FRENCH FLOODS.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11391, 10 March 1930, Page 3

FRENCH FLOODS.

FIVE HUNDRED HOUSES SWEPT AWAY. United Press Assn —B.v Electric Telegraph—Copyright. PARIS, March 6. It is estimated' that five hundred houses were carried away at Moissac-. The countryside is littered with debris and furniture. At least 10,000 are homeless in the flood area. Aeroplanes rescued 16 men at Saint Rafrice. They had been in the water for 48 hours. The death roll at Moissac, which is two hundred, would have been much higher but for the fact that most of the people were at Hagenback’s circus. Otherwise they would have been trapped in their beds. .The market place is now an encampment for the circus animals. A shocking story is told by one villager, who clutched tiro small children and climbed to the top of a wall, from where he was obliged to watch, helpless while four others of h:s family, including his wife, were swept off by the flood. Weeping. a mud sta ned woman was seen pushing a barrow piled with furniture. Asked where she was going, she replied, “Anywhere. I do not care. My husband has been drowned and my child was in his arms.” A wealthy youth was drowned after he had helped over a hundred to escape from their homes. The Minister of Publ c Works pinned the ribbon of the Legion of Honour on the dead youth’s breast at the hospital. It is impossible to estimate the total death roll until the end of the week, as bodies are continually being found in the ruins of houses.