cities of the dead

At the end of 1908, as Art Cashin reminds me, there occurred one of
the greatest and certainly one of the most disastrous earthquakes in
European history. It caused severe damage in much of the
Mediterranean area but nowhere quite as harshly as Messina in Sicily.
Actually, even before the earthquake began, it was not a good day for
Messina. Beginning the night before, a pelting heavy rain had arrived
along with near gale force wind. Now with the streets already
flooded, a predawn tremor stuck Messina. It lasted about ten seconds.
A few rocks fell, a few church bells rang spontaneously, a couple of
foundations cracked and several statues toppled. Then the second wave
hit. It was a whopping 7.5 (even pre-Richter). At its epicenter off
shore it raised a tidal wave over 60 feet high (but more on that
later). This shock toppled stone structures all over town,trapping
tens of thousands in the rubble and leaving the rest of the citizens,
still in their bedclothes, standing in freezing rain. There was no
shelter since the public buildings were among the most devastated.
The grand Cathedral collapsed. The town hall collapsed. And the wall
of the prison collapsed, thus granting an unexpected post-Christmas
furlough to 750 of Sicily's meanest. Just to prove they were not out
of practice they immediately set about looting the corpses; often
cutting off fingers to get at the rings. Occasionally they found some
people with rings who claimed not to be corpses but they were soon
convinced otherwise. As this merry band worked its way down the
hillside,quake survivors fled toward the harbor just in time for the
arrival of the aforementioned 60-foot tidal wave. It killed thousands
of the ambulatory as well as drowning nearly everyone trapped in the
rubble. Then came the third and largest quake, which managed to
rupture the gas lines and set the town on fire despite the freezing
rain. Order was restored the next day when three Russian warships, on
maneuvers in the area, pulled into port to help out. The Russian
sailors followed an old custom of civilization called "shooting the
looters" which has the uncanny effect of restoring order. When it was
over, it seemed that the quake,the tidal wave, and the looting had
killed over 90,000 people in a town of 130,000. So for three decades
the people of Sicily referred to Messina as "La Citta Morte". - Via
UBS