Deluge

In France's midriff is the bleak Massif Central, mountain chain where rise little streams which become rivers that water most of Southwestern France. Last week four days' rain filled the porous mountainsides like a sponge, precipitated a flood which covered a district large as Pennsylvania, killed more than 300 people, did $24,000,000 worth of damage.

In Moissac on the Tarn, Guillaume Durand, sabot-maker, saw his wife and three relatives drown while he stood on a wall with two children on his shoulders. In the nave of the village church were piled 100 corpses. On the highroad below medieval Albia man and woman, complete strangers clung to a treetop for 33 hours, during which time the woman gave birth to a child. Seriously damaged was the Bordeaux wine country--hundreds of vineyards in Sauternes, Barsacs, whence sweet white wines, were uprooted.

Relief work was begun by hordes of soldiers and firemen from all Southwestern France. Prime Minister Tardieu had Parliament appropriate $4,000,000.

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