Death of a Town

Without a warning tremor, the worst earthquake in El Salvador's history struck the town of Jucuapa (pop. 12,000) last week, shattering the peace of a Sunday afternoon with the crash of collapsing roofs and walls.

Early reports put the death toll at 1,000 to 2,000, but by week's end estimates were down to some 200 dead and 300 to 500 seriously injured.* The government's gravest problem was taking care of the thousands of homeless. Good neighbors pitched in; airborne supplies were dispatched from Panama (by the American Red Cross), Cuba, Nicaragua, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico.

As an anti-epidemic measure, the government sent sanitation teams to burn the ruins of Jucuapa. There was not much left to destroy. Only a few buildings, heavily damaged, still stood. The smell of corpses hung over the ruins. Jucuapa was dead.

*Heaviest earthquake toll since the Assam quake of 1950 (TIME, Sept. 4).

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