ALGERIAN FLOODS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 30 November 1927, Page 5

ALGERIAN FLOODS

MANY VILLAGES SWEPT AWAY ENORMOUS DAMAGE. AEROPLANES CARRY FOOD. IBy Cable — Press Assn. — Copyright.) I (Received 30, 11.35 a.m.) Algiers, November 29. The flood damage in the Oran department alone is estimated at £4,000,000. Many villages were swept away and practically no trace of them left. A vast tract has been converted into a silt-covered plain. The dead are certain to total several hundreds. The rain continues, hampering relief provisions. Convoys have started. and in the meanwhile aeroplanea are dropping food in the isolated districts.—(A and N.Z.) HUNDREDS DROWNED WHILE ASLEEP. BABIES SUCCOURED BY SOLDIERS. Algiers, November 28. Graphic details are tc hand of the flood, in which 60 Europeans and hundreds of Algerians perished. Two-storey houses in the path of the torrent disappeared, whole families going along with the houses. Within half an hour the law courts and 60 large buildings had been obliterated, and the place where they stood is now a ravine 60 feet deep. Lightly-constructed Algerian uuarters were swept like chaff and sleepers were drownd in hundreds. It is estimated that the torrent travelled at 100. miles an hour. A sergeant of the Chasseurs d’Arique. learning that many babies were isolated in a flood-bound tram, swam a horse a mile, carrying milk. A soldier swam out ana brought back a baby, whose cradle was balanced on the edge of a ravine near a house where the family perished.— (Sydney "Sun’’ cable.)