FLOOD'S APPALLING TOLL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19807, 30 November 1927, Page 11

FLOOD'S APPALLING TOLL.

DISASTER IN ALGERIA. HUNDREDS PERISH' !N SLEEP. HOUSES COLLAPSE LIKE CHAFF. By Telegraph—Prens Association—Copyright. (Received November 59, 8.30 p.m.) A. mid N.Z.-Sun. ALGIERS. Nov. 23. Graphic details have hern received concerning the devastating flood in the Oran district of Algeria, which was followed by the bursting of the irrigation dam near Perregaux. Sixty* Europeans and hundreds of Algerians perished. Two-storeyed houses in the path of the torrent disappeared and whole families were swept away along with their houses. Within half an hour the Law Courts and 60 large, buildings were obliterated. The place where they stood is now a ravine 60ft. deep. The lightly-constructed Algerian houses were swept away like chaff, and the sleeping inmates were drowned in hundreds. It is estimated that the torrent travelled at a rate of 100 miles an hour. A sergeant of the Chasseurs d'Afrique, learning that many babies were isolated m a flood-hound train, swam with his horse for a niile carrying milk for the infants. Another soldier swam out and brought to safety a baby whose cradle was balanced on the edge of a ravine, near a house where the whole family had perished. TERRIBLE SITUATION. WATER POURS INTO TOWN. MANY BUILDINGS DESTROYED. A. nnd N.Z.-Sun. LONDON. Nov. 28. A message from Algiers says that as the whole region in Algeria below the dam which collapsed owing to the floods depends on the reservoir for irrigation, it may be impossible to grow crops again for some years. The dam was 600 ft. long and 100 ft high. The Algiers correspondent of the Daily Mail says a wireless message from Mostaganem, 45 miles from Oran, stated that the situation there was terrible. Water poured into the town through the railway tunnel and destroyed factories and warehouses. All the drains hurst. The message added that there were hundreds of casualties.