The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1910-01-26
THE APPALLING
PARIS FLOOD IS
GROWING WORSE
The Damage to Property Has
Reached the s2oo,ooo,ooo
s.:S. MMk
PARIS IS BEING RAPIDLY
CONVERTED INTO DISSOLUTION

CONVERTED INTO DISSOLUTION
Subterranean Streams Are BURSTING,
More Streets and Undermining More
Foundations-City Is PRACTICABLE
Isolated. =.
~ # 4;
Paris. Jan. 26.-Premier BRAND anf
Minister of Finance Cochery. after
consultation today, estimated that the
Hood losses would exceed 5000 900. 900.
Paris has been divided into five sec.
tons, each in charge of q military
commander who will control the relief
and rescue work.
The flood situation grows woraa
hourly. At Port Royal this morning
the raging torrent of the Seine was
~ feet, inches above the low water
mark and was rising at the rate Of
nearly an inch an hour against an
hourly rise of less than half an inch
yesterday. Although the river Marine
was reported stationary at Freesous
east of Paris, the fuvial navigation
department declares that the volume
of water rushing down from the
Yonne and other affluents of the Seine
above leaves no hope that the hieh
water mark will be reached before
tomorrow morning, when the flood ia
expected to reach maximum Of
thtrty-one feet, or q height greater
than was reached by the disastrous
flood of 1902. At the same time the
department admits confidentially that
1T Is impossible to predict anything
with accuracy, as the whole of France
is still in the grasp Of an unprece-
dented storm.
Rain, snow and hail are falling
everywhere, the coasts are storm
bound and ships are fleeing to the
harbors for refuge. A binding snow
storm ragged In Paris today and, cou-
pied with the bitter cold, added to the
general CONSERVATION, suffering and
misery of tho poor and homeless. In
the face of the national disaster,
France is giving fine exhibition Of
pluck and SOLITARY. Political divisions
have been buried and the government
and people united to solve the prob.
lem of relief. Powerless to do any.
thing to conjury the rage of the ele-
ments, those in authority have de-
voted themselves solely to the work
of rescue and IF providing shelter and
food for the homeless.
Every resource of the government.
including the army, was employed
today. Boats were requisittoned at
all ports and soldiers and firemen
worked tirelessly. Nevertheless Pre-
mier BRAND and other ministers who
had not left their posts for forty-eight
hours were unable to respond to the
appeals for help coming in from every
direction. The provincial authorities
have been instructed to act on their
own initiative without awaiting or
ders from the central government.
The situation in Paris was mott
changed appreciably from yesterday.
except that more streets have been
converted into yellow canals, more
districts evacuated, few more pave.
ments have caved in and traffic com.
munication is completely paralyzed.
One of the greatest causes Of alarm
continued to be the constant rise of
subterranean streams under the GEN.
ter Of Paris, which flooded the cellars
and undermined the foundations OF
the buildings. Whole streets have
been roped off as unsafe. All Of the
bridges over the Seine are still stand
ing but the traffic over more than half
of them has been closed. Another
phase of the situation is that Paris
has been rapidly isolated. telegram
and telephone wires being drowned
or grounded" Wire communication
is failing in all directions. 1t is Inn
possible today to communicate by
telephone between the two banks Of
the Seine. This greatly crippled the
work Of relief and the dispatch OF :.
prompt succor. Only two railroads
to the north and west were operating
directly into p"~'- today.
Railway communication to the south
and with Italy, Switzerland and the
Spanish peninsula is slow and by long
and tedious detours to avoid the
places where the tracks have been
washed out. Newspapers today are
filled with pages of the details which
constitute long and pitiful recital
of death and desolation, of ruined
and fleeing refugees. Halt
of the ACCOMPLISHMENTS of Paris are af-
fected directly now and rich as we'll
as poor are beginning to suffer. The
wealthy Champs Elysees district Is
without gas or electricity and some Of
the homes have no heat. Many Of
the residents are leaving their homes
for the hotels, which are crowded.
The most deplorable situation in the
neighborhood of Paris continues to
be at Ivry and Alfortville where the
river arne joins the Seine. Perfect OF
Police Lepine has taken up headquar-
ters in that district and is directing
the work of rescue. After ceaseless
work thrugh the night with rowboats
and autoboats. the morning found
more than 5000 persons imprisoned
in the second stories of their homes.
Paris is beginning to feel the pinch
of hunger. The supply of fresh meat
and vegetable sis failing and prices
are soaring to famine figures. Some
avaricious bakers who attempted to
double the price of bread were rough
ly handled today and two of them
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