Floods

1916

Florence

destroying more than 100,000 persons. The
devastation at Galveston, Tex., in 1900 was
also caused by a storm wave of this origin.
Reservoir floods through the bursting of dams
are usually disastrous, notable cases being
those that caused the loss of 2,500 lives at
Johnstown, Pa., on June i, 1889, and of 76
lives at Austin, Pa., on Sept. 30, 1911.

The most tremendous floods are produced
by a river changing its course—as, for in-
stance, the Yellow River in China. During
historical times the place where this river
discharges into the sea has varied through a
distance of 350 m. The loss of life at each
change has been enormous—amounting to
between forty and fifty millions of lives from
1851 to 1866.

The great flood of 1658 in the river Somme,
in. France, was due to the combination of
melting snow with heavy rainfall; and similar
conditions prevailed in 1910, when the Seine
flood overwhelmed Paris. The annual flood
damage in the United States has been es-
timated at more than $235,000,000.

One of the most devastating floods in
United States history began in January, 1937.
Owing to abnormal winter rain in the valleys
of the Ohio and Mississippi, the regions along
these rivers were visited by unparalleled
high water, which inundated Cincinnati,
Louisville, and many smaller cities along the
Ohio River. It threatened to destroy Cairo,
111., at the confluence of the Ohio and Mis-
sissippi, but a floodway at New Madrid, Mo.,
was dynamited to relieve the pressure, and
a 6o-foot concrete sea wall surmounted by a
3-foot bulkhead held firm as the crest of the
flood moved down the Mississippi.

The $270,000,000 levee and spillway system
built since the 1927 floods was strengthened
at weak spots by a large army of workmen
as far as New Orleans.

By February 15, 1937, the estimated num-
ber of dead was 400; the property loss almost
half a billion dollars; and the persons made
homeless nearly 600,000. Quick aid was ren-
dered by the Red Cross, which raised $20,-
ooojooo for relief; the Federal Government,
through the Disaster Loan Corporation,
which was created as an emergency measure
by act of Congress; the Coast Guard, the
Resettlement Administration, and other gov-
ernmental agencies.

Flora, the ancient Roman goddess of flow-
ers, whose festival was held annually in the
spring from April 28 to May 3. In 238 B.C. a
temple was erected to her in the Circus Maxi-
raus in Rome.

Flora, a term used to indicate the totality
of plant species in a circumscribed area. It
may also serve to indicate the totality of plant
species at a given epoch in time. See BOTANY ;
PLANTS.
Florence (Italian Firenze), city, Italy,
capital of the province of Florence. The city,
originally on the right bank of the river, was
extended to the left bank in the Middle Ages.
Since the demolition of the ancient walls in
1865, it has spread extensively, especially to-
ward the north and east, and since 1888 the
former narrow and unsanitary quarters which
constituted the heart of the city, and the site
of the Ghetto, have been entirely modernized.
The chief architectural feature is the Cathe-
dral in the Piazza del Duomo, one of the larg-
est churches in Italy, erected chiefly between
1296 and 1436. Its interior is adorned with
several fine pieces of sculpture by Michelan-
gelo, Ghiberti,.Sansovino, Delia Robbia, and
others, and with two bronze doors. Its de-
tached Campanile, Giotto's greatest work, was
built between 1334 and 1387, and is 276 ft.
high. Near the west end of the Cathedral
stands the Baptistery, which served as the
cathedral of the city down to 1128. It has still
more famous bronze doors, three in number,
the work of Ghiberti and Andrea Pisano.
Among the other famous churches are those of
Santa Croce (1294-1442), the Pantheon of
Florence; Santa Maria Novella (1278-1350);
Santa Maria del Carmine; San Lorenzo; the
New Sacristy, built in 1523-9 by Michelangelo
to serve as the mausoleum of the Medici, also
belongs to this church; the Church of the An-
nunciation (1250), decorated with frescoes by
Andrea del Sarto; the Church of the Trinity,
with frescoes by Ghirlandajo; of the Hol>
Spirit (i5th century); of Or San Michele,
with Orcagna's famous tabernacle; the Mon-
astery of St. Mark, decorated with Fra
Angelico's frescoes; and the fine Romanesque
Church of San Miniato, outside the city.
These edifices testify to the prominence of
Florence in the world of art, a position which
is still further enhanced by the glorious can-
vases and sculptures of the Academy of Fine
Arts; by the treasures of the Ufazi Palace
(1560), one of the most valuable collections
of painting and sculpture in the world; and
the even more valuable collection of the Pitti
Gallery (1440). Other notable buildings of the
city are the castle-like Palazzo Vecchio (1298-
1314), the seat of the city's government until
1533, now the Town Hall; the cloistered haU
of Dei Lanzi (1376), with Benvenuto Cellini's
Per$eu$s ard other masterpieces of sculpture