BIG DANUBE FLOOD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19452, 7 October 1926, Page 15

BIG DANUBE FLOOD.

TERRIBLE CATASTROPHE. GREATEST FOR CENTURIES. DESTRUCTION AND DISEASE. Reports received at Vienna recently from Belgrade indicated that the Danube flood is the greatest water catastrophe for centuries. The King was personally directing relief, whilo Cabinet Ministers and Government employees surrendered portions of their salaries for the relief of the homeless, who numbered almost 100,000. The destroyed crops, it was stated, would bo left this winter, but the next greatest danger to be coped with was the possibility of epidemics spread by mosquitoes from hundreds of miles of rotting vegetation and dead animals.

A graphic story of the havoc caused by'the floods was told by Countess Cort van der Linden, whoso European home is in Holland, and who arrived at Vienna after an exciting-trip by water from Belgrade to Budapest, during which she traversed a wide inland sea. which now covers almost 500,000 acres of the richest granary in Central Europe':— "En roil to from Belgrade," the Countess said, "the boat encountered sevei'al rudely-constructed rafts floating down stream, with' peasants and their families working the sweeps. Children, chickens and pigs were perched on piles of trunks, boxes and household goods, whilo the men and women warded off floating objects, preventing collisions. Several families were taken from the rafts which had been held up and half overturned by protruding tree tops and church steeples and the refugees were taken on board the river boat, where European and American tourists contributed food and spare clothing to the water-soaked survivors.

"As far as the eye could reach on both sides of the channel followed by tho steamer, water spread out in all directions to the horizon. In some places the rive? was reported to bo 50 miles wide, and it is not possible to estimate the extent of damage, which is expected to reach a fabulous sum. From the boat deck we located submerged roads by tho tops of rows of poplar trees. Frequently we passed bodies of cows and horses floating downstream, and once a dog clawed at the side of the boat, but was whirled away by tho current beforo he could bo pulled on board." Some 15 years ago musk-rats wero introduced into this region, in tho hope of developing the fur industry, but the Europeanised progeny of the imported musk-rats developed longer biting teeth instead of fur, and the peasants blame these water rodents for weakening the dykes by tunnelling through them.