World Notes DISASTERS

As if the political tremors of perestroika were not trouble enough for Mikhail Gorbachev, nature's rumblings are proving even more serious. For the second time in two months, a deadly earthquake hit the Soviet Union. As reconstruction efforts were getting under way in Armenia, where a massive tremor killed some 25,000 people, a second earthquake struck, this time 1,200 miles to the east in the Soviet republic of Tadzhikistan.

The vibration triggered torrential mudslides, which swept over fertile farmland, burying hundreds of people and thousands of farm animals. Some locals were milking their cows when they heard the roar of the quake just after 5 a.m., and were able to escape the approaching mudslides. The small village of Sharora was not so lucky. The town was razed by a wall of mud up to 45 ft. high. With no hope of finding survivors, local officials decided to leave the village entombed. The estimated death toll of the Tadzhikistan quake: 274.