DISASTROUS FLOODS IN FRANCE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18511, 7 March 1930, Page 9

DISASTROUS FLOODS IN FRANCE

Terrible Toll of Midnight Inundation

TEN THOUSAND SQUARF MU fs DEVASTATED

Widespread floods, sweeping across one-fifth of the richest vineyards of France, and devastating ten thousand square miles of territory, are discribed by newspaper correspondents, as the worst catastrophe of the kind in French history. Hundreds of lives have been lost, immense property damage done and thousands of inhabitants rendered homeless. The receding waters reveal scenes of utter desolation in one hundred important districts.

SCENES OF DESOLATION. LIVES LOST AND WIDESPREAD damage. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) (Received March 6, 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, March 6. The Toulouse correspondent of the ‘‘Daily Mail” says that at least 10,000 are homeless, as the result of the floods which are subsiding gradually. Montauban presents a scene of heart-rending desolation. In the lowlying streets near the river, houses have been swept away, and other buildings are crumbling and crashing, down almost every minute. The damage to the factories in the Tarn Department alone, is estimated at more than £1,000,000. Two thousand have been thrown out of work at Castres, and there is little prospect of fresh employment. Important woollen and leather factories were destroyed in other districts, damage totalling at least £500,000. “ Cursing Fate.” Scores of inhabitants are known to have been buried in the ruins of buildings or drowned. The scene, now that the waters are receding, is one of utter desolation and destruction along 120 miles of rich country, and thirty to forty miles wide, embracing more than one hundred important communities. Troops are feeding and sheltering thousands of people. Women are weeping and men cursing the fate that destroyed their life’s work. Rescue work is not merely a matter of boats and rafts. It is as perilous as life-saving in rough seas, for the floods in many places are not placid lakes, but raging torrents. One rescuer was drowned after saving at least one hundred people. The Mayor of Moissac, where the dam burst, said it was a terrible sight. When dawn broke, whole rows of houses were torn down, and many poor souls were trapped abed and buried in the ruins. Their dreadful cries were heard throughout the night, but they were helpless in the darkness.

Cause of Floods. Torrential rains and the melting of the snow on the mountains have caused devastating floods in the Languedoc district of France. The Paris correspondent of the “Evening News” states that every hour brings fresh news of flood disaster and the death roll is now believed to be at least 400, including scores of farmers and their families who were drowned in the districts which were Inundated to a depth of many feet by three rivers, the Tarn, the Orb, and the Herault. These burst their banks and cut off from the world the towns of Montauban, Beziers and Moissac, and isolated hundreds of villages. Panic-stricken refugees from Moissac, who are arriving in Toulouse, relate terrible stories of the midnight inundation, which trapped hundreds who were asleep. Scores were trampled to death.

Terror-Stricken Inhabitants. Mothers and their terror-stricken children, who were fighting to escape from thirty houses in one street alone were swept away by a wall of water. Other houses collapsed, burying their occupants. It is reported that the roads are flooded to a depth of forty-five feet.

Relief is impossible, owing to the lack of boats, although hundreds have been seen on roofs, calling for help. Thousands of cattle have been drowned.

It is officially announced that 150 are dead and 3000 homeless in Moissac. Eighty per cent, of the houses in the Tarn and Garonne valleys have been destroyed. The climax of the Montauban floods occurred when the dam burst and a torrent ten feet deep swept through Moissac and carried off 50 houses. It then spread over the Garonne valley for forty miles. It is not known how many of Moissac’s 9000 inhabitants perished. Five hundred families are homeless in Castres. Rafts had to be improvised to save the patients and nurses from St. Ouen Hospital. One-fifth of France’s richest vineyards have been destroyed.

PROMPT RELIEF MEASURES. SWEEPING AND DRAMATIC CATASTROPHE. (Unitod Press Association—By F! tetri* Telagrap’i—Copyright.) (Received March 6. 6.55 p.m.) PARIS, March 5. Ten thousand square miles of southern France are flooded, In the worst catastrophe of the kind in French history. Three rivers, the Tam, Orb and Herault have broken their banks, but the indications are that the flood has reached the maximum. A survey of the damage reveals it to be even greater than was feared. At present it can only be vaguely approximated. The material loss will be many millions. No fewer than fourteen Departments, wholly or partly have been devastated. Parliamentary representatives have hurriedly convened a conference. The Chamber of Deputies decided on immediate inquiry. Meanwhile the urgency of the relief prompted the passing of the credit of £250,000. The destructive character of the inundations was sweeping and dramatic. All telegraphic and telephonic communications have been severed, and the arterial roads destroyed, while hundreds of factories and power stations, and thousands of farms have been ruined. Dwelling houses collapsed and many bridges were swept away. . An order for seventy coffing has been reecived at Toulouse from the Prefect at Tarnetgaronne. Aeroplanes are surveying the devastated area. More buildings have collapsed in the Tarn Valley, and Reynes, which has almost been totally destroyed, reports fourteen deaths. The fire brigade from Toulouse rescued twenty-two persons, who for forty-eight hours took refuge precariously on roofs and in trees. Sixty-four were rescued from Miulis, seventeen from Strassine. Nearly all had been immersed in the water for two days.

WOMAN’S SUPREME SACRIFICE. RESCUE EFFORTS FRUSTRATED. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) (Received March 6th, 11.30 p.m.) PARIS, March 6. A woman was trying to save her paralysed father, when she was swept away and drowned. Her husband rescued the invalid.

(The old province of Languedoc, which officially disappeared in 1790, lies roughly between the rivers Rhone and Loire, in the south of France, and includes the southern portion of the great central plateau of France. The Cevennes, that attain heights nearly up to 6000 ft., receive an average annual rainfall of 60in.. but the plains and valleys at the foot receive a diminished fall down to 28in. Coming down from the high mountains in a comparatively short space, the rivers are torrential in character, and are liable to sudden flooding. Perpignan is on the eastern side of the mountain' chain, in the extreme south, only a few miles from the Spanish border, and has a population of nearly 70,000 persons. Montauban, on the western side of the mountains, is only a little smaller, and lies on the plain where the river Tarn debouches from the mountains before it joins the Loire, which empties into the Bay of Biscay. Castres, higher up in the mountains, has about 40,000 inhabitants. The chief industries are in connection with textile manufactures and wine-making.)