THE FLOODS IN SPAIN.

Kumara Times, Issue 1027, 16 January 1880, Page 2

THE FLOODS IN SPAIN.

The following extract from a private - letter dated Aguilas, Spain, October 20 th, has been published;

You will have seen the accounts of the awful storm that has visited us. "Whole farms have been swept away, not only the houses and stacks, but the trees, Crops, and even the earth down to the bare rocks underneath; About 20,000 fig trees alone in this distrtct have been uprooted and carried away, and the crops in the lowlands covered over with, in some cases, three feet of stone 3 brought down by the swollen streams. / At the farm- of a friend of mine there is literally nothing left—vines, alinonds,ng and pine trees, watertanks and garden, which had taken twenty years to get into perfection, all gone; aud even the ground is all washed away. ' The news from Murcia and Lorca is fearful. The plain of the- former, which was full of gardens of orange and lemon trees * groves of olives, with other fruit trees of every description, is under water for a distance of twenty miles, and when this subsides the mud and debris will cover everythiug, and all the garden crops be spoilt. About 1000 houses around Murcia alone a«e calculated to have been either knocked down or carried clean away. Over 200 dead-bodies have been found already, and the work is only just commenced. In Lorca, thirty-two;. Sierra Almagrera, thirty; Puerto Lnmbreras, ten; Alcantarilla, eight, have been found ; but the number missing is something beyond belief. '■-.•■■■> ,

At Lorca the water came down t&> rive i- 1 i ke a walL ; The, suburbs are more than half gone, and what was a few days ago a series of well-cultivated farniai and market gardens, with pretty country houses and flower gardens, is now an immense mud plain—Mere is .no-other word for it. One' little baby came floating down in the middle of

the stream, safely borne along in its Cradle, the poor little thing quietly playing with its toes. "With great care and caution ft rope was thrown over it, and it was safely brought to the side and the babe was saved. No parents have been found to own it. Should hone be found to claim it, a nobleman has expressed his desire to adopt it. At Murcia a. man was brought out through the roof of his house; he had been three hours, with the water up to his chin, holding aloft his two children, one in each hand. His wife had been been swept away before his eyes, with no chance of saving her. But reports of individual cases would fill a volume.

For remainder of news see last page.