Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-10-06

Destructive InundatiOn In Switzerland
Whole Districts Laid Waste Immense
Damage TO the Crops.
The following details, published in a Swiss
paper, Of a recent inundation of the valley of
the Rhone in tine Valais
AT seven o'clock on the lst of September,
the telegraph of Brigue informed the author
tiles at Sion that the Saltine had overflowed
its banks during the night, and that an av-
alancbe of stones and pebbles had swept away
the bridge of Brigue. Half an hour later L
announced the carrying away of the bridge
of Matters by the Rhone and already the
water reached us black and thiclk-a sinister
herald of an inundation. The waves rose
higher and higher during the entire morn
ing. At ten o'clock all the barriers were
under water, and toward noon the ever-in-
creasing masses of water rushed past with O
roar like thunder.
The inundation had already reached the
left bank on the Champ-See and Chandolene.
near Sion, and breach was being made
above the bridge of the Rhone. In q few
minutes all that bank of the river was q vast
lake, under which the CROPS disappeared.
The Rhone continued its terrific ascension
during the afternoon, and toward evening
the waters reached the parapet of the bridge,
against which beat, peIe-mele, timbersswhich
had been fioated along the river-sleepers of
the railway beams belonging to the bridge,
the woodwork of dwelling-houses, and an
enormous mass of other materials, with en-
tire trees, which threatened to break down
the bridge. The bed of the river was COW
cred with field crops and spoils of every
kind. 1t was lamentablesight, particularly
for an exclusively agricultural country, and
ofwhich the most necessary resources were
thus lost in the waters.
The entire population, assembled by the
beating of drums struggled with unheard-
of efforts at the places of the disaster but
uselessly. Tow ard eight at night two
enormous breaches were opened along the
gardens ON the right bank, and shortly af-
terward vast masses of water had covered
the cultivated grounds of the plain: the
waves descended nearly to the foot of the
railway terminus, and the earth-works of
| the railway in the Champs Neufs having
been swept away like sand, the inundaton
extended even to the high road opposite
Corbussieres. From that moment the plain
disappeared entirely under the waters of the
invading river, and night enveloped the
valley of the Rhone amid the roaring of
the flood. The railway train was able to
arrive with great difficulty as far as Ardon,
and the entire line is since interrupted-we
| are isolated.
Since daylight this morning people are
occupied in saving the unfortunate persons
|
| Their cries of distress could be heard at Sion
from all parts of the country. They had
passed hours there in deadly terror, and
| daybreak revealed to them the river flowing
over the spot where lately had stood their
humble dwellings and their ravaged fields.
| poor woman has Just been saved who
succeeded in reaching the lowest branches
of tree, with her baby at her breast, and
who had passed the entire night in that des-
perate position. AT fifty PAGES from tne
bridge of the Rhone, two coachmen found
safety in a willow tree, while their two
teams of horses were drowned at its feet.
The disaster, in fact, is incalculable; all the
Indian corn and all the potatoes, which are
the principal support of our population, are
lost and the earth is carried away, over a
considerable extent of country, down to the
very gravel. Nothing has been seen SO
j terrific during the present generation, and
even the great inuRdation of 1884 was less
disastrous. The weather continues to be
| threatening, and although the waters have
somewhat subsided to-day, we feel great
anxiety for tonight. The torrents to the
| north have not sensibly swollen, but those
| Of the left bank, such as the Borgue, the
| llgrab, and the Saltine, are enormous. The
| inundation is attributed to the last rains and
to the hot wind, which continues to blow
over the glaciers, and to melt the masses of
snow on the hibg Alps.
Il