Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1910-01-28
HUNDREDS ARE Lost
AWFUL LOSS or LIFE REPORTED
IN pELuoE THAT SWEEPS
OVER FRANCE.
DAMAGE IS OVER soc, 900, 900
Situation 10 One OF Gravest Danger
Heart OF Paris Rests on She'll
Through Which Waters Rush In
Subterranean Passages.

Paris.-At midnight Wednesday
the Seine river continued to rise rap
idly pouring its turbid waters ovel
the submerged quays and into the
streets and Paris confronted a situa
ton that has grown beyond the con
fines of civic disaster and is now an
international calamity.
The labyrinths Of underground
Paris are now rushing subterranean
rivers and the heart Of the city rests
upon a shell of earth which is being
attacked from below as well as from
above. The situation is one of the
gravest danger and Paris waits IN
dread for the crash which may tell
her that her ancient landmarks have
collapsed.
The loss is estimated at 100000.
900. Hundreds of lives have been lost
in the provinces; 10000 people are
homeless in Paris alone and already
an epidemic Of scarlet fever has ap-
peared among the refugees at Ivry.
Paris is practically cut off from the
outside world. The railroad tracks
are inundated; the telegraph wires
are down; the telephone system has
collapsed and the only means of COM
munication is furnished by the sail
ors who go about the flooded streets
in boats, demanding and receiving
fabulous sums for the rescue Of suf-
ferers and their effects. A great
army of police, firemen and soldiers
working desperately under one COM
mand, gives the city the appearance
of fighting for its life against foe
which will not be turned back.
Quays are collapsing every hour,
yawning chasms appear in the streets,
sidewalks drop out of sight, water
from the, underground passages Is un-
dermining the foundations of several
of the great public buildings; it has
even found its way into the subway
tube. As a last resort, soldiers and
policemen are endeavoring to build
cement walls to keep the waters OF
the Seine out of the streets.
The foreign Office has been aban.
doned as unsafe The Hotel Palais
D'Orsay is cut off by great sheet
of water and it's lower floors are flood
ed. Six square miles of the Bots de
Boulogne are under water; the Palais
Bourbon is flooded anil all the historic
monuments which lie along either
side of the river are threatened with
destruction. All the bridges across
the Seine are in grave danger as the
driftwood in vast accumulations Is
backed up against their piers. Should
one of the bridges go down, the crash
would carry all below 1t.
Troops from all parts Of the coun.
try have been summoned to Paris and
to make it still worse, refugees from
the flooded towns up the Seine are
struggling into Paris by thousands,
adding to the great burden which is
already making itself felt.
With the failure of the gas and cleo.
trio lighting plants, the city faces an
oil famine. Scores of oil barges from
Rouen are tied up in the Seine with
no hope of reaching the flooded cap
ital and the great oil warehouses in
the outskirts of the city are under
water and in danger Of being swept
away.
The snow which fell nearly all day
long ceased at nightfall, but the
river still continues to rise an inch
every hour and from the reports re-
ceived from surrounding country. the
authorities see no hope that the river
will racode soon SORRY .-,.,.