IN 1887, an earthquake nearly flattened this hilltop village 80 miles northwest of Genoa, filling its crooked streets with rubble and knocking out the roofs of its two churches.

At least 300 people were reported dead and about 2,500 people remained unaccounted for after an earthquake flattened a town on an island off Russia's Pacific Coast.

An earthquake in 1967 flattened the city.

On July 28, 1976, a 7.5 earthquake flattened Tangshan, China, killing 242,769 people and injuring 164,851.

But when Mr. Machida took the helm in 1998, weak domestic sales and cheaper Asian competition had plunged the 94-year-old company into its worse crisis since an earthquake flattened its original factory in 1923.

Tokyo put you in that city in 1923, just before the earthquake flattened it.

The earthquake flattened entire buildings, and subsequent landslides caused damage throughout the Tungurahua, Chimborazo, and Cotopaxi Provinces.

The earthquake flattened his house in Haiti.

In the book Chow states that on December 23, 1920 he posted a notice in the Santa Barbara post office letting it be known that an earthquake would flatten the city on June 29, 1925.

The earthquake, which struck the mountainous northwest area of Armenia minutes before noon on Wednesday, flattened entire communities, leaving thousands of people trapped under crumpled buildings in Leninakan, Kirovakan and other urban centers.