The record-union., 1891-09-16
The Damage Done is Terrible in
Its Extent.
TWo-THIRDS OF THE HOUSES IN CON-
SUEGRA IN RUINS.
The Death List Swelling to AppaI-
ling Numbers-Those Saved From
Drowning In Greatest Distress for
Want of Food and shelter-Crops
Ruined and Thousands of Heads of
Stock Drowned.
Special to the REooRp-UN1oS.


MADRID, Sept. 15.-The floods which
caused so much damage and which are
already known to have resulted in the
loss of thousands of lives have been gem
eral IN the south of Spain. The damage
done is terrible in it's extent. In the
province of Toledo the rush of water
from the Consuegra River was so sudden
and unexpected that hundreds of people
were drowned in their beds. Four hun
dreG bodies have already been recovered
and ut least one hundred corpses can be
seen floating in the swollen river. A ma
uonal relief fund has been opened. and all
the newspapers announce that they are
ready to receive donations. The grape
and grain crops were destroyed through
out the flooded sections of the country.
The overilowing of Consuegra threat
ems to cause further damage. Two-thirds
OF the houses practically destroyed are
still standing, but the foundations are
sapped and they threaten TO fall at any
moment. The families saved from drown
ing are IN great distress from want of
food.
An estimate classed as a moderate one.
and which is within rather than over tho
actual number, places the total death list
corpses still rest where they were found
Inless soon inferred an epidemic fever is
feared. So far as possible the bodies of
the drowned are being gathered from the
streams, mud banks and ruins, and are
being buried in trenches. Many of the
poules found are entirely nude, showing
that they must have been washed from
their beds.
Unhappily, the worst is not yet known,
and months of terrible priVations and
extreme suffering are before the utterly
impoverished survivors. The crops are
gone, cattle swept away, houses ruined,
and all that would enable them to earn
their bread has vanished beneath the
torrents of water which have rolled over
towns and villages, fields and farms.
The extreme distress, positively raven
Gus, and feeling of starvation prevailing
Ill many sections of the flood d-devastated
country has another, and,s if possible,
blacker side. Bands of desperate men,
determined to obtain bread at anv cost
for their hunger-tortured families, have
been driven to making raids upon and
pillaging buildings where they expected
to find food. Troops have been instructed
to take the most severe measures to pro-
tect property.
Two thousand kilos of army bread have
arrived in the flooded districts. When
the Government delegate in charge of the
first consignment of bread arrived he
was beset by the furnishing inhabitants,
male and female. The majority have
been naked or clad in rags, most of them
on their knees, with hands uplifted,
praying for succor. When all the bread
was gone there still remained many
mouths untitled, many sufferers who had
not been able to obtain even the smallest
portion of this temporary relief
at Almeria, the capital of the province
of that name, the number of dead is still
unknown, but it is admitted that over
800 houses have been destroyed, and that
large number of people have perished.
The villages of Pusoto, Lapicee and Villa
Franco, in the province of Ciudad Real,
have been severely ravaged by floods.
The Queen has subscribed $40, 900 to the
relief fund, and tho Bank of Spain has
added $1,000.
At Almeria the flood has stopped op-
perations at the electric light and gas
works, and the city is in total darkness.
The river Andariary has overflowed its
banks, converting the valley into vast
lake. 1t is estimated that over 5000 head
of horses and cattle were drowned.
The police have succeeded in sup
pressing pillage. Food is rapidly arriv-
ing for the sufferers. Fresh corpseS are
being discovered all the time. The bodies
OF sixty persons have been found in
public hall, whey they had been over
taken by the flood in the midst of we'd
ding feast.
The terrible storm which set in near
Valencia Tuesday morning destroyed the
rice crop. The rivers Turia and Jucar
are rising rapidly, and threaten further
disaster.
The Government has set apart 500 900
for relief measures, and has asked the
Bank OF Spain to grant credits to the
Governors OF suffering provinces.