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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



PALM I 



SKETCH MAP SHOWING AREA OE 

 MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION 



where it sank. It flowed over the city 

 quay, washing away small cargoes of 

 freight and many crates of lemons, and 

 even extended into the buildings along 

 the water front. A few people who hap- 

 pened to be along the quay at this early 

 hour were hurt, and it is possible that 

 some were carried away . by the water. 



At Reggio still greater damage was 

 done by the waves. Freight cars stand- 

 ing ready to be ferried across the straits 

 were overturned and the wharf wrecked 

 even more seriously than at Messina. 

 Leaving this immediate area, the wave 

 traveled southward to Taormina, Ca- 

 tania, and Syracuse, even reaching Malta, 

 where it arrived 115 minutes after the 

 earthquake. 



Fire also broke out in several places 

 about Messina, being caused principally 

 by the breaking of the gas pipes, but 

 there was little to burn, so that this ter- 

 rible agent of destruction, so evident in 

 the San Francisco earthquake, had a re- 

 markably poor field to gain headway. 

 The Palazzo Municipale, the Hotel Tri- 

 nacria and other buildings scattered 

 about the city caught fire and smouldered 



for a while, but were soon extinguished 

 by the rain, which drizzled for the first 

 few days after the destruction. 



THE AREA OE DEVASTATION 



The area of maximum destruction, as 

 indicated on the accompanying map, ex- 

 tends from Terresa to Faro, on the Sicil- 

 ian side, and from Lazzaro to Scilla, on 

 the Calabrian side of the straits. In all, 

 about 20 towns and villages were 

 wrecked to a greater or less extent. 

 Within this area, however, the damage 

 was not uniform, as many villages up the 

 valleys, and even some along the coast, 

 were only slightly affected. 



In the cities of Messina and Reggio 

 rows of houses are standing which at 

 first sight appear to have been saved, but 

 behind these faqades they are a total 

 wreck. Probably the best example of 

 this is the beautiful Palazzato, which 

 was the pride of Messina. On the other 

 hand, some buildings are only deprived 

 of their front walls, leaving exposed to 

 view the interiors of the rooms with 

 overturned chairs and wall pictures 

 slightly out of adjustment. Libraries, 

 manuscript, letters, all kinds of furniture, 

 including grand pianos and oil paintings, 

 lie scattered throughout a debris of rub- 

 ble and plaster, and buried beneath it all 

 lie the bodies of those who gloried in 

 these possessions. 



The shock, of course, was felt at Taor- 

 mina, Catania, Palermo, Syracuse, and 

 other towns within a hundred-mile ra- 

 dius, awakening and frightening the in- 

 habitants, but the buildings themselves 

 were not damaged. Nevertheless, the 

 effect of the earthquake on the beautiful 

 cities of Sicily, dependent as they are on 

 the tourist trade, has been great, for it 

 has deprived them of one of their means 

 of livelihood. The world of travelers 

 has been frightened away from this glo- 

 rious island at this critical moment when 

 it needs them most. The hotels are 

 empty and the guide or cabman cannot 

 earn his lira nor the flower girl her soldo. 



WORK OE REEIEE AND AID TO SURVIVORS 



The torpedo boats and the battleship 

 Piemonte of the Italian fleet were in the 



