Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 149, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1915 — EARTHQUAKE SHAKES IMPERIAL VALLEY [ARTICLE]

EARTHQUAKE SHAKES IMPERIAL VALLEY

Five Killed and Much Damage Done By Quake in Southern California and Northern Mexico. An earthquake, which shook the Imperial valley in California from one end to the other Tuesday night, killed five persons and caused damage estimated at $1,000,000. Although all of the little cluster of towns in the valley were shaken, the great irrigation system, which transformed the valley from a desert to a great fertile farming country, was left almost undamaged. ElCentro suffered more than any other town. The five persons killed were caught between falling walls just across the border. The seismic disturbances, it is believed, originated somewhere in the old volcanoes of the Cocopah mountains, the backbone of Lower California. The roar of the earthquake below the border about 8 o’clock was the first warning the people of the valley had. There *were three shocks, the first being the more severe, striking the towns with darkness except for blazing buildings and causing confusion everywhere. The earthquake extended all day to Yuma, Anz. The duration of the first shock was about thirty seconds. This was followed a half hour later by a second shock almost as severe as the first. Plate glass windows, flimsy brick walls and hollow structures were more or less damaged. Martial law has been proclaimed in Calexio, Cal., and in Mexicali, Mexico, just across the border.