W.M. Thomson, "thirty years missionary in Syria and Palestine", gives this account of the earthquake in his "The Land and the Book", published in 1880, pages 277 - 280:
"It was just before sunset on a quiet Sabbath evening - January 1, 1837 - when the shock occured. A pale, smoky haze obscured the sun, and threw an air of sadness over the closing day, and a lifeless and oppressive calm had settled down upon the face of nature. These phenomena are, however, not very uncommon in this country, and may have had no connection with the earthquake. Our native church at Beirut were gathered round the communion-table, when suddenly the house began to shake fearfully, and the stone floor to heave and roll like a ship in a storm. "Hezzy! Hezzy!" (Earthquake! Earthquake!) burst from every trembling lip as all rushed out into the yard. The house was cracked from top to bottom, but no further injury was sustained. The shock was comparitavely slight in Beirut, but still many houses were seriously shattered, and some of the river entirely thrown down. During the week succeeding this Sabbath, there came flying reports from various quarters of towns and villages destroyed, and lives lost; but so slow does information travel in this country, especially in winter, that it was not until eight days had elapsed that any reliable accounts were received. Then letters arrived from Safed with the startling intelligence that the whole town had been utterly overthrown, and that Tiberias, and many other places in this region, had shared the same fate. Some of the letters stated that not more than one in a hundred of the inhabitants had escaped.
As soon as these awful facts had been ascertained, collections were made at Beirut to relieve the survivors, and Mr C- and myself selected to visit this region, and distribute to the needy and the wounded. Passing by Sidon, we associated with ourselves Mr. A- and two of his sons to act as physicians. In Sidon the work of destruction became very noticable, and in Tyre still more so. We rode into the latter at midnight over her prostrate walls, and found some of the streets so choked up with fallen houses that we could not pass through them. I shall retain a vivid recollection of that dismal night while life lasts. The wind had risen to a cold, cross gale, which howled through shattered walls and broken windows its doleful wail over ruined Tyre. The people were sleeping in boats drawn up on the shore, and in tents beside them, while half-suspended doors unhinged were creaking and banging in dreadful concert. On the 17th we reached Rumaish, were we met the first real confirmation of the letters from Safed. The village seemed quite destroyed. Thirty people had been crushed to death under their falling houses, and many more would have shared the same fate if they had not been at evening prayers in church. The building was low and compact, so that it was not seriously injured. After distributing medicine to the wounded and charity to the destitute, we went to Jish. Of this village not one house remained; all had been thrown down, and the church also, burying the entire congregation of one hundred and thirty-five persons under the ruins. Not one escaped except the priest, who was saved by a projection of the arch over the altar. The entire vaulted roof, with its enormous mass of superincumbent stone and earth fell inward in a moment, and of course escape was impossible. Fourteen dead bodies lay there still unburied.
On the morning of the 18th we reached Safed, and I then understood, for the first time, what desolation God can work when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth... We came first to the Jewish half of the town, which contained about four thousand inhabitants two years before when I was there, and seemed like a busy hive of Israelites; - now not a house remained standing. The town was built, as its successor is, upon the side of the mountain, which is so steep that the roofs of the houses below formed the street of those above; when, therefore, the shock dashed all to the ground, the highest fell on the next below, that upon the third, and so on to the bottom, burying each successive row of houses deeper and deeper under the accumulated rubbish...(account of suffering - estimates four-fifths of the population were buried under the ruins)...
The destruction of life in Tiberias had not been so great as at Safed, but the houses and walls of the city were fearfully shattered. About six hundred perished under the ruins, and there were scenes of individual suffering not exceeded by any in Safed. Many of the wounded had been carried down to the hot baths, where we visited them. They informed me that at the time of the earthquake the quantity of water at these springs was immensley increased, and that it was so hot that people could not pass along the road across which it flowed. This, I suppose was fact; but the reports that smoke and boiling water were seen to issue from many places, and flames of fire from others, I believe were either fabrications or at least exaggerations. I could find no one who had actually seen these phenomena, though all had heard of them.
On the 22nd we left Tiberias, and reached Nazareth in the night, having distributed medicines and clothes at Lubieh, Sejers, Kefr Kenna, and Reineh. In all these villages, except Kefr Kenna, the earthquake had been very destructive, while in others on either side of us no injury had been sustained."
Thank you for opening this article. I don't know how (or if) to incorporate this material but I put it forward for your consideration. Best wishes. Padres Hana (talk) 23:07, 3 June 2009 (UTC)Reply
- Somebody ought to incorporate this info into the article. If no one adds I'll put it in sometime soon, but I suggest that another editor does it ASAP. --Al Ameer son (talk) 04:17, 20 June 2009 (UTC)Reply