Year: 1872

The Syracuse Gazette gives the follow
ing description of the terrible hurricane
which swept over Sicily and destroyed
the fourishing town of Palazzolo, in the
southern district of the island, and about
thirteen miles to the northwest of the city
of Noto:


a dreadful calamity has befallen the
lively and smiling town of Palazzolo.
Where only few hours since there were
the two populous wards of Guardia and
tlumergrande, where the new theatre
and several elegan mansions formed the
ornaments of the place, there is now only
heap of ruins and rubbish, miserable
sight to the beholder. Five minutes of all
indescribable hurricane have been suffi-
cient to change the whole look of things.
and to plunge hundreds OF families into
utter misery. There has been no instance
Of such calamity within the memory of
living man. No earthquake ever caused
so much destruction. There are houses
ruined, houses fallen TO the very ground,
walls cleft from end to end, walls hang
ing outward. as if 10 rest on the adjoining
houses. There are roofs wholly swept
away, sunken vaults, balconies torn from
their places, windows and shutters either
entirely carried off or hanging loose from
the walls, lamp-posts forced from their
sockets, uprooted trees-and this il all
one sees along the northeast side of the
town. Not single house remains In
which the whole roof and windows do not
require thorough repair


All on one line, on the side we men
toned, there is the Church of ST. Sebas-
tian, the front part of which has been
torn asunder from the rest Of the building
and the whole will have to come down
there is nunnery. all the walls of which
are demolished; there was the theatre. OF
which only the front wall is standing;
there was the new House of Bibbia, with
the adjoining hotel. and the Excise Office
which was literally leveled with the
ground, burying more than ten persons
under its ruins; there were in short, ever
SO many two-storied buildings. of which
there is left here wall and there cor
ner, floor, or 4 shattered ceiling. The
streets are mass of fragments and rub
bish.


The incidents of the disaster are so
strange as to be almost incredible. There
was store with twenty-five hectolitres of
wheat of which not trace is anywhere to
be seen. The books of the Excise and of
the Land Registry offices have vanished,
and only their torn leaves have been found
here and there at great distances. In one
house all the copper utensils were blown
through the roof in another branches and
heavy chests flew through the windows.
The iron bars ef one balcony are to be
seen curled up one way, those of another
twisted up another way. There is the pill
lar Of a palace which has been moved for
ward one foot without breaking. and stands
up isolated all in one piece. There is the
wall OF another which has fallen back
more than three feet without crack
Here is the beam of one house which has
thurst itself into another house. There is
half bedstead, the other half OF which
lies no one knows where. All the tiles Of
one building are huddled together in one
spot on the roof, crushed and broken up
small, as if they had been pounded. The
rafters of another building are all bare;
the tiles have flown, no ono can see where.
1t is all muddle, an immense muddle.
In stable. on the bare ground, men are
laying the bodies one by one as they are
being dug out. Most of them are in their
night-dresses, having been crushed as they
were quietly sleeping. Their features and
forms are SO disfgured that one cannot
look at them without shuddering. Their
noStrils, ears, and mouths are stopped up
with earth. The white dust has every
where pierced through the skin. Here is
the body of man holding close to his
heart a child, probably his own child the
skulls of both are shattered. There are
two young men in each others arms, prob
ably brothers. The chests and backs of
both are crushed. Near them is another
youth. covered with blood. He was Il
clerk in Government office. He has his
eye-glass still stuck in his right eye. He
was probably reading or writing when he
was struck. There are some mauled past
recognition Others that seem unhurt. and
look as if they were sleeping. What II
scene that stable is, What aXious in
quiries. What awful meetings! What
heart-rending farewells! Whoever enters
| it is sure to come out horror-struck and
bewildered.


To condense the narrative, be it sufficient
to say, without eXaggeration, that one
third of the town is dismantled, and that
more than 900 familea are literally with
out home. About l 900 more have only
one corner of what was once their house
to shelter them. The damage to the town
is reckoned at more than 1000, 900 francs
The dead are thirty-two; the seriously
hurt about half score besides.


The Prefect of the province and other
authorities have fastened to the spot to
provide for the most urgent wants to the
best of their abilities. Soldiers and gen
darmes are hard at work searching the
ruins and protecting what private proper
ty remains there. A commission of relief
has been appointed, and an appeal is to be