Messina, Italy, Tsunami (1908)

Impacts and Relief Operations

The principal cities of the Strait are Messina and Reggio Calabria, which in 1908 had populations of 140,000 and 45,000, respectively. Damage was severe in both cities, amounting to the total or partial destruction of 90 percent of buildings in Messina. At Reggio, 600 soldiers died in a barracks, and 200 patients died in a hospital. In Calabria, the towns of Villa San Giovanni and Palmi were also very seriously damaged. At Messina, 60 percent of the population died, amounting to 80,000 people, while 35 percent died in Reggio, representing a total of 15,000 residents. Statistics on the total number of deaths were never accurately compiled, and still less was recorded on injuries; but it is estimated that 120,000 were killed, with approximately two thirds in Sicily and one third in Calabria. Aftershocks, some violent, continued until March 1909.

The tsunami washed away half a dozen fishing villages, notably Faro near Messina, while at Pellaro near Reggio, the waves were 42 feet high. Again, deaths caused by the tsunami as opposed to the collapse of buildings were never computed, although they may have been about one third as large as the direct seismic mortality. There were various precedents for a high death toll in seismic sea waves. For example, the collapse of cliffs into the sea at Scilla in western Calabria in 1783, following a devastating earthquake, triggered a localized tsunami that overwhelmed 2,000 people who were fleeing to the beach.

Relief operations began almost immediately in Messina. Five ships of the Italian Royal Navy were anchored in the harbor, and 263 sailors were aboard. Electrical power was inoperable in the area, but a lieutenant managed to sail to the nearest town in Calabria that had a workable telegraph machine and send an emergency message to the Italian government in Rome, which mobilized the country's armed forces and diverted naval vessels to the Strait of Messina. By the following day, the Italian ships had been joined by a dozen vessels of the Imperial Russian Navy and British Royal Navy. These forces were augmented by the Italian Red Cross and Order of the Knights of Malta. The British sailors erected a field hospital in Reggio Calabria. In an acknowledgement of the seriousness of the situation, King Victor Emmanuel III and Queen Elena visited Messina on December 30.

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