La Catastrophe On May 8, 1902, on the Caribbean island of Martinique, the volcano Mount Pel e loosed the most terrifying and lethal eruption of the twentieth century. In minutes, it killed 27,000 people and levelled the city of Saint-Pierre. In La Catastrophe, Alwyn Scarth provides a gripping day-by-day and hour-by-hour account of this devastating eruption, based primarily on chilling eyewitness accounts. Full description