On June 23, 1875, after two weeks of rain, the the Garonne river (that runs through the middle of Toulouse) rose 27 feet in a matter of hours, surged over its banks, and washed away bridges, towns, buildings and lives along its course. The devastation was unimaginable: 209 lives and 1400 buildings were lost in Saint-Cyprien alone, and 25,000 people were left homeless..
The disaster had international coverage. The correspondent for the New York Times wrote:
"When I last wrote we were just receiving our first dispatches from the Midi, and no one had any idea of the extent of the great disaster that has fallen upon the country. We now know that the present inundations are unparalleled, and that they far exceed those of 1855-6, of which we have heard so much. How many lives have been lost in this instance it is impossible to say at this time....since many missing people may have fled to the country for refuge, but near 1,000 bodies have been recovered up to this time. The stench arising from the ruined quarter of Saint Cyprien at Toulouse leads to the supposition that many bodies are yet lying beneath the stones of the fallen buildings.The towns and villages situated upon the immediate banks of the Garonne and Tarn have been nearly destroyed. Five miles from Toulouse is the village of Fenouiliat, which contained a population of between 800 and 900, and was composed of some 400 buildings of all sorts; but only three houses remain of all that was once Fenouillat. The whole town was swept away in a night. Comparatively speaking, the loos of life was small, the population moving out en masse at the approach of the flood, and taking refuge upon the neighboring heights. Scores of small hamlets were destroyed in a few hours' time, not a trace of them being left except a mass of fallen stones. The water carried away everything else....At Toulouse the whole quarter of Saint-Cyprien was overflowed in a few hours, and the water rose with such rapidity that those who failed to flee at once were speedily imprisoned in their houses....The Saint-Cyprien quarter of Toulouse had a population of about twenty thousand. Five hundred houses fell at once, and as many more are so nearly in ruins that orders have been given to have them pulled down. It is thought the the number of dead in this quarter will exceed 500, 215 bodies having been drawn from the ruins up to yesterday morning, and others are discovered every moment."
The Dépêche du midi, the local newspaper, sold a map of Toulouse to raise money (.75 ff) for the victims of the flood. Areas tinted blue show areas where flooding occurred. Red indicates destroyed buildings. A closeup shows that nearly all the buildings around what would become Place Olivier (Place du Chairedon ) were destroyed (including,I believe,the building housing the Frères Olivier enterprise.)