Packard: Towns evacuated in volcano path
By Eleanor Packard, United Press staff writer
On the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, Italy –
Allied Military Government officials today started evacuating a number of towns on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, including San Sebastiano on the western slope, as an eruption which began Saturday, continued and the lava flow increased.
There was so much smoke and steam where I was standing that I could not see the crater.
Four streams of lava poured from the volcano when the eruption began. The main stream, estimated to be a quarter of a mile wide and seven feet deep, sizzled toward Torre del Greco and Torre Annunziata, both near Pompeii.
Forest and crops have already suffered considerable damage, but no serious damage to dwellings has been reported.
Italian experts regarded the eruption as the most serious since 1906 when the upper part of the crater’s ash cone collapsed and lava streams poured almost into Torre Annunziata and partly destroyed Boscotrecase.
Vesuvius is south of Naples in the area occupied for some time by Allied troops.