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Flooás, ároughts,
tornaáoes-aná
now,
one
of
the worst earthquakes
on
record.
What
áoes
it all
mean?
T
HIS YEAR
is
only half ovcr - yct
it will go clown in history as a
ycar of clisastcr.
Already, natural calamitics - earth–
quakcs, floocls, tornacloes, and heat
waves - have snuffed out more lives
in
1970
than the fighting in Indochina
ancl the Miclclle East.
Cities Disappear
The awesome earthquake which
rocked northern Peru on May
31
stancls
out as the most devastating single event
so far.
The full horror of the clísaster is still
being pieced together as the tragic tales
of destruction ancl carnage filter clown
from the nearly isolatecl Peruvian moun–
tain towns.
This much is known. The total death
toll will Jikely reach 50,000, making
the catastrophe
the
deaclliest earthquake
in Latín American history. Another
800,000 have been left homeless -
in
a
population of only
13
million.
The fate of the mountain city of
Yungay- once Peru's tourist capital–
gives evidence of the full fury of the
quake.
Yungay was ljterally erased from the
map. Along with the bodies of 28,000
hapless victirns, Yungay's remains lie
buried beneath a thlck sheet of mucl.
The quake jarred loose a section
of glacier and mountainside which
clropped into a nearby lake. A wave of
water, mud and rock slammed into
Yungay so fast its residents had vir–
tually no time to escape.
Today, all that remains of the city are
five palm trees and a religious statue
protruding above the hardening mud
pan. An aerial photograph of the city's
AP Photo
former site, released by the Peruvian
Government, is labelled simply "Aqw
estuvo Yungay" - Yungay was here.
Other nearby towns in the Huaylas
Valley suffered similar fates, though
with smaller death tolls. The heacl of an
American relief team, viewing the clisas–
tcr which swept the mountain valiey,
saicl, "The destruction is utterly beyoncl
belief."
U. S.
Army Colonel
Joe
Beitler
told reportees, " l've seen a lot of war in
my time, but this destruction is far
greater than anything I've ever seen."
Accorcling to BeitJer, the
ruin
result–
ing from the quake ancl mudslicles was
"comparable only to the damage done
to Hiroshima by the atom bomb."
Quakes Around
the World
The earth has been far from quiet.
There have been quakes in many other
areas.
Over 4,000 after-tremors have rattled
Western Turkey since the clisaster which
struck the town of Gediz and surround–
íng villages in March.
A
total of
1,087
persons were killed ancl about 3,000