FLOOD DISASTER IN FRANCE.

Timaru Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 1785, 20 June 1895, Page 4

FLOOD DISASTER IN FRANCE.

OVER 100 RILLED. ' • DAMAGES £2,000,000. -<■-:■ ".■"'..•UiK'. •■ i ;^Ephstal, April 27. T. •'•(./■■ ;r. i. •>'■•*•■ - : i.i': •' .•„.!..'. i.- if ■■' .'-■ rr i A. terrible disaster* attended w. ifti great lossjof • life, -has overwhelmed a Jarge tract of country between this town and Chatel, eleven miles to the north. At five o'clock this morning the great dam of the Bousey Reservoir, a few miles to the west of this town, suddenly burst. The reservoir,! which, -foifms a feeder for the southern branch of the Eastern Canal, has a capacity of no less than 7,000,000 cubic metres* and this* huge quantity of water, suddenly liberated .through the bursting of the dam, rushed down the valley of the .£yie"re.,, with tremendous f orce. ..-.'■'■-*■' Tow ,i,wavio»4, ciiia now oi water let into the canalput such a strain on the banks that they, too, burst above the village^f Bo,useY, and the whole of the water ;cp,nitained m this section of the canal, over six miles m length, also poured down with the torrent from the reservoir, until the whole section from the lock above tbe.breaeh to the lock below had , been .completely emptied. Had the water Been able, to" spread^ over any great "extent of., ley.el, /tl\e 'disaster would not h.a¥e been so' serious, as the flooding of the surrounding country would, have „b eer* gradual.. But the Epinal ..region,. is. alm.osfc. mountainous, and; the .winter, .hemmed m ,pn either side by high hills, , tore, ;down; the. , narrow valley into which it poured m a huge wave, carrying away nouses, farm-build-ings, bridges,. trees, and^yeq whole plantations, finally emptying itself into the Moselle .at Nom'exy and Chatel. yong the.whole o£ jthevalley thus swept by the inundation, a distance £j nearly ten miles, the damage done was enormous. Several villages situated -[i n the valley of the Ayiere, which ordinarily is quite a small stream, were completely inundated.. . , .- . , ; , . - ■; .. „ - -;,- --■ The village pfjjSousey, situated directly below : theieserypii3,ha.sb.eeri completely destroyed. . HjOqses,, mills, ti*ees, everythiiigj J^ave t been swept away, a few torn stumps marking", the place where a picturesque plantation of pines had stood. In the broken branches of one or two solitary trees that have escaped hang : such melancholy evidences of .the devastation aa, bits of bedding, stools, articles of cloth jag, aud, .other, .similar relics of ruined homes. , At Les, ,For.ges, .a place, of 1400 inhabi: tafat&j only afew houses' rem'airt.' ' At Uxegny, a village of 600 inhabitant^ , the , loss of, life ,was especially great, persons having been drowned. ' 'At Darnieulles, the'nexfe village,' with 500 inhabitants, .6veA'yJJUJlding has been sw_epi.aAajV— -. ~. .... At Nomexy a number of the inhabitants perished. Although this village i$ nearly ten miles from thebrbkehdam'the rush of the water was so sudden that many were caught before they could reach either higher ground or get up into the ; upper stories of the house, which were flooded to a depth of more 'than six feet; Great distress prevails. Numbers of small farmers are ruined. Hundreds of people are homeless, and owing to the early hour at which the catastrophe oc--■cur-red^ -many have lost even their clothes, having: escaped, m their night garments . without having had time to dress themselves. • ~ , Many of the inhabitants, too, are m actual want of food, all the provisions m their villages having been either washed away .or spoiled, i-. r ' The railway between Epinal and Chauimont is interrupted, at .Darnieulles, and the line between here, and Nancy is also flooded and quite impassable. The line was completely carried away for a distance of 100 yards, while on the opposite side of the roadway the . ruined houses were half-buried m mud and slime. ' ■•- April 2Bth." ! ■■ The Prefect of the Department visited yesterday, alii the districts affected "by the, bursting of the dam. Great desolatiPnprevails m those districts, and the distress of the inhabitants is extreme. The number of deaths from the disaster is now computed at 110, but only oner half, ; o£ (the dead..badies have : been recovered. .Measures have, been taken by the military' and the employees of the Public,. Roads Department, to assist m the work .of re-establishing communications, seeking for dead bodies, and the rapid pqirial , of the dead ,qattle. The destruction pf propijr.ty^ is roughly estimated at two millions sterling. The whole region affected is strewn with wreckage and with the bodies of many sheep, cows, and other live stock that perished m the deluge. The rivulet I'AvierejWhioh m its normal state is only about two and i a half; yards broad, has been converted into a ,vast lake a mile ..and., a- half m breadth. The railway especially; „m ..the neighbourhood of Darnieulles Station, has been torn up and .swept away.j the rails being scattered at, a distance of. frptn, ten to a dozen yards from the line,, while embankments have been , qarried\ avyaj" bpdily. The torn up roads ,ari4.niud-cpvere4 fields were strewn with trunks of trees, household furniture, and debris of every deaseription. JSearly every bridge m the line of the flood has been either destroyed, or so seriously damaged as to require recpnstruction. 1 The dam, which was begun m 1879, was finished m 1884, and was greatly strengthened, about six years ago. It was constructed of strong' mason work, and was 550- yards m length, with a height of 66ft, and a thickness at the' base of 66ft, while the stonework was carried iuto the ground to a depth of 30ft below the level of the valley into which the!] ,-re.ser.yoir. , discharged its waters. Built as it was against a vertical face of solid rock having a minimum height of 18ft, and' its. base resting on a sandstone bottom, the natural formation of the ground and the massive, character of the structure seemed to guarantee complete solidity. As a matter of fact it had never given any indications of being too weak to stiand 'tlie' strain Upon it.