SUFFERINGS DURING THE FLOOD IN THE TYROL.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 990, 29 January 1883, Page 4

SUFFERINGS DURING THE FLOOD IN THE TYROL.

The following simple narrative by a correspondent, written on the spot, brings the subject of the late floods so vividly home to ns that we see it all without any effort of imagination. All attempts to repair the roads in some places have utterly failed, and houses restored since September have succumbed to the increased violence of more recent floods : “ Alexandra von S. called upon us yesterday, and told us of their experiences during the flood at Brunech. In the lower storey of the house in which they were living was the, Baroness F. She was there alone, an invalid. Suddenly her man servant, white with terror, rushed up to her room, endeavouring to bring out his words, but his alarm made them inarticulate, ‘ that the brook from Beichbach has swollen into a torrent, and was coming down with fury into the house. They must all fly for their lives.” The Baroness rose from her sick bed and hurried to the Sternbach’s, whose house, standing so firmly, Seemed to be the bouse of refuge for everybody. Baroness S. (Alexandra’s mother;, an old lady of 83, and her two daughters followed. They found Baroness Marie perfectly calm and collected, comforting and helping everybody. People from the neighbourhood were carrying their goods into the Sternbach’s premises. In, fact, the great house became the general depository, and was so blocked np that when the flood increased the Baroness Sternbach, perceiving that the goods of their neighbours, filling every available space, prevented the possibility, in case of imminent danger, of saving any of their own valuables, spoke to.hgr hnsband on the subject. But he said they must sacrifice themselves on the occasion. They must not think about their own property, but try to help their neighbours, And she agreeing, the house continued to be a great magazine, and sentinels were stationed to protect the goods, for the doors stood open. No one went to bed. All the time the rain continued. The flood corning ever nearer and nearer, and with even greater force, it was considered needful, in order to save the town, to prepare to sacrifice the church and presbytery, and consequently a barricade was made at the end of the Sternbachs’ garden. Thus, the Dean’s house being given over to destruction, all his property bad to be removed and carried to the Sternbachs’. All this time falling houses were to be seen on every side, swept and torn away—houses absolutely split in two and carried down by the raging stream. The poor confectioner, Fra Zangli, suffered much from the flood. The house had to be cleared out. She had 300 guldenworth of eggs in her cellar. As for poor Wclsberg, that was terrible indeed. At the house there of Dr H a number of persons, including the incumbent and the curate, were hemmed in by the water. The new part of the house was swept away. The entire party prepared for death. They made their preparations, but as

one of them said, none foil resigned to snch a death, although they did not' murmur. Dr Fl.’s little granddaughter, four yeais old, was heard saying to her little brother, three years old, ‘We are going to die, and it will be very nice, for' we shall go to heaven.’ Poor little child ! It was discovered at last that by means of a ladder resting on a little oasis of road in the midst of the raging stream, the imprisoned inmates could be rescued. The ladder, after leaning against Dr H.’s house, was made to rest on the 4 Golden Lamb ’ opposite. Each person, it seems, had somehow to go down the ladder, and then, with its position being reversed, as it wore, go up to the first floor window of the Lamb, the ironwork of which had been torn away to admit of entrance. The mother of the children was sent down and up this ladder, and, although she fainted, was conveyed safely through the window. Her poor little daughter, who bad been the most contented to die, somehow dropped into the stream, hut was rescued by the curate, who leaped in and saved her. She never spoke or ale anything for 24 hours. Three hundred people at Welsherg took refuge in a little church. They remained there several days in their wet clothes, hut uttered no complaint. They had merely a little soup made of flour and water.” Since the receipt of the above, further accounts have come from the same correspondent, a daughter of Mary Howilt, stating that the poor people of Erunech, owing to the second floods, have lost all heart, and although the waters threatened to carry away their houses, they did not this time even attempt to save their furniture. Of the village Welsberg she speaks as being completely destroyed. The poor inhabitants had just managed to rearrange themselves for the winter when all was washed away. The misery and desolation defy description. When people have neither clothes, bedding, furniture, nor houses left they are grateful for anything—even a miserable old moth-eaten carpet was acceptable.