The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-18
FLOODS IN INDIA
CATASTROPHE WHICH RECENTLY
 0VERwHELMED HYDERABAD.
Death And Ruin Left Which Is Beyond The Comprehension of Man Thousands of Bodies in
 Ruins.

Calcutta, Oct. 1.-The catastrophe which recently overwhelmed HydeTa- bad, the capital of the Nizanl and left In Its trail one thousand dead, was the most sudden and appalling of the many visitations of India.
 :; In the territory of the Nizam, which covers AS. 900 square miles and has a population of eleven and quar- ter millions, are many tanks or lakes, the most important of which stretches two miles along the road from secun- derabad to the capital. This tank, with a owbie capacity of fifteen n4iI- lion feet. communicates with the River Musi, which flows on the nortawest Of Hyderabad. The bursting of the mon soon, on which India depends for her annual revival from parehed steEllitx ", AbTBnRffE rams so tfe fh6ndous that the iake oyerflowed into the river.
 The Musi burst its banks. and a tidal. wave sixty feet high swept down upon the olty carrying everything be- fore 1t and devastating one-quarter of the city, It is calculated that S6.eoo cubic feet of water struck the city every second. crashing into the dense mass of houses and burying under their ruins 1000 natives.
 A welter of death and ruin remain ed when the flood subsided.e One vast quagmire of black mud, out of which rises poisonous stench, marks the spot where lived over 100. 900 people. The natives have been searching this pool of death for the remains of their relatives day and night. While they were engaged in this dreadful task a cry went up once more: The flood is upon us," and another catastrophe from panic seemed inevitable.
 Many acts of heroism are reported. Miss Blain, Miss Evans. and Miss Pinto of the Victoria Zenana Hospital. risk ed their lives again and again to carry their patients to the safety of the roof of the hospital about which the waters rose rapidly to within two feet of the roof. The medical staff also display ed the greatest heroism; while a Roman Catholic priest stood alone on the pier of the tottering bridge. per suading the people to be calm and directing their flight before the de- vastatinR force The natives, too, showed heroism and fortitude
 Elephants are now being used to pull down the shattered walls of houses. Thousands of families are homeless and destitute. and the stench from the pool of black mud. which covers one quarter of the city. gives fear of an awful pestilence. The dis aster Is so great and the destituticn so widespread that 1t demands the in- stant charity of the world.
 The following are extracts from the report sent by an eyewitness. The scene on the bank of the Secunderabaj side of the river. where thousands of natives were vainly searching for what were their homes, was sickening and frightful Corpses in every conceiv- able position. mangled. torn. and swollen. were jumbled up in the de- bris of masonry and twisted iron and vreckage of all descriptions. Little dead children. with jewelry thick upon their legs and arms. were passed by unheeIed by the mad rush of people seeking their own little piece ot wreckage.
 The municipal police and officers ot the health department were working with ali the speed they cculd to re- | move scores of corpses. some buried in sand. others flung by the water into the high wreckage. They were nest ly the bodies of young girls and old women. horses, sheep, dogs and cats Every kind of living thing seemed tc have been trapped In all quarters.
 The flood made a passage right from the western sile of the city. from clean out a district of a mile Tn lengtf and half a mile In breadth. In fact l the whole of one thickly populated l part of the city. containing some 1 thousands of houses. was evidently swept away in a few moments. The very suddenness of the catastrophe staggered the people. So far. not 2 | single death IS reported other thar | those of natives.