GREAT FLOODS IN FRANCE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18510, 6 March 1930, Page 9

GREAT FLOODS IN FRANCE.

Wide Area Devastated

LOSS OF LIFE FEARED. (United Press Association—By Electrlo Telegraph—Copy right.) (Received March 5. 7.0 p.m.) PARIS, March 4. Torrential rain in the Languedoc region caused a loss of more than thirty lives. The rivers overflowed, farms were devastated for miles, railways were destroyed, bridges collapsed and vineyards submerged. Perpignan is completely cut off. Six hundred men are marooned in a partly destroyed factory at Cambres. The inhabitants of Montauban believed the end of the world had come, their houses falling down. A dozen soldiers, engaged in rescue work, were drowned in view of scores of helpless onlookers. Patients were removed from the hospital in boats. More rain has fallen in twenty-four hours than the average for the year, besides the water pouring down from the snow-clad mountains. Four Cabinet Ministers have gone to supervise relief. It is feared that the death roll will approach one hundred. There were heart-rending scenes in the villages near Montauban, where people are marooned on the roofs, praying for help. Hundreds of houses collapsed in the village of Reynes, where an aged parish priest was saved, but his housekeeper perished in the ruins of the Presbytery. One of the rescuers was drowned, while another had to swim for his life.

WORST FLOODS IN FIFTY YEARS. HEAVY DAMAGE REPORTED. (United Press Association—By Electrlo Telegraph—Copyright.) (Received March 5, 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, March 4. The Toulouse correspondent of the “Daily Mail” says the floods are the worst experienced in the South of France since 1875. Hundreds of miles of roads disappeared, and bridges were swept away. The river Tarn rose suddenly, while the population of Montauban were abed. Soldiers and police formed a chain to rescue one family, but a tree trunk swept down and broke the chain. Ten soldiers were drowned. Scores of the inhabitants of Castres are believed to have been drowned when the waters rose and overwhelmed their dwellings. The floods were caused by heavy snowfalls in the Cevennes melting. The damage, it is believed, will reach several millions.