THE FRENCH FLOOD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4295, 19 August 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE FRENCH FLOOD.

HARROWING DETAILS OF THE RBCSHT INUNDATIONS. —WIDESPKEAB RTJIK IN GABCONY AND LANGUEDOC —TERRIBLE LOSS OT LIFB IK TOULOUSE. By the European exchanges of the 29th of June, we have still more full details of the effects of the melancholy visitation which has befallen the territory of the French Republic, in the shape of river inundations. One-sixth of the soil of the whole country has been desolated. Toulouse is the centre of the most black and heart-rending waste," and the entire valley of the Garonne, has been stricken. The living were swept to death from their beds and frpm their firesides. The remains of the dead were carried from the tombs. Churches were invaded by the water. The altar of the Church of St. Nicholas was swept, and the consecrated host and sacred vessels carried away by the fluvial tide. Nobles, workmen, farmers and paupers were equally stricken. A noble marquis lost his own life during a gallant endeavour to save the lives of his neighbours. Dead bodies are found, horribly mutilated, at almost every eddy of the currcnt. Thousands of people have lost their lives ; so many, indeed, that it is intimated that the exact number will never be known. THIRTY-FIVE THOUSAND PEOPLE CLAMBERING FOR LIFE. Your readers (says the London Standard correspondent) will be able to form some notion of the nature of the calamity if they will understand that St Cyprien, theTavaged suburb, stands with regard to Toulouse very much as Southwark does to London. The Garonne runs between Toulouse and St. Cyprien, and on three sides hems in St. Cyprien in its bend, every part of the suburb being considerably below the normal level of the river, from which it is protected by embankments. On Thursday last, after several days' heavy rain, and receiving ah influx of water beyond all precedent, from the mountain streams that feed it, it rose upward of eight metres, swept away the two suspension Dridges, and, bursting over the embankments on the south side, gradually laid the whole of the place under water. Many of the houses, beinsr lath and Tilaat*>r: imperiili?-

tne nouses, being latn and plaster, speedily collapsed under the rush of the waters. For nearly ten hours it was impossible to afford assistance to the sufferers, and 35,000 men, women and children were clambering out of the way of the waters. The greater number were eventually saved through the pluck of the garrison and the heroism of a few civilians, who, like the Marquis d'Hautpoul, fell victims to their zeal. . It is not known, and cannot be for some time to come, how many bodies may belying under the tUlrris of the shattered houses. One of the local papers talks of 15,000 victims. It is probable tha.t that number, and more, artisans have lost their little all ; but the dead bodies as yet recovered may be stated at 310. FBI ENDS FLOCKING INTO TOULOUSE. Toulouse is just now crammed to overflowing. From all parts of the neighbourhood people are flocking in search of missing relatives and friends. Omnibusses are passing through the streets of Toulouse to receive from house to house gifts of food, clothes and bedding for the destitute and naked. Many dead horses, some belonging to the artillery, are floating in the flooded streets. The cemetery is greatly injured- - Many tombs or monuments are overturned or cracked. Dead bodies, horribly mutilated, are found every moment. Many can only be torn piecemeal fr»m the ruins . which crashed them. The London Telegraph of 29th June re- T. ports :—From Toulouse a graphic description is forwarded to the Debate of the aspect of that city when the inundation _waa; at itq height. Tho inhabitants assembled on the quays and on the stone bridge, and looked helplessly on the scene of desolation, and followed with terrified eyes the work of destruction. Property of all sorts was being swept away by the angry waves. Piles of timber, carts, casks, cattle and heavy planks were hurled in their flight against the piers of the bridge. Half an hour after the precaution had_been taken to close the bridge of St Pierre it gave way with a crash, and it was quickly followed by the Baths Raynaud and the large public warehouses of Tournay and St. Pierre. At last, as if all the elements were combining against the unfortunate town, the large rolling milla of Bezacle were discovered to be in flames, while another fire broke out at th 3 Port Garaud in a house that was entirely cut off from any chance of suecour. The manufactories at Bezacle and in the Sue dea Amidonniers were abandoned on the water rushing into them, and were greatly damaged. Two houses fell at the Port Garaud, and it is believed that two women ore buried in the ruins. On the Quai | de Tounis the rise of the water was so rapid that many families could only be rescued Dy msans of the windows. A heartrending scene took place at the Hotel Dieu, which was entirely anrraunded and flooded by the river. . All sort* oI con-

veyancea weiW in requisition, and wVnnforlunatepatifl&ts were removed iSW the-waterrose too-high as promptly •aafrfossihje tctbo-Militaryfiospital, in omniVQnsS 1 i cartnlgcs,''anfl'.'»rtillcry waggons. All Wofficuds, the Sisters ahd tho surgeons beadmirably in this work of rescue. Although wo have .the fullest accounts from Toulouse, it nldst not be imagined that the ravages of the disaster were confined to that city. On the contrary, terrible accounts pour in from tho surrounding districts, the floods having extended over a vast space of the country. From L'Arl&gc teijible news continues to arrive. At Verdun it is stated fifty houses are destroyed, eighty unfortunate persons buried in the ruins, with about 500 head of cattle. Thirty-four corpses have been recovered and buried aft or identification. The villages of Labastide and Besplas have been entirely engulfed. From Tarn-et-Garonne thonows is also disastrous. The Garonne and tho Tarn have been very destructive in their course, and the overflow was so rapid that in many places the inhabitants were unable to carry anything away. A large number of families are homeless, and many animals have perished. At Gers and Mansebfi many houses have been washed down or have suffered injury. Af Montestang they were enabled to drag a woman from under the ruins of a house that I had fallen in. In the towns and villages of the Basses- | PyrCnCes there has been great destruction. Bridges have been carried away ; houses have ' been inundated and greatly injured; the crops have been partially destroyed in some districts ; several animals have been drowned, and at Jaut a shepherd lost his life. A considerable landslip took place during the night of the 19th at St. Antoino, between this town and Tarascon, on the road to Spain. Professional men estimate at 26,000 cubic metres the mass of earth and rock which decern?ed from the mountains. At the same place a slip of lesser importance caused the : fall of a scaffolding in the tunnel in course of • construction. Thoso'wete, however, only a 'small portion of the disasters which have : stric&en'the Department of the Arlege. The earth was already saturated with-water, and ' the mountains were still covered with snow at ah altitude so low as was not remembered by the oldest inhabitant of the department '."at this season of the year. Suddenly during the night of Sunday, the rain began to fall faster than ever. . It has not since ceased, ' and there are no signs of an end of this fearful'' weather. For seventy-two hours the '."down-pour has continued, and there has not y et' beeh a single break in the clouds. The wind having become less cold theaccumnlated ~;Briow : has melted and the river has swelled 'jnp so that the piles of the brid-M of Foil / have'disappeared, and the channel is insufficient to carry off the flood of water. . _ The London Post, June 28, reports :—A . week ago to-day, our correspondent tells us, the "river Garonne, at Toulouse, was unusually Jwgb, but no serious damage was apprehended, and no precautionary measures were .taken. On Wednesday the waters rose rapidly,: and by ten o'clock in tho morning they had, reached, the , level of the flood of . 1855. At two o'clock two arches of a bridge and twenty houses wero swept away, and the floating swimming baths and lavatories . were torn from their moorings and hurried : down the torrent. At five the water overflowed the parapet which protects the. populous quarter of St. Cyprien; at six it was ten feet deep in the streets and before night this quarter was cut off from the rest of the town, the three bridges of communication Ixiing destroyed. All night the crash of falling houses and the cries and shrieks of sufferers were heard. . On Thursday the flood began to abate, and the water had fallen six feet by the evening. In the town of Toulouse alone, it is said, 900 persons have perished, and - 20,000 are left destitute. Nearly 3,000 . houses have fallen, and the destruction of property is roughly estimated at from £12,000,000 to £15,000,0C0 sterling. The whole, valley of the Garonne is said to resemble a vast lake, covered with fragments of the ruins of the town, as well as with wreck brought down from higher districts, . and dotted with corpses, somo of them wearing the costume of places twenty leagues away. Although it is upon this particular district that the calamity has fallen with tho greatest force, yet the neighbouring departments have also been terrible sufferers. The railway between Bordeaux and Toulouse is cut in a

dozen places, and tlie whole country is submerged. The power of the surrounding districts to assist the greatest sufferers is crippled, by their own losses, and the communication with distant parts of the country is greatly impeded. It is doubtful whether • the description of what has actually happened will include even the greater part of the calamity. As the waters recede a surface saturated with moisture will be exposed, and this Burface will be strewn with the corpses . of men and animiils in every stage of decom- : position. Exposed to the exhalations hence arising there will be a large population reduced to absolute want—dependent upon charity for all the necessaries of life, destitute alike of clothes, of food, of shelter, and of employment. To communities thus situated disease comes with footsteps that arc neither tardy nor uncertain, and it is only by the most prompt and energetic aid from external sources tliat the inhabitants of Toulouse can be saved from even greater ills, if such be possible, than those which have already befallen them.