THE TRAGEDY OF NEGLECTING VOLCANO’S WARNING

At exactly 8:02 p.m. on May 8, 1902 almost 30,000 people died instantly in one of history’s worst natural disasters at that time.

The immediate cause of their deaths was the violent eruption of Mount Pelee on the French colonial island of Martinique. It hurled millions of tons of rock and boiling lava and a terrible blast of super-heated air at the town of St. Pierre.

The indirect cause of the catastrophe was a sordid record of human stupidity, greed, and political opportunism.

The volcano first began misbehaving a full week before the final disaster with warnings of what was to come in varying degrees including a gigantic rock and mud slide which killed several hundred people at a factory outside of town.

But, with few exceptions, none of the persons in authority made any effort to evacuate the town which lay at the foot of the rumbling volcano. Irresponsibility of a few can bring great tragedy to multitudes!

– Prairie Overcomer

[Reproduced with permission from Encylopedia of 7700 Illustrations, by Paul Lee Tan, Assurance Publishers, Rockville, MD, 1984. #4772]

This material is published by the Faith Committee of the Character Council of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Reproduction and Adaptation is encouraged.