FLOODS IN FRANCE.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17963, 7 March 1930, Page 7

FLOODS IN FRANCE.

WORST IN HISTORY. 10,000 HOMELESS. MEASURES FOR RELIEF. United Press Assn. —Elec. Tel.—Copyright. LONDON, March 5. Further despatches from Paris state that an area of 10,000 square miles in Southern Franco is flooded. It is the worst catastrophe of the kind in the history of the country. However, there are now indications that the floods have reached the maximum point. A survey of the damage reveals the fact that it is even greater than was feared. At present it can only be vaguely approximated, but material losses are already estimated at many millions of pounds. Fourteen departments have been wholly or partly devastated. The destructive character of the floods is sweeping and dramatic. All telegraphic and telephonic communications have been severed, arterial roads have been destroyed, hundreds of factories and power stations and thousands of farms have been ruined, dwelling houses have collapsed and many bridges have been swept away. An order for 70 coffins has been received at Toulouse from the Prefect of Tarn et Garonne. Airmen are surveying the devastated area. They report that more buildings have collapsed in the Tarn Valley and at Reynes, which is almost totally destroyed. They also report 14 more deaths. The members of the fire brigade from Toulouse rescued 22 persons who for 48 hours had been precariously clinging to roofs or taken refuge in trees. Sixty-four people were rescued in one place and 17 in another. Nearly all the district of Iss has been under water for two days. , The Toulouse correspondent of the Daily Mail states that at least 10,000 people are now homeless as a result of the floods, which are subsiding gradually. Scene of Desolation. Montauban presents a scene of heart-rending desolation. In the lowlying streets near the river the houses have been swept away and other buildings are crumbling and crashing down almost every minute. The damage to factories in the Tarn department alone is estimated at more than £1,000,000. At Gastres 2000 people have been thrown out of work and there is little prospect of fresh employment for them. Important woollen ancl leather factories have been destroyed in other districts, the damage totalling at least £500,000. The members of the Chamber of Deputies'were hurriedly convened for a conference to-day. They decided to institute an immediate inquiry into the disaster.

The urgency of relief measures prompted the Chamber to pass a credit of £250,000.

The story is told of a woman who was trying to save her paralysed father when she was swept away and drowned. Her husband rescued the invalid. PARIS, March 5.

Later reports from the stricken districts state that 150 lives were lost at Montauban, 12 at Reynes and three each at St. Antonin and Albias. Scores of others are known to have been buried beneath the ruins of buildings or drowned.

The waters are now receding and the scene is one of utter desolation and destruction. It stretches along 120 miles of rich country 30 to 40 miles wide and embracing more than 100 important communities. Troops are feeding and sheltering thousands of people. Women are weeping and men are cursing the fate that has destroyed their life work. Rescue operations are not merely a matter of boats and rafts. They are as perilous as life-saving in rough seas for the floods in many places are not placid lakes, but raging torrents.

On© rescuer was drowned after having saved at least 100 people. The Mayor of Moissac, where the darn burst, said it was a terrible sight when dawn broke. A whole row of houses had been torn down and many poor souls were trapped in bed and buried under the ruins of their homes. Their dreadful cries had been heard throughout the night, but everyone was helpless in the darkness. LATER. DEAD ESTIMATED AT 700. HEROIC RESCUE WORK. BY GERMANS AND SENEGALESE. United Press Assn. —inec. Tel.—Copyright (Received March 7, 9.45 a.m.) BERLIN, March G. Flood devastation continues throughout the south-west. It is estimated that 700 are dead. A family of seven were found dead beneath the ruins of their home. A peasant, seeing his house collapse, whipped out a revolver and committed suicide before the horrified spectators could prevent him. Husband and wife were clinging to the branches of a tree together when their strength failed, and they dropped in the floodThe population eulogise the Senegalese soldiers’ magnificent rescuing work. Some remained for 3G hours in the chilly waters. * Two German youths are credited with saving more than 100. A group of cavalrymen, who set out to rescue screaming children who were marooned on a diminishing island, met wild disaster, three horses and their riders being drowned.

BRITAIN’S SYMPATHY

MESSAGE FROM THE KING

(Official Wireless.) (Received March 7, 11.30 a.m.)

RUGBY, March G. The King has sent the following telegram to the French President: “ [ have learned with the deepest concern of the disastrous inundations which have desolated such wide areas in the south and southwest of France, and hasten to express to you, Monsieur In President, my profound sympathy with the victims and particularly with those who have suffered bereavement through the deplorable loss of life which this calamity has caused.” The British Ambassador in Paris has also conveyed the deep sympathy of the British Government to the French Government.