Hurricane And Inundations...
The Times, 1824-12-15T00:00:00

c theP I9 KILl h rl I mthr wistortune which visited our city on the 19tt, the Conrt Gaz--cm does not. yet contain any partisolars, and tbc Con.scevateas- Impartial only the folvowing article:- ' A .dreadful niisfortune, such as has not been seen for nearly half a century, has plunged this capital into the greatest consterna. tion. On the 19th of this month, the Neva, swelled by the influx of the water from the Gulf of Finland, which was driven up by a vio- jient wind, rose impetuously over its banks, and the whole city was inundated in a moment. IC was not till a quarter past two o'clock that the water began to recede; and about the middle of the night the river had subsided to its ordinarv level. The pen refuses to trace the detailh of this dreadful event, and its frighefal con- sequences, to which the Inferior classes of the people in particu- Iat have been victims. The quavs and part of the bridges, a great numberof ptsblic and private estiblishments, are destroved or much iniured. The loss of the commercial community is inciicuLible. It is i1possible to recount the instances of courage and humanitv shown by a great number of persens of all classes under these cir. cumstaneces. Every street and aleost every housc was a scene of the nost affecting self-denial. "As a witness of these events, and alwavs ready to repair the evils which the inscrutable decrees of Prov4derce now and then bring on the penp.e of this great empire, our august Sovereign has already anticpated thc hopes of the inhabitants of thiis capital, and efficadous measures have been prescribed to alleviate their sufferings. His Majesty has been pleased to assign the sum of a million of rubles to relieve the most urgent wants of the poorest classes." llesides this, we learn the followinz particulars :-The Imperial Palace of Catharinenhof, with all Its late fine improvements. Emil- janowka, Rurujecos Island, and all the country houses on the great voad to Riga, to the distance of 12 versts (eight miles), have suffer- ed incredible damage. The number of persons who have perished in this inundation probably amnounts to some thousands. The num. her of animals that have been drowned is beyoad all conception. The last great inundation was in Septenmber, 17,7; but this was still greater, the water havinz risen an arsheen and a quarter higher. It is supposed tlhat about 300,000 poods (10,800,000b.) ofstuzarare da. maged, and the half entirely melted and washed away. Next to su. gar, the loss oF twistin particular is very great; and among the arti- cles of Russianjproduce, hemp, potash, and hemp-eil, have suffer. ed very much. ln consequence of these events, a great rise has taken place in the prices of manv goods, chietly sugars: .Wlhite Ilavan- nah ias risen from 27s. to 35s., andl refined from .38s. to Scs. A committec, .of whiclh Ai. Bilikow, Councillor of State, is Presi- dent, has been appointed to superintend the distribution of the above mentioned million of rubles among the sufferers by the imnudation. Hlabitationts have been assigned for the present in the hotel of the Miilitary Governor, for those who are destitute of shelter. On the 19th there was a terrible storm from the south-west at Cronstadt, which laid the whole island under water. The mer. chants' ships suffered great damage. Several lost anchors, cablts, sailg, &c.; others are leaky, many sunk, and others are rendered unfit for service. The crews of all, and the cargoes of most, were however saved. - HAMBURG H, Dzc. 6. IFttO0t TutE BORSEN5ALLE LIST.) ft is our mellancholy duty to state, from numterous private artd mercantile letters arrived to-day froin St.Petersburgh,that the disas- ter which visited that great city on the 19th far exceeds every idea that was formed of it from the first accoutnts . The waves of the Gulf of Finland, forced by the hurricane into the Neva, overflowed the whole city, lying nearly on one level, and its environs in a moment, in such a manrner that it may be said that the lower story of all the houses, &c., was quite filled, which in many cases rose into the seeond story, and entirely over- flowed the low habitations &c, of which, in many instances not a Lr4,e iss U v. ,cn, Eo teba several vu?sges in the Immeliate vi- cinity, for instance Ernijanowka, are not to be found. It was stated (and here we may justly say that the pen refusesits office) that the corpses of 8,000 persons have already been found. The letters by the mail before tlhig, expressed fears of a general tainine, from the destruction of such quantities of provisions, especially of all the bread, and the ruin of thie ovens. The Exchange had been fitted up to receive four thousand persons. Among the Imperial es. tablishments that have suffered all' those atCronstaAt are nentioned, whlich was exposed to the first ?ury of the floods: the damage done to the Imperial fleet is said to be immense. In the fitperial iron manufactory at Catharinenhof, which was under water, 200 workmen perished; of 18 barracks, 15 were washed away, &c. llthi respect to goods, it is reckoned that two-thirds of all the su- gars are spoiled, all the pot-aeshes destroyed, and three quarters of the hemsp have bren under water. The herring magazines,with 15,000 barrels of lierrings, are washed away. It is scareely necessary to add, that under these circumstances, a snost alarming want ot' credit has ensued, and the most ruinous consequences to tade were feared, as all the tradespeople have suffered severely, and many of them must be consideredl as ruined for a long time to come. GOTTENBURGH, Nov. 20. The niglht before last we h2d a stornm unparalleled within the me- mory of ma,. IMany ships are greatly damaged, and ene yacht sunk. Several houses were totally unroofed, and an immense num. ber of panes of glass destroved. The water rose rapidly, and inun- dated all the lower part of the town; one man perished. Mluch dea. mage has been done in the neighbourhood; we do mot know the par- ticulars. Accounts from Uddewalta sav that that town has presented a scene of gencral devastation. The water rose eight feet above the level so rapidly, that many persons had not timse to escane to the higher parts of the town, but took refuge on the roof&. Furniture and whole houses were carried away by the current, and large ships were throwri upon the shore to the distance of 4.000 feet fr6D; their anchorage. The darkness of the isiglht augmented the horrors of this scene. When day-break showed the effects of the stborn aad the inundation), the streets were seen to be filled with beams, frag- ments of houses and vessels, and even a ship of 150 tons burden. Fortunately no person perished: hut numbers of cattle were drowned. HU1UCA-VT A,NDN 3|UDA7yo1J ,{0AT PETBRS. BURGFfr AND ~CRONSTADT. ST. PETER%BURGH, Nov. 24.