FLOODS IN EUROPE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 700, 28 December 1909, Page 5

FLOODS IN EUROPE.

' GREAT DAMAGE. <'' - ■ : SPAIN, PORTUGAL, AND BELGIUM, By Telegraph—Press.Assoclation—Copyrißht • Madrid, December. 26. * Torrential rains have fallen, in .Spain, .and' Portugal.'* \The floods in Castile' have: not ,l>een equalled for fifty: years.' They destroyed bridges, ruined crops, and devastated whole districts. ; , Portuguese railway communication is almost at a standstill. :: A 6toim at Oporto: swept away'' vessels: from their moorings. They grounded on-sandbanks,' and .'their '■ crews, abandoned them.''''' : : i Through failure in the gas supply, i the town, of -: Oporto . is; in darkness.' ■ A -rise of 40 feet has taken [place in', the river Douro (wluch, havingits -sourco in Spain, passes into Portugal, and' intersects tho province of Oporto beforo reaching• the Atlantic). > . . -'.v Brussels, December 26.. '.-."Serious floods have been caused in:Bel-' gium through tho: overflowing of the. Senne t (which rises in the province of Hainault, and flows north-north-west, past Soignies and Brussels). • -• '1 ' >. Many factories aro ceasing .work, ■•, . ■ 'Berne, December 20. Widespread damage has been caused in Switzerland by 6torms. . - , STEAMER WRECKED: SIX DEATHS. DEVASTATED VILLAGES. : (Rec. December 27,. 10.5 p.m.) ..v. I: Madrid, December 27. I Tho rivers-of Spain and Portugal have i subsidod. . Several villages in the Valenoia and Zamora districts, Spain, havo been devastated. : : : - ■■ : ■■■ Tho German iron screw-steamer .Cintra,* [ 1140 tons gross, built m 1883, was, wrecked (n the nver Douro. : The . captain and Ave | others on board,wcro.drowned;.