Evening star., 1960-05-29
Shock Ocean Wave Carries Havoc
To For-Distont Pacific Areas
By RELMAN MORN
Associated Press stan Writer

Wv 81 ~ AeA"AAs NAAS NNgN SN@
q Cleveland seismograph stag
gered in sudden convulsionS
and began drawing vertical
lines, sharp peaks and valleys
on the Instruments recording
drum. The Jagged points
sketched the portrait of an
earthquake in the South Pa
cific, 5000 miles away.
Teleprinters raped out a
quick m saga violent
earthquake hit the southern
and central part of Chile to-
day communications were
cut of :"
1t was 5:13:38 am, Saturday.
May 81, when the first shock
came.
A fraction less than 10 min
utes later. seismographs in
many observatories recorded
more peaks and valleys. They
appeared again on Sunday,
May %.
Moments earlier, an off-duty
taxi driver eased into his seat
in a movie theater in Puerto
Montt, a port city in southern
Chile.
The Word Spreads
In Honolulu, an engineer
scooped up his blueprints and
hurried to the City of Hilo, on
the northeast coast of Hawaii.
He may have anticipated part
but only part-of what lay
ahead for him.
In Shirogane, a village of
Northern Japan, the fishermen
heard the news. "O-jishin,"
they murmured, great earth
quake"
They probably left unspoken
another and equally terrible
word-"tsunami"
1t means storm wave" or
"shock-sea wave" The Japa-
nese is a more precise express
sion than tidal wave" and
scientists now use it in pref
erence to the Western term.
In the next few hours, nearly |
5000 persons died in Southern
Chile. Buildings collapsed.
Whole cities were macerated.
Volcanoes vomited flaming lava
and sent billowing pillars of
flame and smoke into the sky.
Avalanches roared down the
mountainsideS.
Other thousands may have
been buried alive in the noun
tains, or trapped in caves that
collapsed.
Toll May Hit 5000
Chilean government sources
said the death toll may reach
5000.
1T began with a gentle rock
ing motion and gradually grew
in intensity. 1t was many times
greater than the one in Chile
that took 10000 lives" dn
1882
This was a geologist speak
ing, Pierre St. Amand of China
Lake, Calf. He was in Con-
cepcion when the mammoth
shocks hit the city.
II saw some nearby trees
swaying in a 20-degree arc and
some old brick buildings COL
lapse" he said. /
Luis de la Coz, a taxi driver,
was in the Rex Theater in
Puerto Montt, another hard-hit
city.
"All of a sudden, the screen
started moving around and
the walls started wobbling," he
said. Everybody jumped up
and started running for the
exits, but I just sat there.
Then the lights went out.
Everybody came back and took ,
their seats when the lights |
came on again. We all thought
1t was just a little earthquake. I
But about Is minutes later, the
whole place started shaking [
and everyone ran for the doors
me, too. this time"
Streets Tossed
Outside, he said, the streets I
were tossing and rolling. Build !
ingS on both sides of the street
were swaying. He ran down the
middle of the street.
A 30-room hotel collapsed. /
So did the State bank.
Between 80 and 40 people {
were killed in Puerto Montt. ;
More than 10 are missing. S
Some 800 are homeless.
At some point during these '
hours, the earthquake reused S
another monster, the Tsunami. i
No one will ever be able to
say when the great waves rose