Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-01-29
SEINE is STILL RISING AND THE
FLOODED AREA is TWICE AS
LARGE AS YESTERDAYS; INCH
AND QUARTER RISE AN HOUR.
STREETS BLOWN UP
BYGORGING SEWERS
SEWERS OF PARIS ARE swlRLINu
RIVERS AND ONLY CRUST OF
EARTH SAVES CITY FROM DIES
TRucTIoN.

Paris, Jan. 2S.-F1ood prospects
grew black again this morning. The
temperature rose during the night and
the wind veered southwest, sweeping
the flooded sections from new angle.
The rain was falling heavily at day
break today. The morning found
great force Of masons still at work on
the erection of wall which 1t was
hoped would divert the flood from the
historic Hotel Lambert and the fam
GUS Hotel Lauzun adjoining.
The Rue st. .Lazare is inundated
throughout it's extent, water having
found Its way up through the subway.
The roof of the subway under the
Place de l. Opera fell during the
night. The Isle st. Louis Is fast disap.
pearing and unless conditions change
soon 1t will be submerged. The Seine
continued to rise early today and lack
ed but few inches of attaining the
greatest flood maximum on record in
1915.
The Seine was still rising at noon
today at the rate OF an inch and
quarter an hour. There Is a steady
downpour of rain and the Temperature
falling. Everywhere the situation Isl
appreciably worse than yesterday.
Devastation has now penetrated the
very heart of Paris. Gorging rivers and
sewers underneath are literally blow
ing up the streets, while the area Of
surface overflowed by the waters of
the Seine Is doubled today. The uuays
on either side of the river from one
end of the city to the other are either
inundated or have been roped off as
unsafe.
Heart of City Devastated.
The Esplanade des Invalides is a
sheet of water. The flood has crept
back almost to the Jardin de Luxem-
bourg and on its left bank invaded
the Place de la Concorde, which was
closed and guarded by soldiers, and
the lower Champs EIysee on the right
bank. The Palais de Glace and other
pleasure resorts are surrounded. Even
the Place de L'Opera, at the core of
the city, Is threatening to sink to the
subway beneath. Cellars throughout
the district from that point to the st.
Lazare station, comprising the Fau-
bourg, Mont Marie and the Rue Ber-
ger and the richer sections in the Rue
de Provence, Rue Drouot and the Rue
Chateaudon are filed to the street
level with water from the oyerfowed
subterranean river.
What is happening is enough to
strike terror to the hearts of all. The
very crust Of the city seems to ba
ready to sink into the flooded subter-
ranean labyrinth beneath. Every hour
drains are bursting in new localities
causing a subsistence of the streets,
or bulging them up feet above their
normal level, while the overflow Of
surface water from the river is trans.
forming the inundated districts into
formidable lakes and the streets inta
canals.
In the Berc quarter the water la sir
fest deep in the streets and the entire
left bank of the Seine from above the
islands to Auteuil, comprising the Law
Court institute, the fashionable st,
German district, the foreign office, the
chamber of deputies and the Champs
de Mars, is submerged under from ona
to ten feet of water. Some of the
deputies left the Palais Bourbon last
night in rowboats, others on the backs
of attendants.
The walls of the 1nvalides station
are crumbling, and both that struc
ture and the wing of the foreign Office
opposite are in danger Of collapse
Nevertheless, Nine. Pichon, wife oi
the foreign minister, held her regular
reception last evening, oil lamps and
CRATE fires being employed In the abb
sence of steam heat and electricity.
| The streets surrounding the st. La
zare station have sunk three feet, and
the situation there is regarded as des
perate. 1t is also feared that the foun
dation of the two big neighboring de