Lava flow veers to menace 3 Vesuvius coastal towns
By Eleanor Packard, United Press staff writer
On the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, Italy –
Three Italian coastal towns harboring 86,000 people were menaced today by a shift in the lava flow from erupting Mount Vesuvius, and experts warned that the volcanic cone might burst at any moment and bury the countryside under tons of molten rock.
Five days after the start of its worst outbreak in modern times, the great volcano has stopped acting according to form and has gone completely erratic.
The main lava flow now has shifted from the northwest to the west slopes and is moving down like a fiery snake on the coastal towns of Torre del Greco, Torre Annunziata and Resina, site of the ancient town of Herculaneum, which was buried in the great eruption of 79 AD.
Allied military authorities were understood to be preparing to evacuate the residents of the three towns if the lava flow continues.
Meanwhile, the seething cone of the volcano glowed with such intensity that Italian experts warned it may break suddenly and send a terrific overflow of lava in all directions.
Not a single life has been lost thus far, largely because of the prompt measures taken by the Army to remove reluctant civilians from their homes, but millions of dollars’ worth of property have been ruined and some of the finest vineyards in Italy have been partially wiped out, including the famous Lacryma Christi vineyards.
It was estimated that cultivation on the lava-wasted soil would be impossible for at least a century.
The villages of San Sebastiano and Massa di Somma were all but obliterated yesterday by the lava wall moving down the northwest slopes and a two-mile-high column of fine dust peppered Naples and Salerno.
The road to the Royal Vesuvian Observatory, where experts up on the slopes were watching the activity, was closed to all traffic except officers on duty.
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