The free citizen. (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1875-07-31
THE GREAT DBLUGE.

$1,000 N3oA-<A CAJhoNoo
Three. Thousand Houses Doxyn--Sixfv
Millions of Dollars in Property v KNOWN
to Have Bncn Lost.
From the London Post {EditorIal), Juno %.
The geographical position of Franco,
although in many respects highly ia
vored, is such as to entail upon large
districts of the country liability to be
suddenly deluged bv the overflow of
flooded rivers. At Toulouse, such in
undations have occurred every twenty
years-or, Mt least, in 1916, 1886 and
l855-although never before to the
same extent as at present, or with the
calamitous consequences to life and
property which we are now called upon
to record. In 1856 the whole valley of
tho Rhone was visited in n similar man-
ner. The streets of Lyons wero for
many days traversed by boats, and not
only trees and cattle, 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, subsidized, all others
sink irto comparative. insignifoance.
A week ago to-dav. our correspondent
tells us the river Garonne, at Toulose.
was unusually high, but no serious
danger was apprehended, and no pre-
cautionary measures were taken. On
Wednesday the waters rose rapidly,
and by ten o'clock in the morning they
had reached the level of the flood Of
1855. At two o'clock two arches of
bridge and twenty houses were swept
away, and the floating swimming baths
and lavatories were torn from their
moorings and hurried down tho torrent. =
At five the water overfowed the paras;
pet which protects the poprLous quar-
ter OF st. Cyprien at it was ten feet
deep in tho streets, and before night
this quarter was cut off from the rest of
the town, the three bridges of commu-
nication being destroyed. All night
the crash of falling houses and the
cries and shrieks' of sufferers were
heard. On Thursday the food began
to abate, and the water had fallen six
feet by the evening. In the town of
Toulouse alone, it is said, nine hundred
persons have perished and 10000 are
left destitute. Nearly three thousand
houses have fallen, and the destruction
of property is roughly estimated at
from e12,000, 900, to s15, ZOO, 900, ster.
ling. The whole valley of the Garonne
is said to resemble vast lake, covered
with fragments of the ruins OF tho
town, as we'll as with wreck brought
down from higher, districts, and 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 the greatest force, vet the neigh.
boring departments have also been ter
rible sufferers. In Aude the 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- Garonne
crops have perished and at Eerenonil-
let. a village six kilometres from Tou-
louise, only three houses ont of four
hundred arc left standing. The railway
between Bordeaux and Toulouse is cut
in q dozen places, and the whole ooun-
try is submerged. The power of the
surrounding districts to assist the
greatest sufferers is crippled by their
own losses, and the Communication
with distant parts of the county is
6iShpiy iuupCucds IL 10 uOuDt1ul WueCu-
or the description of what has actually
happened will include even the greater
part of the calamity. AS the waters
recede surface saturated with mois-
tnrs will be exposed, and this surface
will be strewn with the corpses Of men
and animals in every stage of decom-
position. Exposed to the exhalations
hence arising there will he large pop.
ulation reduced to absolute want-de-
pendent upon charity for all the neces-
saries OF life, destitute alike of clothes.
OF food, of shelter and of employment.
To communities thus situated disease
comes with footsteps that are neither
tardy nor uncertain, and it is only by
the most prompt and energetic MD
from external sources that the inhab-
itants of Toulouse can be saved from
even greater ills,ifif such be possible,
than those which have already befalIen
them.
TIE CAUSE OF THE CALAMITY.
In order to form an idea of the causee
of the inundation it is only necessary to
glance at the physical geography of the
departments in which it has occurred.
They lie on the northern slopes of the
Pyrenees, and are intersected by nu-
merous and rapid rivers, of which at
least four unite to form the Garonne
before it reaches Toulouse. There has
been heavy and continuous rains over
ahe whole of the mountain range, and a
fall of snow Mt Luz, where it would di-
Sectly swell the head waters of the -Ga-