The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1923-06-19
SICILIANS FLEE
MOUNT ETNA'S
FLAMING LAVA
Thousands Homeless as
Liquid Wall of BIiStering
Rock Sweeps Island,
BIZ United Press

BIZ United Press
CATANIA, June 19.-Between
fifty and one hundred thousand
persons are homeless as result
Of the terrific eruption of Mount
Etna Sunday and Monday.
Flow of motion lava from new
assures opened in the volcanoes
side continues and earth tremors
are adding their terrors to those
that drove the population Of
towns at Etna' s base into frantic
fight.
Flow Of molten lava from new 1s-
sures opened in the volcanoes side
continues and earth tremors are add
ing their terrors to those that drove
the population Of towns at Etna's
base into frantic fight
But little townships, nestled at the
foot of the mountain, have been wiped
out by the fiery streams of lava, thirty
and forty feet insheight, that poured
relentlessly down upon them.
A new lava stream advanced today
toward the town of Giarre, of 20 900
Inhabitants. which is doomed unless
some event impossible to foresee
intervenes.
Rumblings and leviathanic mutter.
ings beneath the earth over q large
area of eastern Sicily continued in
cessantly this morning.
Refugees were thrown further into
panic by these demonstrations Fifty
thousand at least are housed here. or
huddle helplessly in streets and fields,
while it is estimated close to an equal
number have fed elsewhere.
Human Life Impossible.
Over their shoulders as they fee,
the farmers see the advancing lava
walls, thousands of feet wide. thirty
to forty feet high, carrying along
great incandescent rocks weighing
tons. A hlistering heat precedes the
onrushing lava; human life is impos-
sible within a mile Wells for miles
around have dried up; vegetation is
withering.
Still farther up the mountain, like
shroud over the destruction wrought
by the fiery streams. a steady down
fall Of ashes, hot cinders, stones and
lava, fragments are spreading a gaz-
eous blanket already three inches
over the entire mountain as far as
Giardini.
AS the panicky exodus from threat
ened towns grows in volume, roads
are clogged and the farmers drive
their cattle, horses and beasts Of bur.
den, upon whose backs is everything
they could remove from before the
lava, across fields and down drying
river beds in their haste.
The Night of Terror
Inhabitants Of towns that have not
yet felt the heat Of the descending
masses, but whence the uninterrupted
incandescent display of giant fire
works from Etnas top Is plainly
visible, spent a night of terror.
At Piedimonte, the entire populace
camped out in the public square,
huddled together around a statute OF
st. Anthony, praying throughout the
night. Church bells tolled tncessantIy.
booming above the voices raised in
prayer. Every now and then thunder
from the mountain top shook the vii
lage. With the dawn inhabitants Of
LingUa Glossd, believed doomed, held
clgtous procession as close as lsos-
sIb't to the fiery fort y-foot wall ot lara
that threatens at any moment to en-
gL.i their homes
People Pray to Saint
Against the apparently Irresistible
advance they held UP statue of Saint
Iganus, their patron saint, credited
with having stopped a flow Of lava
that reached the gates of the city In
1873. The religious believe implicitly
the miracle will he repeated.
Pope Plus and King Victor En-
manuel have interested themselves in
the rescue work. The king will come
to Catania this evening, if news from
the devastated areas at Etna's base
become more alarming, while the Pope
has ordered all religious building on
the island thrown open to the refugees.