The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1889-07-17
FLOODS OF THE PAST.
Awful Catastrophes Which Have
Decimated Mankind.
Vast foundations in Which People Have
Perished by Tens of thousands
The Johnstown Disaster Pc
cuiiarly Horrible.


cuiiarly Horrible.
Numerous arc the traditions coming
to us from prehistoric periods con
corning great floods. Everywhere il
the annals OF the various nations We
meet with similar accounts as thai
contained in the Bible. 1t is therefore
most likely that at a certain time,
several thousand years before the be-
ginning of our era, extraordinary
floods occurred in various portions of
the earth simultaneously.
StrabO and Diodorus speak of
gigantic spring floods having broken
upon Egypt at an early date, and
Plinius and Tacitus report such of the
north of Europe about the time of
Christ, which in terrible magnitude
and destructiveness had not their
equal. The Oldest reports concern the
floods in the region of the Red sea
along the peninsula of Suez. Strabo
chronicles the destruction of many
armies of the ancients III this Danger
Gus locality, and Diodorus relates the
drowning of the hosts Of Artaxerxes
at the same place. Here, too, the
passage of the Jews through the Red
sea and the destruction of the Phara-
mic hosts find their explanation.
Reliable accounts of disasters by
water begin century or two before
our era. They treat until compare
lively recently almost exclusively of
foods in Europe, owing to the imper-
feet connection between the nations up
to our own times.
About the year $50 B. C. the power
full nation of the Cells, after having
suffered for Il long time great losses in
possessions and lives, were forced by
continued destructive floods to forsale
their abodes along the shores of the
western ocean and emigrate to Italy,
the upper Rhine, and the Danube.
Likewise about the year 115 B. G. sew
eral Ieut0nic tribes were driven fur
thee south from the northern settle
ments by like causes. Among the
Older towns of the world the Eternal
City, Rome, suffered frequently and ex-
tremelY from foundations of the Tiber,
which to fill the cup OF the sulferings
oil The people were generally accom-
panied by dearth and pesLilence No
table among these floods at Rome are
those Of the years H. 81, %, %, and
IL b, G., and 5, 10, SO, 81, 60, and 70
A. d. In the year 5 the city was nav
lgated by boats for over week, and
large number of buildings were de-
s'royed by the flood as were also hum
areds of lives.
In the year 60 A. D. great floods in
Undated many miles of territory along
the French and English coasts. His
torlcally remarkable is the disastrous
ihundation caused by the Rhine in con-
sequence of the destruction of the dam
Oh Drusus at Nijmwegcn, in the Neither
ahds, by The rebelious Batavians un-
Ter Clvills to stop the advance of the
nuch-feared Romans This famous
IAN had been commenced by Drusus
dermanicus in the year 5 B. c., but
lad only been finished five years at the
Inc of this catastrophe.
A. ID. ITO the fertile tabe-land of
aareb in Arabia was turned into a
permanent desert by the breaking of a
lam, and the inhabitants were forced
o emigrate. In ia large tracts of
Italy and adjoining countries were
'nder water. The year sec saw the
'reater portion of Germany inundated.
n 44l the city of Is, on the bank of the |
Jay OF Douarney, France, formerly
lutte famous, was swallowed by the
foods In 5S7 and $50 Germany suf-
Do: Immense losses by water. The
mime having always been a source of
great ana frequent disasters, again did
enormous damage in 694 Ninotv
ears after even Charlemagne was stow
bed on one of his victorious marches
'y tho waters filling the lowlands
everywhere. In 1893 the sea flooded
he whole OF East Frisia. The wear
500 witnessed the swallowing up of a
'ery large part of Heligoland by the
nsatiable element. In SIS the Rhine.
BY another overflow, did more damage
han ever before, and in $50 its waters
devastated all the adjoining regions
along its entire course. During the
ninth century the English coasts suf-
lered terribly from floods, aud in $50 |
oil the rivers OF Central Europe over
aOWed their banks and caused great |
a. me eleventh century had no less
t tina i t,; I've great hoeas. At one
n nils i ni =. 125 geographical square
lss OF the Netherlands were laid
p pssre, AT THIS time there also aisap-
n near tha nun nun " of the larger islsnds
10 = S, the entire number swallow D(,, ed
'39oS on the same coast fr'om