The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-03-15 00:00:00

APPALLING
INUNDATIONS
IN HUNGARY.

A COUNTY TOWN DESTROYED.

OVER 80,000 PERSONS HOMELESS.

GREAT LOSS OF LIFE.

VIENNA, Wednesday Night: -
The town of Szegedin, in Hungary,
situated on the point where the Maros enters
the Theiss, and having about 70,000 in-
habitants, was in the middle of last night
completely inundated by the overflow of the
Theiss, which flooded the lands to the north
of Szedegin. Four days ago the calamity
was impending, but the embankments of the
Alfeod Railway arrested the waters, and
during these four days the inhabitants and
the soldiers have worked incessantly to
strengthen these defences. Last evening it
was hoped that the danger was averted
but towards ten o'clock a violent storm arose
from the north, and at two o'clock in the
morning the embankments burst. The water
rushed through with such velocity into the
streets that in half an hoar the town was
flooded, houses were shaken down, and many
people were drowned and the wildest con-
fusion prevailed. Two individuals have been
hung for pillaging during the excitement
The Government has made a grant of 40,000
florins for providing food for the sufferers.
Sixty lhousand hectares of arable land
inundated, large quantities of goods have
been destroyed and many people will in
consequence be rained.
- -

The Synagogue at Szegedin, in which a
large number of people had taken refuge,
and the hospital, containin 500 sick people,
have been destroyed by the flood. The water
was seven metres deep.
Six steamers, 50 tugs, and a number of
ferry boats are engaged in the work of sal-
vage. Twenty trains have been occupied in
carrying away 18,000 of the inhabitants.
In the Hungarian Diet Herr Tisza's Gov-
ernment was vigorously attacked for not
having displayed more foresight.

SZEGEDEN, March 12, 6 a.m.

The catastrophe which has for some days
been apprehended from the floods in tiie.
neighbourhood of this town occurred at
two o'clock this morning, when the water
broke through the dam and rushed in broad
streams towards the town. All the inhabit-
ants are taking to flight.
PESTH, March 12, Evening.

Telegrams from Szegedin announce that
the flood, with a terrific roar, is rushing from
two sides over the town, two-thirds of which
are under water. Whole rows of houses are
falling in, and the horrors of the situation
baffle all descr;ption. The inhabitants are
flocking towards New Szegedin or to the
more elevated parts of the town. The or-
phanage as well as tk. synagague have been
destroyed, and all the inmates of the former
establishment wore buried in the ruins. Two
manufactories are on fire, while the citadel,
post office, telegraph office, and other public
buildings are under water. Steps have been
taken by the municipal authorities here to
send succour and a committee of relief to
the scene of the disaster, and two relief trains
have already started, In the barracks and
other buildings of the capital accommodation
has been provided for the homeless fugi-
tives.

The news of the terrible floods which have
de vasmted the (.-ornitat of Czongrad, in South-
east Hungary, cannot be said (says the Even-
ing Stardard) to have been unexpected. For
several days attention has been drawn to the
quarter, and apprehensions excited by the
rapid rise in the waters of the Theiss and
Maros, but nobody anticipated that the in-
undations would have progrs.;cd with such
rapidity and completeness, and have resulteti
in such an appalling destruction of life and
property. The Theiss, anciently known as
the Tibiscus, rises in the Carpathian Moun-
t tins, and is formed by the junction of the
Black and White Theiss, twenty miles east-
north-east of Szigeth. It drains the eastern
part of Hungary and most of Transylvania,
and joinsthe Danube some twenty-two miles
east of Peterwarden. The length of the
river i iles, and for tale greater portiou

of its course the stream is broad and deep'
but tortous and interspersed with sandbanks,
like those which intersect flat countries. It
is navigable for ve55315 of tolerably large ton-
lin ge.. The Alaross by far the most import-
ant nver of Transylvania, rising near the
oast frontier, and flowing along in a serpen-
tming thread until it enters Hungary, and,
after passing Arad, empties itself into the
Theiss near Szegedin. The triangular space
at the confluence of the two rivers is an im-
mense alluvial plain. At this spot, and in
its vicinity, the fearful calamity, tidings of
which were wired yesterday forenoon, oc-
curred. Hoping against hope, ;the people
clung to their homes to the last, fri the vain
expectation that the swollen waters would
subside. The inhabitants of Szegedin worked
with a will day and night, endeavouring to
prop up and strengthen the dykes to resist
the increasing pressure of the immense
volume of liquid; but the powers of Nature
were, apparently, not to be overcome. The
waters rose and rose, until, bursting their
barriers in the early dawn of morning, they
tore al-yap the embankment, swept through
every opening, crushing through foundations,
and carrying off carts, cattle, doorposts,
timber, and furniture like so much flotsam
and jetsam. Those who recollect the suffer-
ings of the poor people on the south bank of
the Thames, owing to comparatively petty
floods at Southwark, will be able to form
some faint idea of the picture that must have
been presented. At this moment the purta,
or Hungarian prairie, lying on both sides of
the Theiss and its tributary, is one vast zheet
of turbid water.