The free citizen. (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1875-07-31
THE GREAT DBLUGE.
Three ThoUs"nd Houses Doxvn--Sixty
MHifo"s OF Dollars in prOpcrt v * noyvn
Ia Have Been Lost.

Thrcc ThOUSnnI Houses I)oxyn--SIxfxy
| millions OF Dollars in propcrt v Known
To Have Been Lost.
| From the London Post (EditoriaD, juno %
The geographical position of Franco.
although in many respects highly fa-
vorcd, is such ms to entail upon large
districts Of the country liability to ho
suddenly lcluged bv tho overflow Of
flooded rivers. At Toulouse, such in
undations have occurred every twenty
years-or, Mt least, in 1915, 1885 and
| 1S55-although never before to tho
| same extent as Mt present, or with tho
! calanltous consequences to life and
property which wo are now callcd upon
to record. In 1856 tho whole valley Of
tho Rhone was visited in n similar man.
ncr The streets of Lyons wcro for
many days trnverscd by boats, and not
only trees and cattlo, but bridges,
| churches, houses, even whole villages,
were swept away, and great numbers Of
people were either drowned or buried
amid fallen ruins But when
compared with the inundation which
has new, we hope, snbsided, all others
sink " to comparative insignificance.
A week ago to-duv. our correspondent
tells us the river Garonne, Mt Toulosn,
was unusually high, bnt no serious
danger was npprehcnded, and 10 pre-
oautionary measures were taken. On
Wednesday the waters rosc rapidly,
and by ten o'clock in the morning thoy
had reached tho level of the flood of
1855. at two o'clock two arches of n
bridge and twenty houses were swept
away, and the hoating swimming baths
and lavatories were torn from their
moorings and hurried down tho torrent. :,
at five the water ovcrilowcd the para
pet which protects the populous quar-
ter of st. Cyprien at it was ten feet
deep in tho streets, aud before night
this quarter was cut off from the rest of
the town, tho three bridges of commu-
nication being destroyed. All night
the crash of falling honses and the
cries and shrieks of sufferers were
heard. On Thursday the flood began
to abate, and the water had fallen six
feet by tho evening. In the town of
Toulouse alone, it is said, nine hundred
persons have perished and 10000 aro
left destitute. Nearly three Thousand
houses have fallen, and tho destruction
of property is roughly estimated Mt
from ,e12, 100000, to f15,O0O, 900, ster-
ling. The whole valley Of the Garonne
is said to resemble vast lake, covered
with fragments of tho ruins of tho
town, as we'll rs with wreck brought
down from higher districts, aud dotted
with corpses, some of them wearing the
costume of places twenty Leagues away.
Although it is upon this particular
district that tho calamity has fallen
with tho greatest force, yet the neigh
boring departments have also been ter
rible sufferers. In Ande tho crops have
been extensively destroyed. At Bag
nieres de Bigorre the Adour has car
ried away bridges and cottages. At
Verdun (Ariege) more than fifty houses
have fallen, and many persons have
been drowned. In Tarn-et- Garonno
let. n village six kilometres from Tou-
louse, only three houses ont of four
hundred aro loft standing. The railway
between Bordeaux and Toulouse is cut
| in dozen places, and the whole com
try is submerged. Tho power of tho
surrounding districts to assist tho
| greatest sufferers is crippled by their
own losses, and tho communication
with d;staa! parts of tho country is
greatly impedcd. It is doubtful whetl.
er tho description of what bas actually
happened will include oven the greater
part of tho calamity. As the waters
recedc surface saturated with mois-
tnre will he exposed, and this snrface
will be strcwn with the corpsos Of men
and animals in every stage OF dcconl-
position. Exposed to the exhalations
hence arising there viii he n large pop.
ulation reduced to absolute want-,le-
pendent upon charity for all tho neccs-
sarics Of life, destitute alike of clothes,
of food, Of shcltor and of employment.
TO communities thus situated disenae
comes with footsteps that aro neither
tardy nor uncertain, and it is only by
tho most prompt and energetic MD
from external sources that tho inhab-
itants of Toulouse can bo saved from
even greater ills, il such bo possible,
than those which have already befallen
them.
THE CAUSE OF THE CALAMITY.
III order to form m idea OF the causes
Of the inundation IT liz only necessary to
glance at the physical geography of the
departments in which il has occurred.
They lie on tho northern slopes of the
Pyrenees, and aro intersected by nu-
merous and rapid rivers, of which at
least four unite to form tho Garonne
before it reaches Toulouse. There has
been heavy and continuous rains over
.he whole Of the mountain range, and n
fall of snow ut luz, where it would III.
rcctly swell tho head waters Of the Ga