Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-12-23


The German correspondence of an English
paper gives the following condensed narrative
OF the effects of the recent fearful tempest in
the North sea and along the Baltic coast, by
which whole towns and villages were ruined,
MANY lives lost, and great suffering occasoned:
eve will attempt to give some idea of the ter
ribe devastation occasiOned by the high tide
aud fearful storm from the northeast on the 10th
oil November. This tide, which reached its
greatest hight on the coast of Schleswig at
about nine O'Clock at night, was the highest
ever known ou the baltic, exceeding the great
tide of 1894 by twenty 1--WE inches in hight, aud
that Of 1886 by uwenty-eight inches. The water
rose about eleven feet above the mean level oil
the sea. On the shores of the Baltic, which are
quite unshetered, an inundaton could not fail
to take place, against which all human eXer
tons and precautions were utterly pOwerless.
In the small town of Apronrade some ninety
houses have become uniuhabited, and nearly
two hundred and eighty families have not rool
over their heads. The news from Ecketnorde
is still WORSE entire streets have been literally
annihilated, while many of the buildings left
standing are undermined in their foundations
10 such an extent that they had 10 be pulled
down. The exact number of dwellings totally
destroyed in Eckernlorde cannot yet be ascer-
tained, but it will not fall short Of one hundred
Hundreds OF inhabitants have lost everything
house and home, furniture, agricultural imple-
ments, cattle, supplies for the winter-they have
literally nothing left them. The news from the
district of Oldenburg is most saddening; but
here, TOO, the damage done cannot he fully est-
mated as vet. On one properly $50 cows and
200 hogs were drowned; many villages have
been inundated, and in one of them from forty
to fifty houses have been destroyed. In several
places human lives have been lost; in the village
of Dahme eleven persons are missing, and the
death of seven of them has been ascertained In
the island of Fenarn the family of pilot, con
sisting of husband, wife and two children, who
had taken refuge on the roof of the house, and
were clnging to the chimney, were washed
away and drowned in the sight of their neigh
hOrS and of Il boats crew which had already
succeeded in saving the lives OF 81 persons. On
this island the sea broke through all the dykes,
and out of ~ villages the fields and property of
only II escaped the devastating flood. The
entire coast of western Pomerania and the
island Of Rugen, with It's projecting peniusulaS
and the smaller islands lying around it, have
also mos severely suffered.
The long and narrow island of Hidden
see, near Rugen, through which the sea once be-
fore forced its way, has been divided into TWO
parts by a channel seventeen feet deep. Two
villages were completely inundated, and had to
be abandoned by their inhabitants, numbering
fifty-seyen families. Their houses are all satu-
rated with water and have become unnhabit-
able. Vtte was also entirely covered by the sea-
and its inhabitants-seventy tamileS-had 10 be
rescued from the garrets by boats. Provisions,
winter stores of all kinds and fuel have been
washed away or spoiled, ana ihe wells are use
less on account of the salt water with which
they are filled. Want OF shelter from the cold is
bitterly felt, aud the unfortunate people have
not the primary neceSsaries Of life. The chief
trade OF the island has been totally destroyed, as
all the fishing nets have disappeared and the
boats were either knocked in pieces or carried off
by the sea.
The peninsula of Oars and the island of
Finest, the iorelands of part of western Pomer-
lnia, were also deyasted by this uneXamped in
undation rhe natural bikes have been broken
through in five places, and the artificial dikes
and embankmentS, constructed not long ago at
a heavy cost, have been entirely demolished.
In the Island OF Zingst the water was every
where about three metres deep, most of the
buildings have been entirely destroyed, and the
remainder seriously damaged. The inhabitants
had TO take refuge on the roofs, where they
passed a whole day and night without food
All their property has been DESTROYED or washed
away, and their cattle drowned In the district
of Franzburg alone four thousand hectares of
cultivated land, besides the forests, have been
devastated and rendered worthless for many
years 10 come, and more than four thousand in
habitantS have lost all their property, and are
even without food.
Only small portion of the losses can be
made good by the eXertions of the inhabitants
themselves for it is aborers mechanics, fisher
men, and small farmers-in short, the poorest
classes-that have suffered most by the inunda-
tOn -