between six and seven hundred are
dead as result of the quake in that
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