The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1879-10-31
they were knee. deep; more often they

they were knee. deep; more often they
were up to their waists in water.
The gallant fellows waded into the
submerged streets, seizing such fugi-
tives as they met, half drowned and
frightened out OF their wits, calming
those VINO we're screaming at the win.
dows, and encouraging those who
rushed about wildly on the housetops,
until boats, berges, and even carriages
could be brought into use, and the in
habitants saved from abodes that were
momenmrily threatened with ruin.
No intelligence could be obtained
from the survivors, as the roads We're
impossible. The line of railway was
for miles destroyed, and the telegraphs
had ceased to exist. While the towns
men were waiting for news from the
country, the scenes of distress were
piteous to behold. Little nut-brown
girls went weeping from house to house
seeking their mothers who had been
drowned. Families there were which
had not one member left to tell the tale
of that night of terror.
Patrols, civil guards and volunteers
OF all classes sailed out in carriages or
on horseback, and very soon returned
to say that the retiring waters had left
nothing but thick coating of mud on
the once-cultivated huerta, fruitful with
vines and maize, and love-apples. Fra
Alta and Monduemas were a heap of
ruins, from the midst of which rose the
pointed spires of their churches, and the
gables of few of the larger houses,
whose inhabitants had escaped by
spending the night upon the
roofs, drenched by the storm and
surrounded by the angry flood. Be-
MIA, Jain, Lorea and Carravaca suffered
no less damage than the other villages
of the plain. As for the hamlets of the
Vega, they contained nothing bat ruins
of buildings and dead bodies.
Within forty-eight hours 100 corpses
had been brought in and laid by AZ
others, who had been taken from the
riverside houses. In many parts of the
Vega the stencil was so great that neither
the civil guards nor the authorities
thought it prudent to attempt any ex-
ploration for the victims. The dead
lay side by side in building set apart
for that purpose. All day long rela-
tions of those that were missing
thronged the house of death, striving
to recognize familiar face. Some of
the richer class had already made pre-
partitions for the burial, and masked
men were met hurrying along the
streets, and boys bearing crosses and
flags with religious inscriptions. 1t was
as though q plague had visited the town.
Never had Murcia and the valleys known
such disaster since the floods of 1851
and 1902.
At Alicante, the chief commercial
port of Valencia, the whole plain is
covered with raging waters, which form
lake nearly thirty leagues i'll extent.
The waters passed over the enormous
stone table in which, as in Mosaic,
Alicante is inlaid, streamed through its
dark arches, its half-dark piazzas and
narrow streets, and wrought havoc only
second to that which ravaged the plain
of Murcia. In fine, the amount of dam
age is as follows: The villages Of Mon
deurmas, Fra Alta, Torso, Aquerra, Ali
antarilla and Larga have been swept
away; Murcia, Orihuela, Lorca and Al
meria have bean partially flooded; TO-
900 inhabitants and 100 families are
destitute. The loss of life is: At Lor-
ca, 100; at Orihuela, 80; at Murcia,
more than 1000. These are the latest
official returns, but it is feared that the
total loss of life will exceed 5000.