Vernon County Censor

...including the army, was employed. Boats were requisitioned at all parts and soldiers and firemen worked tirelessly. Nevertheless, Premier Briand and the other ministers, who had not left their posts for 48 hours, were unable to respond to the appeals for help coming in from every direction.

Provincial authorities have been instructed to act on their own initiative without awaiting orders from the central government.

Subterranean
Streams
Rise.

The situation in Paris was not changed appreciably from Tuesday, except that more streets had been converted into yellow canals, more districts evacuated, a few more pavements had caved in, and traffic communication was completely paralyzed.

One of the greatest causes of alarm continued to be the constant rise of the subterranean streams under the center of Paris, which flooded cellars and undermined the foundations of buildings. Whole streets have been roped off as unsafe. All of the bridges over the Seine are still standing, but traffic over more than half of them has been closed.

Another serious phase of the situation is that Paris is becoming rapidly isolated, telegraph and telephone wires being "drowned or grounded." Wire communication is failing in all directions. It is impossible to communicate by telephone between the two banks of the Seine. This greatly crippled the work of relief and the dispatch of prompt succor. Only two railways to the north and west were operating directly into Paris.

Half of the arrondissements of Paris are affected directly and the rich as well as the poor are beginning to suffer. The wealthy Champs Elysees district is without gas or electricity and some of the homes have no heat. Many of the residents are leaving their homes for the hotels which are crowded.

Hundreds Perish.

Buchalons-Sur-Marne, Jan. 27.—The waters were stationary here yesterday. Hundreds of persons have perished in the valley of the Doubs. A whole family was rescued by soldiers in an autoboat after the members had been swept from a raft, and the father holding a revolver above the floor was about to shoot the others and kill himself.