The World. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1891-1896, 1892-12-30
STORIES OF Big FLOODS.
GREAT DISASTERS WHICH HAVE BE-
FALLEN FOREIGN LANDS.


Visited by e.l.nitie. which Destroy
Millions of Lfves-some Great Floods
in European Countries.
The earliest records OF China are those
of floods. In the heart of this mighty
empire there is a great plain extending
from Pekin in the north to Hangchow
in the south, having length of over 800
miles by breadth of 800. 1t is crossed by
three rivers, the Yang Use, Yellow and
the Pei-ho, each subject to irresistible
floods during the summer season. The
entire plain of 10000 square miles, large
enough to make three states the
size of Missouri, is crossed and re-
crossed by canals which connect the
different streams and convert the entire
district into islands, few of greater size
than 100 square miles. In years when the
Yellow river goes beyond its banks, an
event which occurs with such frequency
that this stream is POLITICALLY called the
escrow of China" the suffering Is great,
but when, as sometimes happens, all three
rivers rise to food height from general
and long continued rains, the entire
country is submerged and over 10, 0O0, 900
people are rendered homeless.
According 20 the imperial records of
China, 372 such floods are recorded since the
christian era, each affecting from 5,000,-
600 to 100000 900 people. One of the most
disastrous of these visitations occurred in
tho year 1877 when the three rivers rose
almost simultaneously to flood height.
The homes and farms of 5000, 900 people
were Emerged, and crops were destroyed
over lac, 900 square miles of territory. In
the following year came famine and
pestilence, and by food, starvation and
fever 100000 human beings are re-
ported to have persisted. But the
great central plain Of China is not the
only district which suffers from food.
Most of the ports are situated at the
mouths of rivers, and along the lower
!! banks dwell many thousands of poor peo-
pie, who, by various handicrafts, obtain a
meager and uncertain subsistence. In
times of high water great distress invari-
ably results among this class, no later
than the year 1888 10000 houses being
swept away in Canton alone, while it was
computed that in that city and Shanghai
over 5000 were drowned.
The island empire of Japan is even more
densely peopled, according to size, than
the fiowery kingdom, and although dis
asters by food are not SO numerous they
are often terribly fatal. Japan has more
seacoast in proportion to area than any
other country on the globe, and owing to
the frequency of earthquakes tidal waves
are by no means uncommon. Scores of
such calamities are recorded in the his
tory of Japan, most of them involving
immense loss of life. Considering the
fact that until the last few years no reg
ular attempt at taking a census has been
made the losses must, of course, be largely
conjectured, but the magnitude of the
estimates is so enormous as to place these
disasters among the most stupendous of
history. 1t is stated that in the last CEN
fury no less than six great floods oc-
Cured, over 100000 lives being lost in
each.
The sacred rivers of India do not in the
least respect the feelings, lives or proper
ty of their worshippers, but from time to
time deal destruction to those who bow
down on their banks and pour libations
into their waves. The Ganges has an an
nual food in early summer.
The Indus is so far from the Ganges that
the one may be in food while the other is
no higher than usual, but it has happened
more than once that the Ganges, the Bra
ma pootra and the Indus were all raging
at the same time, and the consequent dis
tress on the Indian peninsula was terri
BILE. Such a disaster occurred in the
autumn of 1875, when series of severe
storms and great precipitation occurred
all over the peninsula, and in the mount
aims, which constitute it's boundary to the
north, over 5000 persons were drowned,
SOC, 600 were rendered homeless, and many
millions of property were destroyed.
With the exception of the Danube, the
Rhine and the Russian rivers the streams
of Europe are mostly short, but all the
more dangerous on that account, for, al
though almost dry in the summer season,
in times OF heavy rain they become tor
rents which do immense damage. The
Spanish peninsula has suffered terribly at
times from the floods in its short and
rapid streams. In 1917 over 5000 per-
sons persisted in Catalonia from a sudden
rise in the rivers of northeast Spain; in
1887 1000 were drowned in Navarro. Torca,
city of Murcia, in Spain, was totally de-
stroyed IN 1902, while the great floods of
1879 in Murcia, Andalusia, Alicante, Al
maria and Malaga, by which over 1000
houses were destroyed and 1900 lives
were lost. are still fresh in the public
memory.
The Danube has experienced several
notable floods. In 1879, the great storm
year, the city of Szegedin, in Hungary,
was almost totally destroyed; out OF 1865
houses only 351 remained standings sew
enty-seven persons were drowned and
many thousands rendered homeless. In
1871 the Danube destroyed twenty-five
villages near Pesth, and two years later
Turkish corps of 900 men was surprised
on a small island near Widdil, and all
persisted. In the same summer over 5000
habitants of Silesia were drowned by
the floods, while 200 persisted in Poland,
and in 1919 1000 houses in Dantzic were
destroyed, and many lives were lost by a
food in the Vistula--St. Louis Globe
Democrat.
Centre shot.