CHAPTER XXI
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Great Calamities Caused by Flood and Gale During Past Centuries--Millions of Lives Lost Through the Fury of the Elements.
Since the great flood which covered the earth, and of which Noah and his family were the only survivors, the world has seen many calamities of this nature, and millions of lives have been lost through gales and rushing waters.
At Dort, in Holland, seventy-two villages and over 100,000 people were destroyed on April 17, 1421.
At a general inundation of nearly the whole of Holland in 1530, upward of 400,000 people lost their lives.
In Catalonia, in 1617, 50,000 persons perished by flood.
Six thousand perished by the floods in Silesia in 1813, and 4,000 in Poland in the same year.
The loss of life during the recent floods in Austria-Hungary and in China have never been fully reckoned, and though 100,000 persons are said to have perished in the Chinese inundations, the figures are not regarded as trustworthy. These are the only floods on record where the loss of human life has been estimated at over 5,000. The list of smaller similar disasters is almost an endless one.
Holland, the little lowland country "redeemed from the seas," has suffered worst, from the nature of its situation. Protected, as it is, by dikes, which separate the land from the water by artificial means, a constant vigilance has been required of its people to prevent the ocean from claiming its own. In both the deluges of 1421 and 1530 the immediate cause was a breaking down of the dikes. The records of both are meager, although the mere lists of the drowned suffice to show how awful the havoc must have been. The inundation at Dort began at Dordrecht, where a heavy storm caused the dikes at that point to give way. In that territory alone 10,000 people were overwhelmed and perished, while over 100,000 were drowned in and around Dullart in Friesland and Zealand. The subsequent inundation of 1530 was the most frightful on record. It nearly annihilated the Netherlands, and only to the indomitable pluck and industry which have ever characterized the inhabitants of that country was its subsequent recovery due.
In 1108 Flanders was inundated by the sea. The submerged districts comprised an enormous area, and the harbor and town of Ostend were completely covered by water. The present city was built above a league from the channel, where the old one still lies beneath the waves.
An awful inundation occurred at Dantzig on April 9, 1829, occasioned by the Vistula breaking through some of its dikes. Numerous lives were lost, and, the records state, 4,000 houses and 10,000 head of cattle were destroyed.
A large part of Zealand was overflowed in 1717, and 1,300 of the inhabitants were lost in the floods. Hamburg, while her citizens with but few exceptions were saved, sustained an almost incalculable loss to property. The same city was again half flooded on January 1, 1855, and enormous damage suffered.
In the Silesian flood spoken of above the ruin of the French army under MacDonald, which was in that country at the time, was materially accelerated by the forces of nature.
One of the worst floods Germany ever had occurred in March, 1816; 119 villages were laid under water and a great loss of life and property followed the inundation.
The floods in China and that portion of the Eastern Hemisphere, from time immemorial peculiarly subject to such calamities, have always entailed losses about which little has been known. No definite statistics of loss of life and damages have ever been obtainable. In recent years there have been floods there which are known to have been very disastrous, but that is practically all that can be said. In October, 1833, occurred one of the worst floods in the empire. Ten thousand houses were swept away and 1,000 persons perished in Canton alone, while equal or perhaps greater calamity was produced in other sections of the country.
At Vienna the dwellings of 50,000 inhabitants were laid under water in February, 1830.
Two thousand persons perished in Navarre in September, 1787, from torrents from the mountains produced by excessive rains.
The beautiful Danube of poetry and song has, on numerous occasions, risen in its might, and brought disaster and distress to the inhabitants of the countries through which it winds. Pesth, near Presburg, suffered to an enormous extent from its overflow in April, 1811. Twenty-four villages were swept away, and a large number of their inhabitants perished.
On the occasion of another overflow of this river, on September 14, 1813, a Turkish corps of 2,000 men, who were encamped on a small island near Widdin, were surprised and met instant death to a man.
A catastrophe, which in some respects brings to mind that at Johnstown, occurred in Spain in 1802. Lorca, a city in Murcia, was overwhelmed by the bursting of a reservoir, and upwards of 1,000 people were destroyed.
France has on numerous occasions suffered severely from floods. Its rivers have overflowed their banks at intervals for centuries back, causing great loss of life and damage to property. The Loire flooded the center and southwest of France by an unprecedented rise in October, 1846, and, while the people succeeded in escaping to a great extent, damages aggregating over $20,000,000 were sustained. Ten years later the south of France was again subjected to an inundation and an immense loss sustained.
A large part of Toulouse was destroyed by a rising of the Garonne in June, 1875. So sudden and disastrous was the flood that the inhabitants were taken unawares and over 1,000 lost their lives.
Awful inundations occurred in France from October 31 to November 4, 1840. The Saone poured its waters into the Rhone, broke through its banks and covered 60,000 acres. Lyons was almost entirely submerged; in Avignon 100 houses were swept away, 218 houses were carried away at La Guillotiere and upward of 300 at Voise, Marseilles and Nismes. It was the greatest height the Saone had attained for 238 years.
At Besseges, in the south of France, a waterspout in 1861 destroyed the machinery of the mines and sent a torrent over the edge of the pit like a cataract. The gas exploded and hundreds of men and boys were buried below. Very few of the bodies of the dead were recovered.
A thousand lives were lost in Murcia, Spain, by inundations in 1879.
India has been the scene of numerous floods. In 186 a deluge overwhelmed the fertile districts of Bengal, killing hundreds and plunging the survivors into the direst poverty. Famine and pestilence followed, carrying thousands away like cattle.
Italy has not been exempt from the devastation of the waters. On December 28 and 29, 1870, Rome suffered great loss, and in October, 1872, the northern portions of the kingdom were visited by great floods. There have been innumerable smaller inundations.
Great Britain has a long list of inundations. It is recorded that in the year 245 the sea swept over Lincolnshire and submerged thousands of acres. In the year 353 over 3,000 persons were drowned in Cheshire from the same cause. Four hundred families were destroyed in Glasgow in the year 738 by a great flood. The coast of Kent was similarly afflicted in 1100, and the immense bank still known as the Goodwin Sands was formed by the action of the sea.
While the record as given above is by no means complete, it will serve for all purposes of comparison. It embraces the most important disasters of the rushing waters on record, and shows what a destructive force the same element has proven which babbles in noisy brooks and sings merrily as it courses down the mountain sides.
DEATH-DEALING STORMS IN OTHER COUNTRIES IN FORTY YEARS.
1864--Calcutta, India; 45,000 lives and 100 ships lost.
1881--Haifong, China; 300,000 lives lost.
1881--England; great destruction of life and property and many lives lost.
1882--Manila, Philippine Islands; 60,000 families rendered homeless and 100 lives lost.
1886--Madrid, Spain; 32 killed, 620 injured.
1887--Australian coast; 550 pearl fishers perished.
1888--Cuba; 1,000 lives lost.
1889--Apia, Samoan Islands; German and American warships wrecked and many lives lost.
1890--Muscat, Arabia; 700 lives lost.
1891--Martinique; 340 lives lost and $10,000,000 worth of property destroyed.
1892--Ravigo, Northern Italy; several hundred lives lost.
1892--Tonnatay, Madagascar; several hundred lives lost.
1893--Great storm on the northwest coast of Europe; 237 lives lost off English coast and 165 fishermen off Jutland.
HISTORIC DEVASTATING STORMS IN THE SOUTHERN STATES.
1840--Adams County, Mississippi; 317 killed, 100 injured; loss $1,260,000.
1842--Adams County, Mississippi; 500 killed; great property loss.
1880--Barry, Stone, Webster and Christian Counties, Missouri; 100 killed, 600 injured; 200 buildings destroyed; loss $1,000,000.
1880--Noxubee County, Mississippi; 22 killed, 72 injured; 55 buildings destroyed; loss $100,000.
1880--Fannin County, Texas; 40 killed, 83 injured; 49 buildings destroyed.
1882--Henry and Saline Counties, Missouri; 8 killed, 53 injured; 247 buildings destroyed; loss $300,000.
1883--Kemper, Copiah, Simpson, Newton and Lauderdale Counties, Mississippi; 51 killed, 200 injured; 100 buildings destroyed; loss $300,000.
1883--Izard, Sharp and Clay Counties, Arkansas; 5 killed, 162 injured; 60 buildings destroyed; loss $300,000.
1884--North and South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky and Illinois; 800 killed, 2,500 injured; 10,000 buildings destroyed.
[Illustration: HOMES RUINED AND FAMILIES KILLED]
[Illustration: RUIN CAUSED BY THE FLOOD]
[Illustration: A STREET AFTER THE FLOOD]
[Illustration: AFTER THE DISASTER]
[Illustration: RUINED HOMES]
[Illustration: A STREET OF STORES IN RUINS]
[Illustration: A TYPICAL SCENE AFTER THE DISASTER]
[Illustration: HOUSES DESTROYED BY THE FLOOD]
[Illustration: SOLDIERS ENCAMPED IN THE STRICKEN CITY]
[Illustration: DESTRUCTION ALONG THE WHARFS]
[Illustration: THE DESTRUCTION BY THE WATER]
[Illustration: A STREET AFTER THE DISASTER]
[Illustration: EXODUS FROM GALVESTON THE NEXT DAY]
[Illustration: CREMATION OF BODIES HAULED TO THE WHARF FRONT]
[Illustration: BODIES OF VICTIMS OF THE HURRICANE BEING CARTED TO SCOWS FOR BURIAL IN THE GULF]
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