EIGHTY THOUSAND HOMELESS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 26, 31 January 1910, Page 5

EIGHTY THOUSAND HOMELESS.

TERRIBLE DESOLATION AND SUFFERING. ROYALTY GIVES LIBERALLY TO RELIEF FUNDS[PRESS ASSOCIATION. —COPYBIGHT.I PARIS, January 29. There has /been a recurrence of violent rain and hail storms in Paris, and the Seine, which was subsiding, has again risen 30 feet. It is estimated that there are 80,000 people in Paris homeless and foodless. The Comedie Francaise, one of the leading playhouses, and the Cathedral of Notre Dame are threatened. The Champs Elysees and the central telegraph office are flooded. Residents in some of the flooded streets of Paris have been without food since Wednesday, and people are crying from the windows for bread. There have been alarming subsidences in many streets, caused through the upward pressure of water due to the collapsing of a network of sewers, watermains, and hydraulic tubes. The roadway of Avenue Alexander 111. hae collapsed. The flooded quarters are without gas, and the prices of candles and oil are rising. JFlie price of food is also rising. The cellars of the Grand Opera House and of the Mint are full of water. The underground station at the Hotel de Ville, the Departmental offices of the Ministers for Marine, War and Finance, the Theatre Marigny, the Bastille and the Metropolitan Station are all flooded. A torrent 30 feet deep is racing through the underground station at Les Invalides, and through the adjoining tunnel, which is 20 feet below the roadway. The flood is also roaring through the underground station at Rue D anton, 500 yards from the Seine. It is feared that the section of the line which passes under the Seine has fallen in. At the Voisin aeroplane works dozens of aeroplanes have been destroyed. The imprisoned residents have had terrible fights with rats. The flood extends a mile north of the Seine to St. Lazare station. Barricades have been swept away in Boulevard Haussman. Place St. Michel, the Trocadero, and the Champs de Mars are all completely submerged. A chasm in the Champs Elysees engulfed a woman. The northern and eastern railway lines are open. The officials are appealing for every boat that can be sent to Paris. A crowd sacked some food shops. The Great Dyke at Gennevilliers, 1 a town six miles from the centre of Paris, has burst, flooding a large area and imprisoning 7000 people in their homes. The Boucicault Hospital was hastily evacuated. Engineers constructed a footbridge and carried the women patients with difficulty across water five feet deep. Some of the patients did not survive the shock. Boats are being used at funerals to carry the remains beyond the flooded area. The Bourse is agitated, and a. heavy fall in the price of stocks has bnen recorded.