FLOODS IN JAPAN.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 244, 14 October 1889, Page 4

FLOODS IN JAPAN.

OVER TEN THOUSAND LIVES LOST.

SEVERAL VILLAGES SWEPT AWAY.

CRUMBLING MOUNTAINS ENGULF

A POZEN TOWNS.

GREAT LOSSES,

The Oriental and Occidental steamship Gaelic brings details of disasters in the province of Xii, in the southwestern part of Japan, which have few equals in the history of Oriental catastrophes; The heavy rains of eairly August oulminated in'a fierce gale, accompanied by relentles3 showers, which turned brooks into fivers and rivers into torients. Embankments buret, "towns were submerged, houses, temples,and trees were carried away, and probably not less than 10,000 people perished. While the western part of the province was undergoing this devastation, the eastern districts were the scene of a remarkable occurrence—the crumbling of several mountains, which coat nearly 5,000 lives and wiped out about twenty villages. The news received by the Japanese papers up to the time the Gaelic sailed was fragmentary, but the whole makes an unusual story of desolation and sutloring. According to the " Official Gazette," the greatest damage was in the Wakayama district of Kii. The Kinogawa River burst its banks a few miles above this point, and an immense volume of water rushed out upon the adjacent villages and fields like the torrent that swept down the Conemaugh Valley in Pennsylvania, when the North Fork dam above Johnstown gave way. Forty-three houses were destroyed, 90,288. houses inundated, 9 bridges were washed away, the road was damaged in forty-two places and the walls in 6,543 places, and 20,424 persons had to be relieved.' The number of persons drowned in Higashi • Muro, Niahi - Muro, Arita and Hitaki guns almost reaches 10,000. A despatch from Kyoto dated August 21st says: The Uji, Karao and Katsura are swollen. Thircy-five bouses were washed away at Nasshomura and Kii-gun, and in two guns Xii and Kuze the embankment was broken in four places. Two persons v/ere wounded, 4,270 houses suffered damage, and considerable injury waa done to cultivated land. The river Kitsuta has risen to a height of sixteen feet and the bridges over it have been washed away. A telegram trom Wakayama Kencho eayn : The embankment of the river Kinokawa wa» broken, causing inundations un equalled by any previous' flood. The greater part of Wakayama was covered with water, which was more than ten foot in the deepest parts. In the neighbouring villages a jsimilar etaie of things was experienced, and the number-of killed and wounded must be considerable. This afternoon tha water began to recede a little. About 30,000 people in Wakayama alone have had to be relieved.

A latter telegram from Wakayama Kencbo says -.—Since last night the water has been gradually receding, and now about a third of the town is dry again. The water is still five or six feet in the deepest parts of the flooded portion of the town. The river Kmokawa, • which hud risen to a height of about'sixteen feet, is now not more than eight feet in depth. At Nishi- Mure-gun,in Wakayamaken.the record of damage by the inundations was i,092 houses trashed away, 508 totally destroyed, 440 partly damaged and 863 persons killed.

Farther down the coast there was a like condition of affaire. One of the staff of officials in the gun (Nishi-Muro) who came up te Wakayama by steamer from Owari and touched at Tanabe, reports that at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon of August 19bh the water suddenly rushed into the. town of Tanabe, inundating the whole town to a depth of fire or six feet above the floors of the houses. A number of houses were washed away and about 3,000 persons killed. The villages round about for a distance of ten miles were covered with water, and at Asaki Hommura all the bouses, numbering sereral hundred, except eleven, were washed away. A large number of lives are said to have been lost, but this has not yet been ascertained. The flood was "caused by the water rushing down from the Takao mountain and by the overflow of Tomita and other rivers. Communication being cut off with other villages, no news has yet oome .'*• hand there-' from. Unusual inundations took place at Bhinmiyameohi. Higaehi, Muro-gtfn, and the whole town Is covered with water, j AtGobo and neighbourhood Iα Hitakegan more then 300 honees were entirely washed away end 600 partly jo, while oyer Blueisy lives wer* lost, Aft Kaniiyamagi

fifty houses were washed away, sevfeSity! partially destroyed, thirty persons Were killed and fifty wounded. At Miyamotomura, in Higashi-Muro-gun, over eighty houses were washed away and over thirty lives lost. .The neighbouring villages, of Ukekawa and Kirihata were washed away, and a great number of lives lost. Other villages suffered severe losses both in life arid property, and thousand! of people are homeless and' without food. Though relief corps have been despatched to the scene, many families are beyond their reach, and hundreds will probably die of want. The damage to property can only be roughly ectimated, but it is placed at not less than $6,000,000, and may reach a higher figure.