Mount Pelée

Lately I’ve been reading a bit of LAFCADIO HEARN, and about his stay in Martinique (well before the Japan period where he took a Japanese name).

Hearn was still alive in 1902 when St.-Pierre, the largest city in Martinique, was completely destroyed by the eruption of nearby Mount Pelée. [ADDENDUM: I should have added that by then Hearn was already in Japan, more than a decade removed from his years in Martinique, but he was traumatized by the story after hearing about it.] This eruption killed a staggering total of 30,000 people, with only two known survivors in the city (one of them a prisoner in an underground jail). Go to the “1902 Eruption” section of the article to read a dramatic account of the events leading up to the final disaster.

For example:

“The animals, wild and domestic alike, were growing restless; the Guérin Sugar Works, 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) northwest of Saint-Pierre, was invaded by a great swarm of speckled ants and 1 foot (30 cm)-long centipedes, which bit unfortunate horses while workers tried to subdue the frenzied insects. In Saint-Pierre, hundreds of restless fer-de-lance snakes slithered through the streets, biting anybody who did not stay out of their paths. Soldiers were called in to shoot the snakes, although not before a number of humans and domestic animals were killed by the snakes.”

I think the centipede incident might have told me it was time to leave! St.-Pierre never recovered from the eruption, and has under 5,000 residents today.

How can so many people be killed by a volcano? Like this:

“…the upper mountainside ripped open and a dense black cloud shot out horizontally. A second black cloud rolled upwards, forming a gigantic mushroom cloud and darkening the sky in a 50-mile (80 km) radius. The initial speed of both clouds was later calculated to be over 670 kilometres (420 mi) per hour. The horizontal pyroclastic cloud hugged the ground and sped down towards the city of Saint-Pierre, appearing black and heavy, glowing hot from the inside. It consisted of superheated steam and volcanic gases and dust, with temperatures exceeding 1075 °C. In under a minute it reached and covered the entire city, instantly igniting everything flammable it came in contact with.”