When Mt. Pelee eruted on May 8th 1902 the city of St. Pierre on the island of Martinique had a population of 30,000 souls. How many survived and what were their names?

smartie806

Saint Pierre, which then served as the island's capital, had a population of some ~28,000, which was swelled by refugees from the minor explosions and mud flows first emitted by the volcano. There were pitifully few survivors: Ludger Sylbaris, a prisoner held in an underground cell in the town's jail (later pardoned), and Léon Compere-Léandre, a man who lived at the edge of the city. Some sources also list Havivra Da Ifrile, a little girl. One woman, a housemaid, also survived the pyroclastic flow but perished soon after; the only thing she remembered from the event was sudden heat. She died very shortly after being discovered. Included among the victims were the passengers and crews of several ships docked at Saint Pierre. One passenger steamship, the Roraima, which went missing on April 26, was believed to have been engulfed by ash from a preliminary explosion. However, it reached the port of Saint Pierre at 6:30 AM, shortly before the eruption, and was set aflame by the nuée ardente. It later sank; its wreck is still present offshore of Saint Pierre; 28 of her crew and all the passengers except two were killed by the cloud. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Pel%C3%A9e Aug 28 06, 1:58 PM

zbeckabee

The destruction of Saint Pierre by Mount Pele: "only six individuals from the city survived (p. 172)"---Actually there were three survivors, but two died soon after being rescued. "The third, a convicted murderer liberated from an underground jail cell three days after the disaster, recovered from his burns and emigrated to the United States to live out his years as an attraction in the Barnum & Bailey Circus." (from "Perils of a Restless Planet" by Ernest Zebrowski, Jr.). Encyclopedia of Earthquakes and Volcanoes (Facts on File Science Library) (Hardcover) by David Ritchie, Alexander E. Gates Aug 28 06, 2:30 PM