NEWS BY THE MAIL

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 369, 18 August 1875, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL

FLOODS IN FRANCE. The Paris correspondent of the Times, writing on June 27th, says : Accounts received from Toulouse, though at present imperfect, show that the calamity is far more terrible that was at first supposed, and it is now believed that some hundreds of persons have perished. Twenty thousand persons are destitute, while the destruction of property is immense. Up to Wednesday nobody had any idea that owing to the heavy rains of the previous week the Garonne would overflow its banks with such rapidity. On Tuesday the river indeed was unusually high, and some slight damage was expected, such as usually happens in winter when the snow melts, but had anybody suggested precautious against disaster they would have been deemed quite unnecessary. On Wednesday, however, the prospect changed ; the river became a torrent, and by 10 a.m. it reached the level of the Hood of 1855. It continued to rise, and measures were taken with desperate ardour to hem in the waters, but the attempt was too late. They invaded all the lowlying quarters of the town, and at 2 p.m, two of the arches of one of the bridges and twenty houses were swept away, and the swimming baths and lavatories moored to the banks were hurried down the stream, dashing against the houses alongside in their course. At 5 p.m. the water rose over the parapets protecting the populous quarter of St Cyprien. In an hour later it was 10ft deep. Boats were hastily got out to rescue the inmates of the falling houses, but several of them were carried away by the current and dashed to pieces or swamped. Two boats, manned by eight soldiers, were dashed against each other, and sank in a pool formed by the gardens of the Civil Hospital. Out of thirtj persons on board only one woman was saved. Several persons who tried to esoape from the quarter on the left bank on horseback were carried away by the Hood and perished. In the evening the whole quarter of St Cyprien was cut off from the rest of the town, the three bridges being carried away. All Wednesday night was to be heard the crash of houses and the cries of the victims. On Thursday morning the whole population was in the streets, all classes vying with one another in their efforts to rescue the victims. The town presented a heartrending spectacle ; 5000 to 6000 poor creatures, half - naked, bruised, and benumbed, were conducted on foot or carried in vehicles or on litters to the military hospital ; many of them were women leading their children by the hand. By the afternoon the waters had fallen 6ft in St. CyDi'ien, but both above and below Toulouse they extended like an immense

lake dotted with the bodies of human beings and animals and with articles of furniture, while roofs of houses and trees here and there appeared above the flood. At 4 p.m the clergy of St. Nicholas went in procession to the Church do la Daurade to supplicate the Virgin for mercy, and services were going on ill day in all the churches. About 100 corpses were discovered on Thursday and Friday, and were buried, after being photographed by their friends. One of the victims was M. Wohlfart, a retired major, who had entered a house to save two children, when the walls fell in and buried him. Bodies were discovered in many instances in alleys and gardens. Five victims composing one family were found in a first floor room locked in an agonising embrace. Those who had escaped were to be seen stationed at the entrance of their ruined tenements and giving information as to their fellow occupiers. In the belfry of St Nicholas Church sixty persons took refuge. The flood reached the altar table, and not far off a clerical student was searching all day among the ruins of a large house for his parents and sister, listening intently for any sound of life. All the granaries on the banks of the river are destroyed, and the entire quarter may be said to have disappeared, for all the houses still standing are damaged or tottering. The new Carmelite Church was flooded, a lady who was confessing being drowned, while the confessor effected his escape. The girls at a convent school were rescued on Thursday. They had passed a dreadful night, going from story to story as the flood rose, and passing the time in prayer, expecting every moment to be their last. The bodies of four women were found, each with an infant in her arms. Another woman was found by her dog. In one room ten victims were found, two of whom were still breathing, and received the last sacraments before expiring. The older houses, on account of the greater solidity of their walls, offered the greatest resistance to the flood, and those supported by the old fortifications were not carried away. Large numbers of persons have applied at the Mairie for food and shelter. The trooos rendered great service, displaying the greatest courage and daring, and they have been warmly thanked by the municipality. The villages round Toulouse have considerably suffered, and several persons perished. Marshal MacMahon, accompanied by M. Buffet and General de Cissy, reached Toulouse yesterday afternoon. After visiting the cathedral, where he was received by the clergy, he proceeded to the Prefecture, and afterwards repaired to the quarters of the town which have suffered most from the inundation. He next visited the hospital, the tobacco manufactory, and the Capitole or Hotel !.de Ville, '.where he thanked the Municipality for the zeal they had shown in succouring the sufferers. The Assembly, hs remarked, had voted a grant, the amount of which would be increased as soon as the extent of the disaster was better known. In spite, he added, of all the efforts of the Government, it was necessary to make an urgent appeal to the public generosity, which had just displayed itself by the formation of a committee charged with receiving subscriptions. After visiting the ambulance and military hospital the Marshal returned to the Prefecture- He was'every where greeted, the Journal Officiel says, with marks of respectful sympathy and warm gratitude. To-day the Marshal attended Mass at the Cathedra I at 6.30, and afterwards visited the ruins in the town and the neighbouring villages. He will start to-morrow morning for TarbesIt is announced this evening that at Toulouse alone 900 persons have perished, and that the outbreak of an epidemic is feared. The loss of life will never be precisely known, for the Garonne has carried away many bodies, and some have been recovered in the costume of districts twenty leagues distant from Toulouse. It is believed that 600 houses have been swept away in the town and 2000 in the environs. 1200 soldiers are still engaged in clearing away the ruins, and only a fifth of the inundated buildings will be saved. Water for drinking was distributed yesterday in the town, which had had none since Wednesday. The departments adjoining the Haute Garonne have suffered considerably. At Verdon, in the Aricge, as already mentioned, fifty houses have been destroyed, and eighty lost, besides head of cattle. The villages of La Bastide and Besplas have been swept away. At Mazeres twelve houses have disappeared. In Tarn-et- Garonne and the Upper and Lower Pyrenese much property has been destroyed. At Bordeaux the river has not overflowed, but it has brought down trees, hay, animals, and several dead bodies. An infant in a cradle, supposed to have floated some distance down the river, has been saved. The Valley of the Gers is inundated, the waters reaching a height unparalleled since 1825. Madame MacMahon, faithful to her role of protectress of works of charity, has opened a subscription and has contributed 5000 f for the relief of the distress, which exceeds all description. Not enly is there a material loss of £12,000,000 to £15,000,000, but there is the ruin of thousands of families suddenly deprived of their livelihood and debarred from a hundred resources which the widest charity cannot replace. The South of France, which was spared the spectacle of the war with its horrors, now undergoes in its turn a public calamity. Every private letter which arrives here describes a new episode. A single view cannot take in so many horrors at once, and world-wide charity will have ample scope in relieving so many misfortunes. I would beg permission to appeal in your columns to the benevolence of the English public, the effects of which France experienced during the last war. It is not long ago that a French deputation laid before her Majesty a testimony of gratitude for that sympathy. The present visitation is a more terrible one than the scourge of war, and those who are suffering under it did nothing to draw it upon them. I would impress, therefore, upon your readers the necessity of assisting in this work of humanity, designed to replace all that charity can replace, to rescue so many victims from the sufferings of hunger, to help to clothe and house them, and to allow them to mourn those they have lost without being a prey to fresh anguish. The first day's subscriptions received at the Presidency by the committee formed under the patronage of Madame MacMahon amount to 64,000 fr. The Minister of Education has addressed a circular to the lyceums, colleges, &c, urging them to raise a subscription among their students. The Southern Railway has contributed 50,000 fr, and the Opera and some of the theatres will give a performance in aid of the sufferers. It is remarked that inundations at Toulouse seem to be periodical. They occurred in 1815, 1835, and 1855.