Hello All
In the last days of the doomed city of St Pierre. Plague by earth tremors, swarms of insects rats and snakes as a large section mount Pelee Volcano roared into life. The Governor made a public announcement to terrified public. "Pay no attention what is happening"
In all the stories of disaster there are always lessons to be learned. One such lesson is not to let politicians put ambition over public safely. In 1902 the volcanic eruption that destroyed the city of St Pierre in Martinique is classic case. Where 30000 lives could of been saved but for the ambition of a governor who wanted to be re-elected the next day.
Saint-Pierre was the most important city of Martinique culturally and economically, being known as "the Paris of the Caribbean". Its waterfront had a bustling mix of races from all parts of the world in a colonial French outpost.
To the French Elite in colonial administration it was a some what boring place to be living. To middle and lower classes it was an exotic location with waterfront bars with a mix of brothels lining the waterfront of the pretty capital of Martinique.
Towering over the the city was Mt Pelee. Signs of the impeding disaster started weeks before. When the animals began to act strangely and some workers in the countryside was scalded to death by superheated steam burst through vents in ground. The Mountain began to grow.
But still the administration was unconcerned even when a sugar mill was destroyed by a landslide of boiling mud killing mill workers. The mill owners who dominated the islands politics did not what to stop production of its mills, influenced the governor to reassure the people in the papers that the risk of eruption was minimal. After all the history of Mt Pelee was very tame in its previous known eruptions in past. And besides there was an election on where the very fabric of the elite society was being threatened by a brilliant young African lawyer pressing for land and labour reform.
As the days passed by with the newspapers full of the governors reassurances that every thing was all right. 1 foot long centipedes invaded the town and later Balls of living ants was rolling down the mountain and attacked the city.There was cases in poorer sections of the community of young babies being eaten alive by ants.
Over the next few days poisonous snakes and thousands of rats engulfed the town as the Volcano started smoking. Most of the snakes and rats were dispatched by the ferocious tomcats that haunted the back alleys of the waterfront. But not before at least 50 people was killed by snakes or eaten alive by rats.
But still the governor hesitated to evacuate as there was only two days from the election and nothing was going to get in his way. Not even the volcano itself. He still tried to calm an ever increasing frightened population by telling them the there are two valleys in the way of the town and safest place to be was in the town itself.
Now covered in ghostly white mantel of ash covering the town, with the sky a dirty yellow orange plum towering over the town itself. the people huddled in the churches sang hymns and as African residents who believed in voodoo made sacrifices of animals at the front door of the church. Law and order began breakdown. Nothing was normal anymore in this strange city.
And still the governor refused to evacuate the town as 20 ships lay at anchor. Day went into night. And in the early hours of the final day the ships at sea saw the side of the mountain glowing. Some ships had enough and put out to sea. Thousands tried to flee but were held back, even some administrators and police fled their posts.
Even so the governor now desperate to keep control of the town made one last impassioned speech at the front of the church where people have come to pray for their salvation as voodoo priests chanted and made offering through the streets.
The Governor made a public announcement to terrified public. "Pay no attention what is happening" It was the last comments he made. At ten to eight on the 8th of May 1902 as the church bells toiled the unthinkable happened.
There was a massive explosion on Mt Pelee and there was a massive Pyroclastic flow completely destroying St. Pierre, a town of 30,000 people, within minutes of the eruption.The eruption left only three survivors in the direct path of the volcano.
Louis-Auguste Cyparis a prisoner awaiting to be executed, survived because he was in a poorly ventilated, dungeon-like jail cell. A cobbler who hid in his cellar L?on Comp?re-L?andre, living on the edge of the city, escaped with severe burns.And Havivra Da Ifrile, a young girl, escaped with injuries during the eruption by taking a small boat to a cave down shore, and was later found adrift two miles (3 km) from the island, unconscious.
20 vessels was sunk by the blast as the Pyroclastic flow went 2km out to sea engufing ships. Burning to death hundreds of sailors and passengers to the bone with horrific injuries such as eyes burnt out and tongues and lungs brunt from the super heated gas of over 1000 degrees. The city of St Pierre was obliterated like if it had been hit by an atomic bomb.
A 1000 foot volcanic plug pushed through the shattered crater of Mt Pelee. This was the first time in history mankind witness the forming of the volcanic plug. The 1000 ft plug crumbled away and collapsed the following year in 1903.
The city of Saint-Pierre was never restored to its old glory, though some villages were built some decades later on its place.
Today, the town is the district capital of the Caribbean North district of Martinique. It has been designated as a "city of Art and History". There are many historic remains, and a Volcanological Museum
Today the prison cell where Louis-Auguste Cyparis survived can still be seen Poignant reminder of the power of nature that we all seem to take for granted.
Hardluck
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« Last Edit: January 04, 2011, 04:21:16 pm by hardluck »
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