Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-07-11
FLOODS OF THE PAST.
Awful Catastrophes Which Have
Decimated Mankind.
Vast foundations in Which People Have
Perished by Tens of Thousands
The Johnst0wn Disaster Pc
culiarly Horrible.

Numerous are the traditions coming
to us from prehistoric periods con-
corning great floods. Everywhere in
the annals of the various nations we
meet with similar accounts as that
in the Bible. It is therefore
most likely that at 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 in this danger
Gus locality, and Diodorus relates the
at the same place. Here. too, the
passage of the Jews through the Red
sea and the destruction of the Phara-
nnic hosts find their explanation.
Reliable accounts of disasters by
W alter begin century or two before
our era. They treat until compare
lively recently almost exclusively of
floods in Europe. owing to the imper-
feet connection between the nations up
to our own times.
About the year $50 B. G. the power
full nation of the Celts, after having
suffered for a long time great losses in
possessions and lives, were forced by
con tinued destructive floods to forsake
their abodes along the shores of the
the upper Rhine, and the Danube.
Likewise about the year 11S B. G. sew
eral Teutonic tribes were driven fur
Their south from the northern settle
ments by like causes. Among the
older towns of the world the Eternal
City, Rome, suffered frequently and ex-
from foundations of the Tiber,
which to fill the cup of the sufferings
Of the people were generally accom-
table among these floods at Rome are
those of the years Al. ~. %. %, and
Ii B. c., and 5, Is, Sc, 81, 50, and 20
A. d. In the year the city was nav
igated by boats for over week, and
b large number of buildings were de-
stroyed by the flood as were also hum
dreds of lives.
In the year 60 A. D. great floods in
many miles of territory along
torically remarkable is the disastrous
caused by the Rhine in con-
sequence of the destruction of the dam
of Drusus at Nijmwegen, in the Neither
lands. by the rebelious Batavians IN
der Civi1is to stop the advance of the
Romans. This famous
dam had been commenced by Drusus
Germanicus in the year B. c., but
had only been finished five years at the
time of this catastrophe.
A. D. 40 the fertile table-land Of
March in Arabia was turned into
permanent desert by the breaking of
dam. and the inhabitants were forced
to emigrate. In ia large tracts of
ILaly and adjoining countries were
under water. The year 500 saw the
greater portion of Germany inundated.
In 444 the city of Is, on the bank of the
bay of Douarney. France, formerly
quite famous. was swallowed by the
floods. In 5S7 and $50 Germany suf-
fered immense losses by water. The
Rhine, having always been a source of
great and frequent disasters. again did
enormous damage in 694. Ninety
years after even Charlemagne was stop
ped on one of his victorious marches
by the waters filling the 1owlands
everywhere. In 793 the sea flooded
the whole of East Frisia- The year
300 witnessed the swallowing up Of a
very large part of Heligoland by the
Unsuitable element. In S15 the Rhine,
by another overflow. did more damage
than ever before. and in $50 its waters
devastated all the adjoining regions
along its entire course. During the
ninth century the English coasts suf-
fered terribly from floods. and in $50
all the rivers OF Central Europe over
flowed their banks and caused great
loss.
The eleventh century had no less
than forty-seven great floods. At one
time fully 125 geographical square
miles of the Netherlands were laid
waste At this time there also disap-
peared number of the larger islands
near the southwest coast of the Baltic,
making the entire number swallowed
up by floods on the same coast from
the time of the Roman occupation to
the close of the eleventh century, fif-
teen-all large islands.
The loss in human lives through
floods during that century alone was
over ], ZOO, 900. Some of the most dis
astrous floods during that period were
that of 1O15. putting a large part of
Holland under water and taking moro
than three years until its last traces
had finally disappeared; then the over
flow of the Elbe and Weser. destroy
ing entire towns along their banks;
further the inundation of the r omera-
nian coasts in 1914. reaching in places