Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1902 — CITY OF 40,000 WIPED OUT. [ARTICLE]

CITY OF 40,000 WIPED OUT.

Destructiveness of Guatemala Earthquake Is Appalling. Were it not for the overshadowing tragedies in the West Indies, the great earthquake disaster in Guatemala, the Central American republic, would have occupied a larger share of public attention. The seismic disturbances there were horrible in their destructiveness and fatality. Practically the city of Quezaltenango, a community of 40,000 souls, was destroyed. Buildings were toppled over and thousands of persons were buried in the ruins. The shocks, which numbered three, began at 8:15 on the evening of April 18 and in ninety seconds Quezaltenango was a ruin. In that city and in the nearby towns of San Pedro, San Marco, San Juan, Amatitlan and Solola, all of which were ruined, 2,000 lives were instantly crushed out and 4,000 persons were injured. Not many houses escaped destruction and the few that remained standing were badly cracked. The streets of Quezaltenango, after the shocks had spent their force, were strewn with dead and Injured. Bodies, ghastly in the terror depicted on the faces and bloody and mutilated, strewed the thoroughfares. Everywhere arose the cries and groans of injured. The shocks were preceded and accompanied by terrific thunder peals and by lightning flashes which seemed to set earth and air afire. Rain fell in torrents as though a cloudlmrA was emptying itself over the city and to add to the horror of the whole fires broke out and raged furiously. The present city of Quezaltenango, or rather the ruins, will be abandoned and another town bearing the name will lie erected a few miles north of the old site.