despoil - des-POYL - ransack, devastate, pillage, ravage

Example: "Reuters Press reported that the massive earthquake to hit Chile yesterday despoiled a huge swath of the Andean country, as cars lay mangled and upended on streets littered with telephone wires and power cables; a new 14-story apartment building fell, while an older, biochemical lab at the University of Concepción caught fire. The mayor said that at least 300 people had been killed."