I have to reopen this as i am not convinced when taking other options into consideration.Here is the complete question
Yellow fever, the disease that killed 4,000 philadelphians in 1793, and so
______ Memphis, Tennessee, that the city lost its charter, has reappeared after nearly two decades, in ______ in the Western Hemisphere.
a. ravaged , secret
b. decimated , abeyance
Here ravaged, secret makes more sense than decimated , abeyance