The Disastrous Flood in Italy.
New York, November 17.—The London Times of the 5th, in an editorial on the floods in Italy, says: Two-thirds of the Province of Mantua, and one-third of that of Ferrara, have been flooded. More than twenty thousand families are homeless. Vast tracts of the territory of Parma, Reggio and Modena are turned into lakes, on the surface of which may be seen the tops of trees, the roofs of houses and the floating carcasses of drowned cattle. Not only the solid barns and substantial farm houses peculiar to those districts, but even churches, have in many cases been unable to withstand the violence of the floods. Many human beings have perished, both of those who allowed themselves to be caught in the lower buildings, and of those who fled for safety to loftier edifices, but hardly less wretched is the condition of the survivors. The cattle they have rescued from the flood are perishing from want of fodder. They themselves are thrown for sustenance on their neighbors’ charity. The harvests they have lately garnered, the fields they have just sown, are laid waste. What was a month ago the richest of plains is now a chaotic marsh, not unlikely to bear for many years the marks of a few hours’ havoc. Nor are the ravages limited to the lower Islands of the Po, but all around, over the vast level and up to the mountain sides, devastation extends. The rivers are everywhere breaking their bounds, and the waters are out throughout the peninsula. The distress is immense, and threatens to exhaust the ordinary resources of public and private charity. To repair the damages done to their dykes by the Po and the Oglio, in the Province of Mantua alone, during the present inundation, it is reckoned that £120,000 will be required.