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Title: The True Story of Our National Calamity of Flood, Fire and Tornado
Author: Marshall, Logan
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The True Story of Our National Calamity of Flood, Fire and Tornado" ***
[Illustration: STRICKEN]
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THE TRUE STORY OF
OUR NATIONAL CALAMITY
OF FLOOD, FIRE AND TORNADO
The appalling loss of life, the terrible suffering
of the homeless, the struggles for safety, and the
noble heroism of those who risked life to save loved
ones; the unprecedented loss of property, resulting
in the laying waste of flourishing cities and towns
HOW THE WHOLE NATION JOINED
IN THE WORK OF RELIEF
By LOGAN MARSHALL
Author of
"THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC,"
"THE UNIVERSAL HANDBOOK,"
"LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT,"
"THE STORY OF POLAR CONQUEST,"
"MARSHALL'S HANDY MANUAL," Etc.
PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED WITH
AUTHENTIC PHOTOGRAPHS
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COPYRIGHT 1913, BY
L. T. MYERS
The material in this work is fully protected under the copyright laws of
the United States. All persons are warned against making any use of it
without permission.
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Prayer by Bishop David H. Greer:
O Merciful God and Heavenly Father, who hast taught us in Thy holy
word that Thou dost not willingly afflict or grieve the children of
men, give ear to the prayers which we humbly offer to Thee in
behalf of our brethren who are suffering from the great water
floods.
Cause them in their sorrow to experience the comfort of Thy
presence, and in their bewilderment the guidance of Thy wisdom.
Stir up, we beseech Thee, the wills of Thy people to minister with
generous aid to their present needs, and so overrule in Thy
providence this great and sore calamity that we may be brought
nearer to Thee and be knit more closely one to another in sympathy
and love.
All which we humbly ask, through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.
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[Illustration: WHERE THE NATION'S SYMPATHIES ARE CENTERED]
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
The Greatest Cataclysm in American History . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
CHAPTER II
The Death-Bearing Flood at Dayton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
CHAPTER III
Dayton's Menace of Fire and Famine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
CHAPTER IV
Dayton in the Throes of Distress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
CHAPTER V
The Recuperation of Dayton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
CHAPTER VI
Dayton: "The City of a Thousand Factories" . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
CHAPTER VII
The Devastation of Columbus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
CHAPTER VIII
Columbus: The Beautiful Capital of Ohio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
CHAPTER IX
Cincinnati: A New Center of Peril . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
CHAPTER X
The Flood in Western Ohio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
CHAPTER XI
The Flood in Northern Ohio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
CHAPTER XII
The Flood in Eastern Ohio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
CHAPTER XIII
The Flood in Eastern Indiana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
CHAPTER XIV
The Desolation of Indianapolis and the Valley of the White River. . 184
CHAPTER XV
The Roaring Torrent of the Wabash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
CHAPTER XVI
The Plight of Peru: A Stricken City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
CHAPTER XVII
The Death-Dealing Tornado at Omaha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
CHAPTER XVIII
Struggles of Stricken Omaha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
CHAPTER XIX
Omaha: "The Gate City of the West" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
CHAPTER XX
Other Damage from the Nebraska Tornado . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
CHAPTER XXI
The Tornado in Iowa and Illinois . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
CHAPTER XXII
The Tornado in Kansas and Arkansas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
CHAPTER XXIII
The Tornado in Indiana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
CHAPTER XXIV
The Tornado in Pennsylvania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
CHAPTER XXV
The Freak Tornado in Alabama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
CHAPTER XXVI
The Flood in New York . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
CHAPTER XXVII
The Flood in Pennsylvania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
CHAPTER XXVIII
The Flood in the Ohio Valley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
CHAPTER XXIX
The Flood in the Mississippi Valley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
CHAPTER XXX
Damage to Transportation, Mail and Telegraph Facilities . . . . . . 277
CHAPTER XXXI
The Work of Relief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
CHAPTER XXXII
Previous Great Floods and Tornadoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
CHAPTER XXXIII
Lessons of the Cataclysm and Precautionary Measures . . . . . . . . 308
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The Unleashed Gods
By Percy Shaw
Iron and rock are our slaves;
We are liege to marble and steel;
We go our ways through our purse-proud days,
Lifting our voices in loud self-praise--
Forgetting the God at the wheel.
We build our bulwarks of stone,
Skyscraper and culvert and tower,
Till the God of Flood, keen-nosed for blood,
Drags our monuments into the mud
In the space of a red-eyed hour.
Kings of the oceans are we,
With our liners of rocket speed,
Till the God of Ice, in mist-filled trice,
Calls to us harshly to pay his price
As we sink to the deep-sea weed.
Muscle and brain are our slaves;
We are liege to iron and steel;
But who shall say, tomorrow, today,
That we shall not halt on our onward way
To bow to the God at the wheel?
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[Illustration: HELPING HANDS]
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CHAPTER I
THE GREATEST CATACLYSM IN AMERICAN HISTORY
THE UNCONTROLLABLE FORCES OF NATURE--THE DEVASTATION OF OMAHA--THE
TERROR OF THE FLOOD--A VIVID PICTURE OF THE FLOOD--THE TRAGEDY OF
DEATH AND SUFFERING--THE SYMPATHY OF NATIONS--THE COURAGE OF THE
STRICKEN--MEN THAT SHOWED THEMSELVES HEROES.
Man is still the plaything of Nature. He boasts loudly of conquering it;
the earth gives a little shiver and his cities collapse like the house
of cards a child sets up. A French panegyrist said of our own Franklin:
"He snatched the scepter from tyrants and the lightning from the skies,"
but the lightning strikes man dead and consumes his home. He thinks he
has mastered the ocean, but the records of Lloyds refute him. He
declares his independence of the winds upon the ocean, and the winds
upon the land touch his proud constructions and they are wrecks.
He imprisons the waters behind a dam and fetters the current of the
rivers with bridges; they bestir themselves and the fetters snap, his
towns are washed away and thousands of dead bodies float down the angry
torrents. He burrows into the skin of the earth for treasure, and a
thousand men find a living grave. Man has extorted many secrets from
Nature; he can make a little use of a few of its forces; but he is
impotent before its power.
Thus we pause to reflect upon the most staggering and tragic cataclysm
of Nature that has been visited upon our country since first our
forefathers won it from the Indian--the unprecedented succession of
tornadoes, floods, storms and blizzards, which in March, 1913,
devastated vast areas of territory in Ohio, Indiana, Nebraska and a
dozen other states, and which were followed fast by the ravages of fire,
famine and disease.
THE DEVASTATION OF OMAHA
The terrible suddenness and irresistible power of such catastrophes make
them an object of overwhelming fear. The evening of Easter Sunday in
Omaha was doubtless as placid and uneventful as a thousand predecessors,
until an appalling roar and increasing darkness announced to the
initiated the approach of a tornado, and in a few minutes forty-seven
city blocks were leveled to the ground. The fairest and best built part
of the city could no more withstand this awful force than the weakest
hovels. Twelve hundred buildings were destroyed, most of them homes, but
among them many churches and school houses. The just and the unjust
fared alike in this riot of destruction and then the tornado rushed on
to find other objects on which to wreck its force in Council Bluffs and
elsewhere. It left in its wake many fires, but fortunately also a heavy
rain, while later a deep fall of snow covered up the scene of its awful
destruction.
THE TERROR OF THE FLOOD
With the rest of the country, fair Dayton sorrowed for Omaha. Two days
later Omaha, bowed and almost broken by her own misfortune, looked with
sympathy across to Dayton, whose woe was even greater. A thousand
communities in the United States read the story and in their own sense
of security sent eager proffers of assistance to the striken districts.
And not one of them has assurance that it may not be next. There is no
sure definition of the course of the earthquake, the path of the wind,
the time and place of the storm-cloud. Science has its limitations. Only
the Infinite is master of these forces.
In the legal parlance of the practice of torts such occurrences as these
are known as "acts of God." Theologians who attempt to solve the
mysteries of Providence have found in such occasions the evidence of
Divine wrath and warning to the smitten people. But to seek the reason
and to know the purpose, if there be purpose in it, is not necessary.
The fact is enough. It challenges, staggers, calls a halt, compels men
and women to think--and even to pray.
But the flood did not confine itself to Dayton. It laid its watery hand
of death and destruction over a whole tier of states from the Great
Lakes to New England, and over the vast area to the southward which is
veined by the Ohio River and its tributaries, and extending from the
Mississippi Valley almost to the Atlantic seaboard. And as this awful
deluge drained from the land into Nature's watercourses the demons of
death and devastation danced attendance on its mad rush that laid waste
the borderlands of the Mississippi River from Illinois to the Gulf of
Mexico.
A VIVID PICTURE OF THE FLOOD
Those who have never seen a great flood do not know the meaning of the
Scriptural phrase, "the abomination of desolation."
An explosion, a railroad wreck, even a fire--these are bad enough in
their pictorial effect of shattered ruins and confusion. But for giving
one an oppressive sense of death-like misery, there is nothing equal to
a flood.
I do not speak now of the loss of life, which is unspeakably dreadful,
but of the scenic effect of the disaster. It just grips and benumbs you
with its awfulness.
In the flat country of the Middle West there is less likelihood of
swift, complete destruction than in narrow valleys, like those of
Johnstown and Austin in Pennsylvania. But the effect is, if anything,
more gruesome.
After the crest has passed there are miles and miles of inundated land,
with only trees and half-submerged buildings and floating wreckage to
break the monotony; just a vast lake of yellow, muddy water, swirling
and boiling as it seeks to find its level.
[Illustration: THE CITIES AND TOWNS INCLOSED BY THE HEAVY BLACK DOTTED
LINES WERE THE CHIEF SUFFERERS BY THE SWEEP OF WATERS]
The scene in a town is particularly ghastly. How ghastly it is, you
would have realized if you could have gone with the writer into the
flooded districts of Ohio and Indiana, traveling from point to point in
automobiles and motor boats, penetrating to the heart of the flood in
boats even before the waters receded, and afterwards on foot. The upper
floors of houses not torn from their foundations look all right, but it
fairly makes you sick to see the waves of turbid water lapping at second
floor sills, with tangled tree branches and broken furniture floating
about. It seems horrible--it is horrible--to think of that yellow flood
pouring into pleasant rooms where a few hours before the family sat in
peace and fancied security--roaring over the threshold, swirling higher
and higher against the walls, setting the cherished household treasures
astray, driving the furniture hither and thither, drowning out cheerful
rooms in darkness and death.
If anything can be worse than this, it is the scenes when the waters
recede. The shade trees that stood in the streets so trim and beautiful
are all bedraggled and bent, their branches festooned with floating
wreckage and all manner of offensive things, their leaves sodden, their
trunks caked with mud. The streets are seas of yellow ooze. Garden
fences and hedges are twisted or torn away. Reeking heaps of
indescribable refuse lie moldering where there were smooth lawns and
bright flower beds. The houses that stand are all smeared with the dirt
that shows the height of the flood.
But inside those houses--that is the dreadful thing. The rooms that the
water filled are like damp caves. Mud lies thick on the floors, the
walls are streaked with slime, and the paper hangs down in dismal
festoons. Some pictures may remain hanging, but they are all twisted and
tarnished. The furniture is a tumbled mass of confusion and filth. But
the worst is the reek of decay and death about the place.
THE TRAGEDY OF DEATH AND SUFFERING
But there is something greater in its tragedy than all this--something
greater than a great region where splendid cities, towns and humble
villages alike are without resource--something greater than a region of
broken dams and embankments and of placid rivers gone mad in flood,
bridgeless, uncontrollable, widened into lakes, into seas. It is the
hundreds of dead who died a hideous death, and the hundreds of thousands
of living who are left helpless and homeless, and all but hopeless.
Just for one moment think--we in our warm, comfortable houses,
comfortably clad, safe, smiling and happy--of the half million of our
fellow creatures out yonder shivering and trembling and dying, in the
grasp of the "destruction that wasteth at noonday," swiftly pursued by
"the pestilence which walketh in darkness." The leaping terror of the
flames climaxes the terror of the harrowing day and the helpless,
hopeless night of agony and sorrow and despair.
Think of the men, women, children and the little babies crushed and
mangled amid the wreck of shattered homes--but yesterday as beautiful
and bright as ours--the pallid faces of hundreds floating as corpses in
the stately streets turned into rushing rivers by the relentless
floods--brothers and sisters of ours, freezing and starving in homes
turned suddenly into broken rafts and battered houseboats amid the muddy
deluge, while the pitying stars look down at night upon thousands, wet,
weeping, shivering, hungry, helpless and homeless, with the host of
their unrecognized and unburied dead, in this frightful holocaust of
fire and flood and pestilence.
Think of the region where people are huddled shivering on hills or
housetops, watching the swelling waters; where practically every
convenience, means of communication, comfort, appliance of civilization
has been wiped out or stopped; where there is little to eat and no way
of getting food save from the country beyond the waters; where
millionaire and pauper, Orville Wright and humble scrub-woman, stand
shoulder to shoulder in the bread-line that winds towards the relief
stations, all alike dependent for once on charity for the barest
sustenance.
THE SYMPATHY OF NATIONS
These are the tragedies that touch our hearts. These are the tragedies
that have brought messages of condolence from King George of England,
from the King of Italy, from the Shah of Persia and from other monarchs
of Europe. These are the tragedies that impelled a widow in a small town
in Massachusetts, in sending her mite for the relief of the unfortunate,
to write: "Just one year ago, when the ill-fated Titanic deprived me of
my all, the Red Cross Society lost not a moment in coming to my aid."
These are tragedies, too, that have prompted wage-earners all over the
country to contribute to the relief of the flood sufferers a part of
their own means of support that could ill be spared--soiled and worn
bills and silver pieces laid down with unspoken sympathy by men and
women and children, too, who wanted nothing said about it and turned and
went out to face the struggle for existence again. These people did not
think twice about whether they should help those in greater necessity
than their own. They had been helping one another all their lives, and
it seemed not so much a duty as a natural thing to do to respond to the
call from the West, where people had lost their lives and others were
homeless and suffering.
THE COURAGE OF THE STRICKEN
This spirit of helpfulness is a fine thing. But even finer was the
spirit of self-help. Secretary Garrison's telegram to President Wilson
from the flooded districts that the people in the towns and cities
affected had the situation well in hand and that very little emergency
assistance was needed, was a splendid testimonial to the courage and the
resourcefulness of the people of the Middle West and the admirable
cheerfulness which they exhibited during the trying days that followed
the beginning of the calamity. There was not a whimper, but on the
contrary there was a spirit of optimism that must prove to be most
stimulating to the rest of the country.
MEN THAT SHOWED THEMSELVES HEROES
But perhaps the finest thing of all is the memory of the heroes that
showed themselves. When death and disaster, in the form of flood and
fire, swept Dayton, John H. Patterson arose with the tide to the level
of events. Patterson is the man, more than any other, who brought cosmos
out of chaos. When the flood was rising and nobody knew what the result
would be, John H. Patterson began to wire for motor boats. He did not
ask, he demanded. And the motor boats came. Patterson took all of the
carpenters from the National Cash Register--one hundred and fifty
skilled woodworkers--and set them to work making flat boats. The entire
force of the great institution was at the disposal of the people who
needed help. And not a man or a woman was docked or dropped from the
payroll. Everybody had time and a third.
As for John H. Patterson himself, he worked in three shifts of eight
hours each; and for forty-eight hours he practically neither slept nor
ate. And then, by way of rest, he took a Turkish bath and a horseback
ride, and forty winks, and was again on the job--this man of seventy,
who has known how to breathe and how to think and who carries with him
the body of a wrestler and the lavish heart of youth!
There were many other heroes--too many to mention here--but we cannot
forget John A. Bell, the telephone operator who was driven to the roof
of the building, where with emergency instruments he cut in on one of
the wires, and for two days and nights, in the driving rain, without
food or drink or dry clothing, kept the outside world informed as to
what was going on and the needs of the sufferers. What Bell endured
during those long hours was enough to kill the heart in a very strong
man. Yet his greeting to Governor Cox, over the crippled wire Thursday
morning, was: "Good morning, Governor. The sun is shining in Dayton."
Could anything be finer! Men with such spirit are great men, and the
spirit that was in John H. Patterson and John A. Bell is the same spirit
that was in John Jacob Astor, and Archie Butt, and George B. Harris, and
Charles M. Hayes, and the band of musicians on the Titanic that played
in water waist deep.
As I stood amid the slimy ruins of Dayton the day after the waters
receded, Brigadier-General Wood said to me, "There go Patterson and
Bell. Would you like to shake hands with them?" And I said, "Just now I
would rather shake hands with those two men than own the National Cash
Register Company."
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The Storms
By Chester Firkins
And you are still the Master. We have reared
Cities and citadels of seeming might,
But in the passing of a single night
You rend them unto ruin. We who feared
Nor flood nor wind nor wreckage fire-seared,
We shudder helpless in the thunder-light;
The garners cherished and the souls endeared
Emptied and sudden-slaughtered in our sight.
You, whom the Cave Man battled, whom we call
Nature, because we know no better name,
Goddess of gentleness and torture-flame,
Still are you despot; still are we the thrall;
Still we can only wait what Fate may fall
From your wild pinions that no man can tame.
Nor gold or gain, nor battlement or wall
Shall guard us from the primal flood and flame.
Our castled cities tower to your skies.
'Gainst wind and wave we pile our stone and mold.
Powered of genius, panoplied of gold,
We build the bastions of our high emprise.
But yet, but let the plunging torrent rise,
The winds awake on glutted rivers rolled--
We die as the reft robin fledgeling dies--
We perish as the beast in jungles old.
We dream that we are conquerors of Earth;
We think that we are mighty, that we dare
Scorn your grim power--till we glimpse the flare
Of burning Death 'mid holiness of Birth.
What is our godliness and wisdom worth
Against your strength embattled unaware?
You are the Master, ever, everywhere,
Deadly and gentle o'er the wide World's girth.
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CHAPTER II
THE DEATH-BEARING FLOOD AT DAYTON
EXTENT OF THE FLOOD--THE RESERVOIR BREAKS--BUSINESS SECTION
FLOODED--THOUSANDS MAROONED--MANY CREEP TO SAFETY BY CABLE--JOHN H.
PATTERSON, CASH REGISTER HEAD, LEADS RELIEF--EMPLOYEES ASSIST IN
RELIEF--SCENES OF HORROR--APPEALS FOR AID.
It remained for two telephone operators to be the real factors in giving
to the world the news of the first day of the flood which inundated
Dayton, Ohio, and the whole of the Miami Valley on Tuesday, March 25th.
One, in the main exchange at Dayton, flashed the last tidings that came
out of the stricken city by telephone, and delivered to Governor Cox
news which enabled him to grasp the situation and start the rescue work.
The other was the operator at Phoneton, who served as a relay operator
for the man in Dayton. They stood to their posts as long as the wires
held, and worked all day and night.
EXTENT OF THE FLOOD
A seething flood of water from eight to twenty feet deep covered all but
the outlying sections of the city by the evening of the 25th.
Beneath the waters and within the ruined buildings lay the unnumbered
dead. The flooded districts comprised practically a circle with a radius
of a mile and a half, and in no place was the water less than six feet
deep. In Main Street, in the downtown section, the water was twenty feet
deep.
The horror of the flooded district was heightened by more than a dozen
fires which could be seen in the flooded district, but out of reach of
fire fighters.
Most of the business houses and nearly all residences had occupants.
Downtown the offices were filled with men, fathers unable to get home,
and the upper floors and on some of the roofs of the residences were
helpless women and children. Hundreds of houses, substantial buildings
in the residence districts, many of them with helpless occupants, were
washed away.
The water in the Miami River began rising Monday afternoon at the rate
of six inches an hour and continued to rise throughout the night. The
first break in the levee at Dayton came at four o'clock Tuesday morning
at Stratford Avenue. This was followed by other breaks at East Second
Street and Fifth.
THE RESERVOIR BREAKS
But the severity of the flood that hit Dayton was due to the collapse of
the Loramie reservoir in Shelby County about seven o'clock on Tuesday
morning, hurling millions of gallons of water into the swollen Miami.
Rushing down the Miami Valley, the water carried everything before it
at Piqua, Troy, Sidney, Dayton, Carrollton, Miamisburg and Hamilton.
Three rivers, the Miami, Stillwater and Mad, and Wolf Creek conjoin in
the heart of Dayton. As the city, particularly North Dayton, and a north
section called Riverside, lies almost on a level with the four streams,
it is protected from high water by levees twenty-five feet high, which
guide the streams through the city from its northern to its southern
end.
[Illustration: NORTHERN PART OF DAYTON, AND WATER COURSES WHICH
OVERWHELMED THE CITY]
North Dayton is a manufacturing and residence district. Riverdale is a
residence district. In the southern part of the city, on fairly high
ground, is the great plant of the National Cash Register Company
Wolf Creek, flowing into the Miami from the northwest, early got out of
its banks and added to the flood flowing over the floors of the Williams
Street and Edgewater Avenue bridges.
Mad River, in the northern section, also got over its banks early. All
of North Dayton, save the extreme uplands, was inundated. The Miami was
more than a mile wide below the city, and thousands of acres were
inundated.
BUSINESS SECTION FLOODED
At Third and Ludlow Streets, where were located the great Algonquin
Hotel, a magnificent church, the great Y. M. C. A. building and the
Hotel Atlas, were many feet of water. The central portion of the city
was flooded, and the beautiful residence district, lying east of the
exclusive boulevard district, was a Venice.
Hundreds of homes were filled with floating furniture. The citizens,
used to the slow-creeping floods of other years, were entirely mystified
and distracted by this sudden, hurtling, seething flood that seemed to
spring by night from the clouds that hovered low over the city and
plunged their seas of water into the rivers that converge in the very
heart of Dayton.
Railroad and wagon bridges over the Miami River were swept away. The
telephone operator at Phoneton said that from his window in the station
he had seen a bridge one mile north of Dayton collapse and another
bridge crossing the river at Tadmor, eleven miles north of Dayton, was
expected to give way at any moment.
Communication between Phoneton and Dayton, the operator said, was only
intermittent, as the only available wire was being used by the linemen
in their efforts to restore service.
Troy and Tippecanoe City, north of Dayton, were both flooded and many
people took refuge on the roofs of their homes.
Below Dayton vast acreages were seas of yellow. Farms were lakes, roads
were raceways through which raced the swollen streams. Telegraph service
was maimed, and all sorts of communication was well-nigh impossible.
THOUSANDS MAROONED
Crowded in the upper stories of tall office buildings and residences,
two miles each way from the center of the town, were thousands of
persons whom it was impossible to approach. At Wyoming Street, three
miles beyond what has heretofore been considered the danger line, water
was running eight feet deep.
The Western Union operator at Dodson, Ohio, said the office was filled
with foreigners who had fled from Dayton. Looters were shooting people
down in the streets, according to these refugees. They also reported
that the Fifth Street bridge at Dayton had washed down against the
railroad bridge and arrangements were being made to dynamite both
structures. This bridge was dynamited in the afternoon, but the effect
was not felt to any marked degree.
The foreigners who sought refuge in the Dodson telegraph office were
panic-stricken and told wild stories of the flood, saying nearly every
part of the town was under water and the conditions becoming more
serious.
The breaking of the Tarleton reservoir, which supplies the drinking
water, left the city without water and added great danger of typhoid in
the use of flood water.
Frank Purviance, an employee of the Terre Haute, Indianapolis and
Eastern Traction Company, at Dayton, over the long-distance telephone
said scores had been drowned there.
"They're dying like rats in their homes; bodies are washing around the
streets and there's no relief in sight," Purviance said.
MANY CREEP TO SAFETY BY CABLE
At Wyoming Station, on the South Side, where the National Cash Register
Company centered its efforts at rescue, many saved their lives by
creeping on a telephone cable, a hundred feet above the flood.
At first linemen crept along the cables, carrying tow ropes to which
flat-bottomed boats were attached. When the flood became so fierce that
the boats no longer were able to make way against it, men and women
crept along the cables to safety. Others, less daring, saw darkness fall
and gave up hope of rescue.
Those willing to risk their lives in the attempt to rescue found
themselves helpless in the face of the water.
The first to seek safety by sliding along the telegraph conduits was a
man. Then came four women. The first of the women was Mrs. Luella Meyer.
She was a widow with one son, a boy in knee-breeches.
He got out on the wire and with the agility of a cat was soon across.
But Mrs. Meyers, when over the boiling torrent, swayed as though faint,
slipped and the crowd stood with bated breath.
By a lucky chance her senses came back to her so that she could grasp
one of the wires. Hand over hand she was able to pull herself slowly to
the nearest pole, where she rested before again making the trial. This
time she did not falter, but when she was picked up by the rescuers at
the farthest pole toward safety she was limp from nervous and physical
exhaustion.
Four companies of the Third Regiment, Ohio National Guard, spent the
night aiding the city officials in rescuing families in the
flood-stricken districts. Telephone and railroad service was interrupted
in every direction.
John Hadkins and James Hosay, privates of the Ohio National Guard, were
drowned while in acts of rescue. The body of an elderly woman floated
down near Wyoming Street in the afternoon, but the current was so swift
that it could not be recovered.
The National Cash Register Company's plant, on a high hill, offered the
only haven in the South End. Three women became mothers in the halls of
its office buildings during the night.
In the woodworking department of the National Cash Register Company
boats were being turned out at the rate of ten an hour, and these were
rushed to where the waters had crossed Main Street in a sort of gully.
But the waters crept up and the strength of the current was far too
strong for the crude punts, though they were the best that could be made
in a hurry.
Trip after trip was made and hundreds of the refugees were taken from
this stretch of houses.
JOHN H. PATTERSON, CASH REGISTER HEAD, LEADS RELIEF
Although John H. Patterson, president of the National Cash Register
Company of Dayton, which employs more than 7,100 persons, is nearly
sixty-nine years old, and has led a life of unusual activity, he was out
in a rowboat tugging at the oars and personally helping in the work of
rescue. His two children, Frederick and Miss Dorothy, both in their
early twenties, likewise were so engaged.
When despatches came from Dayton late at night saying "the only
organized relief movement is that which is being conducted by the
National Cash Register Company," those who knew the fighting
characteristics of the head of the big corporation were not surprised to
receive the additional information that Mr. Patterson as usual was
conducting the business of rescue and relief in person.
The Dayton despatches in relating that young Frederick Patterson "is
leading rescue parties" and that Miss Dorothy, "dressed in old clothes
and her hair streaming with water, stood in the rain for hours receiving
refugees," gave a notion that the children are one with the sire.
EMPLOYEES ASSIST IN RELIEF
The Cash Register plant is outside the flood zone. As soon as the waters
rushed upon the city John Henry Patterson turned his entire force into a
relief organization. Every wheel was stopped in the Cash Register plant
early on Tuesday morning and the employees were set to work by Mr.
Patterson to help the sufferers.
Mr. Patterson bought up all the available food and had it carted to his
plant to feed the homeless. Straw was quickly strewn on the factory
floors, thus affording dry sleeping places for more than one thousand at
night. Every employee of the corporation capable of working on boats was
put to work at boat building.
Mr. Patterson is said to have made a promise long ago to his wife, who
was Katherine Beck, a school teacher of Brookline, Mass., when she was
dying, that he would give special care to the comfort and welfare of his
women and girl employees. The dining rooms in the big plant, the rest
and recreation rooms and other architectural comforts provided for the
women employees as a result of this promise came in very well in the
rescue work. The dining rooms and the rest and recreation rooms all were
used as eating halls in helping the sufferers.
While Mr. Patterson was out pulling at the oars of one of his boats
thirty-one of his company's automobiles were meeting the craft to hurry
the refugees to the Cash Register plant and to dry clothing, food and
beds.
Mr. Patterson sent out an appeal for immediate food supplies and for
doctors and medicine. By night three thousand homeless were housed in
improvised quarters in the Cash Register offices.
GIRL IN MAN'S CLOTHING
"What is your name?" asked the registrars who received the refugees at
the National Cash Register plant of a slender young person in men's
clothes.
"Nora Thuma," was the reply.
"Nora?" they asked.
"Yes, I'm a girl," was the answer.
She had put on a man's suit in order to cross the perilous span of wires
unhampered by skirts.
She came in with Ralph Myers, his wife and their little baby. Myers had
climbed a telephone wire pole first. He let down a rope to his wife, who
tied to it a meal sack which contained their baby, three months old.
Myers pulled the rope with its precious burden up and then let it down
again to aid his wife to ascend from her perilous position.
With the meal sack over his shoulder and his wife holding on to the two
wires he walked along the cable a full block before he reached safety.
[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood.
A typical scene on the outskirts of Dayton. Here scores of houses were
completely washed from their foundations and many of the inhabitants
were drowned]
[Illustration: Copyright by the International News Service.
A view taken at Ludlow and Second Streets, Dayton, after the water had
receded, showing one phase of the devastation resulting from the flood]
SCENES OF HORROR
Scenes of indescribable horror were reported by the rescuers under
Brigadier-General George H. Wood. Among those who perished were said to
have been ten members of the Ohio National Guard who were guarding a
bridge.
One man marooned with his family on the roof of his home shot and killed
his wife and three children and then himself rather than suffer death in
the flames, according to a report received by J. J. Munsell, employment
superintendent of the National Cash Register Company, from a man who
actually saw the occurrence. The bodies floated away on the flood.
Rescuers tried to get to a raft that bore a man and four women that
whirled like a spool in the rapid waters. Then suddenly the raft was
sucked down in the water and another chapter was added to the tragedy.
WOMAN LEAPS WITH BABY
George H. Schaefer, a rescuer who went out into the flood with a skiff
and saved a woman and baby, told of his perilous trip.
"A house that had been torn from its foundation came floating up behind
us," said Schaefer. "The woman was frightened. I told her there was no
danger.
"Suddenly she stood up and jumped over with her baby in her arms. She
went straight down and never came up again."
Then there was the horror that William Riley, a salesman for the
National Cash Register Company, saw.
"We saw a very old woman standing at the window of a house waiting for
rescue," said Riley. "We rowed up to her. Suddenly the house parted and
the woman was engulfed. It was the last we saw of her."
There was the man who was nearly rescued. He had stepped into the skiff
and then walked back into his home, which a short time later floated
away with him. Incidents of this sort were multiplied.
John Scott ascended a telegraph pole and guided across the cable to
places of safety men, women and children rescued from flooded houses.
Scott had guided a dozen persons across the swaying bridges of wire when
an explosion that started a fire occurred. The shock knocked Scott from
the pole and he fell into a tree.
"The last I saw of him he was trying to get into the window of an
abandoned house by way of one of the branches of the tree," said Frank
Stevens, a fellow employee of Scott. "The house was in the path of the
fire."
APPEALS FOR AID
Thousands of those who were fortunate enough to escape the first rush of
the waters were fed on short rations, and appeals for help were sent out
by many of the leading men of the city.
Three carloads of foodstuffs arrived from Xenia, but there was no chance
to deliver them to the victims of the flood until the following day.
CRUEL NEED FOR AN ARK
Frank Brandon, vice-president of the Dayton, Lebanon and Cincinnati
Railroad, succeeded during the night in getting communication for a
short time from Dayton to Lebanon. He said that the situation was
appalling and beyond all control.
"According to my advices, the situation beggars description," said Mr.
Brandon. "What the people need most of all is boats. The water is high
in every street and assistance late this afternoon was simply out of the
question. My superintendent at Dayton told me that at least sixty had
perished and probably a great many more, at the same time assuring me
that unless something that closely approached a miracle happened the
death list would run considerably higher. We are now rigging up several
special trains and will make every effort possible to get into Dayton
tonight."
It was on these scenes of indescribable horror that the shades of night
closed down.
CHAPTER III
DAYTON'S MENACE OF FIRE AND FAMINE
FIRE BREAKS OUT--HUNDREDS IMPERILED BY FLAMES--THE CITY
THREATENED--70,000 IMPRISONED BY THE WATER--"SEND US
FOOD!"--PATTERSON CONTINUES RESCUE WORK--PHONE OPERATOR BELL A
HERO--EXPERIENCES OF THE SUFFERERS--INSTANCES OF
SELF-SACRIFICE--LOOTERS AT WORK.
Scarcely had the appalling horror of the flood impressed itself on the
stricken people of Dayton before a new danger arose to strike terror to
their hearts--fire that could not be fought because there was no way to
reach it and because the usual means for fire-fighting were paralyzed.
FIRE BREAKS OUT
One fire started from the explosion of an oil tank containing hundreds
of gallons which bumped into a submerged building.
The fire started in a row of buildings on Third Street near Jefferson,
right in the heart of the business section, and not far from the
Algonquin Hotel, the Y. M. C. A., and other large buildings.
The report of the fire was sent out by Wire Chief Green, of the Bell
Telephone Company, who said the fire was then within a block of the
telephone exchange in which was located John A. Bell, who for more than
twenty-four hours had kept the outside world informed as best he could
of the catastrophe in Dayton.
A. J. Seattle, owner of the house in which the fire started after a gas
explosion, was blown into the air and killed instantly.
Mrs. Shunk, a neighbor, was blown out of her home into the flood. After
clinging to a telegraph pole for half an hour, she finally succumbed and
was sucked under the waters.
The explosion blew a stable filled with hay into the middle of the
flooded street and this carried the flames to the opposite side.
The next house to burn was Harry Lindsay's. Then Mary Kreidler's and
then the home of Theodore C. Lindsay and other houses that had been
carried away from their foundations floated into the flames and soon
were on fire.
The floating fires burned without restraint and communicated flames to
many other buildings where families awaited help.
The Beckel House was threatened and Jefferson Street was on fire on its
east side from Third Street as far down as the Western Union office.
Refugees driven from their places where they had sought safety from the
floods were leaping from roof to roof to escape the new terror. The fire
was rapidly approaching the Home Telephone plant.
HUNDREDS IMPERILED BY FLAMES
Another fire which started from an explosion in the Meyers Ice Cream
Company place, near Wyoming Street, spread and burned the block on South
Park, a block from Wyoming.
Flames, starting at Vine and Main Streets, jumped Main Street and the
houses on the other side were soon aflame. In the middle of the street
were a few frame houses that had been washed from their foundations.
These were swirled about for a time, and, as though to aid in the
passing of the section by fire, they were cast into the path of the
flames. Persons hurried from their roof tops, where they had been driven
by the flood, to the roof tops of adjoining houses.
A fire that appeared to threaten the entire business section was
confined to the block bounded by Second and Third Streets and Jefferson
and St. Clair Streets. In the block were the Fourth National Bank,
Lattiman Drug Company, Evans' Wholesale Drug Company and several
commission houses. This fire subsided somewhat by evening.
Fire broke out in the buildings on Broad Street and many who had taken
refuge in the upper floors were threatened with death in the smoke and
flames.
Sixteen persons were housed in the Home Telephone Building with a block
and tackle rigged as a means of egress if the fire pressed them.
GOVERNOR COX AIDS
It was reported to Governor Cox that some had leaped from the buildings
into the flood. The Governor received word via Springfield that 10,000
to 12,000 persons were in the burning buildings, fighting the fire by
water lifted in buckets from the flood.
Governor Cox asked the Associated Press to notify its West Virginia
correspondents to get in touch with natural gas companies supplying
Dayton with gas and ask them to shut off the supply of gas in Dayton, as
the gas was feeding the conflagration there.
Pleading that troops be sent to Dayton to relieve the flood sufferers,
saying that their need was imperative, and that the town was at the
mercy of looters and fires, George B. Smith, president of the chamber of
commerce of Dayton, who escaped from the flooded city, wired Governor
Cox from Arcanum.
Governor Cox, following the information that Dayton was on fire and that
those who had sought refuge in the upper stories of buildings were in
danger, determined at six o'clock to reach Dayton with troops and
assistance.
THE CITY THREATENED
It was impossible to get within two miles of the fire, and from that
distance it appeared that explosions, probably of drugs, made the fire
seem of larger proportions than it was. It appeared to have about burned
itself out, and it was not believed it would spread to other blocks.
It was impossible to ascertain, even approximately, the number of
persons who might have been marooned in this section and who died after
being trapped by flood and fire.
The flames at night cast a red weird glow over the flood-stricken city
that added to the fears of thousands of refugees and marooned persons,
and led to apprehension that there might have been many of the water's
prisoners in the burned buildings.
Fire started anew at nine o'clock at night and burned fiercely.
The men, women and children marooned in the Beckel Hotel were terror
stricken when fire threatened the building for the second time at night.
Since Tuesday morning two hundred and fifty persons had been in the
place.
Crowded in the upper stories of tall office buildings and residences in
Dayton, two miles each way from the center of the town, were hundreds of
persons whom it was impossible to approach. Hundreds of fires which it
was impossible to fight were burning. The rescue boats were unable to
get farther from the shore than the throw line would permit. They could
not live in the current.
At midnight residents of Dayton watching the course of the flames from
across the wide stretch of flood waters believed the fire got its new
start in the afternoon in the store of the Patterson Tool and Supply
Company, on Third Street, just east of Jefferson, whence it ate its way
west, apparently aided by escaping gas and exploding chemicals in two
wholesale drug establishments.
Throughout the night fires lighted the sky and illuminated the rushing
waters. Fifty thousand people were jammed in the upper floors of their
homes, with no gas, no drinking water, no light, no heat, no food.
[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
The flood at Watervliet, New York, showing buildings torn from their
foundations and floating down the stream. Great damage and untold
suffering resulted]
[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
Rescuer leaving one of the houses in the flooded district and removing a
family to safety]
THE CREST OF THE FLOOD
The crest of the Dayton flood passed about midnight, but the next few
hours allowed no appreciable lowering in the water. Wednesday morning
brought little hope of immediate relief to those who spent the night in
horror, however, and it was feared that the number of drowned had been
greatly increased during the twelve hours of darkness.
Cloudy skies and a cold drizzling rain added to the dismal aspect of the
city in the morning. The temperature fell steadily all night, and when
daylight came the thermometers showed that it was only three degrees
above freezing. The condition was welcomed, because it was expected that
a hard freeze would aid materially in holding back the innumerable
tributaries of the flooded streams and assist the earth in retaining the
moisture that had been soaked into it steadily for the last five days.
By ten-thirty the water depth had lessened about two feet. All stores
and factories in the main part of the town were flooded to a depth of
from eight to ten feet. Numerous residences and smaller buildings
collapsed, but any estimate of the property loss was impossible.
A morgue was established on the west side of the city, and efforts to
recover the bodies and aid the suffering were pushed as rapidly as
conditions permitted. Relief trains began to arrive in the stricken
towns.
Adjutant-General Speaks, with a small detachment of troops and a squad
of linemen and operators, left Columbus early Wednesday in an effort to
reach Dayton. The attempt was made by means of motor boats and
automobiles in the hope to establish adequate telegraph or telephone
communication with Dayton.
MARTIAL LAW ESTABLISHED
A message from Governor Cox ordered the entire Ohio National Guard to
hold itself in readiness to proceed to Dayton as soon as it was possible
to enter the city.
"I understand the importance of having the militia there," he
telegraphed.
Soon afterward notice was posted in headquarters of the emergency
committee announcing that the city was under martial law, and several
companies of soldiers arrived from neighboring Ohio cities.
The soldiers were employed to patrol edges of the burned district, and
prevent looting of homes freed from the floods.
The hundreds of refugees in the Y. M. C. A. building and in the
Algonquin Hotel were facing possible short rations. Their food supplies
were becoming limited and drinking water was at a premium.
Forty boats were requisitioned by the city authorities and were
patroling the city in an effort to save life and property. These craft
were manned by volunteers.
In front of the Central Union Telegraph office the water was still
running so swiftly that horses could not go through it without swimming.
One boat went by with two men in it, rowing desperately, trying to keep
the bow to the waves. The boat overturned, but both men escaped drowning
by swimming to a lamp post. They clung to the post for half an hour
before a rope could be thrown to them. After repeated casts the line
fell near enough to them to be caught, and the men were drawn into the
second story window of the building.
The telephone employees in the building fished chairs, dry goods boxes
and a quantity of other floating property from the flood. The debris
swept down the main business street with such force that every plate
glass window was smashed.
Only one sizable building had collapsed up to noon so far as the
watchers in the telephone office could learn. This structure, an old
one, was a three-story affair, near Ludlow Street, occupied by a harness
manufacturing concern.
70,000 IMPRISONED BY THE WATER
More than 70,000 persons either were unable to reach their homes or,
held in their waterlocked houses, were unable to reach land.
While those marooned in the offices and hotels were in no immediate
danger of drowning there was no way food or drinking water could reach
them until the flood receded. Those in the residences, however, were in
constant danger both by flood and fire. First the frailer buildings were
swept into the stream, many showing the faces of women and children
peering from the windows. These were followed by more substantial brick
buildings, until it became evident that no house in the flood zone was
safe.
The houses as a rule lasted but a few blocks before disintegrating.
Incidents without number were narrated of persons in the flooded
districts waving handkerchiefs and otherwise signaling for aid, being
swept away before the eyes of the watchers on the margin of the waters.
Many of the rescue boats were swept by the current against what had been
fire plugs, trees and houses. They were crushed. Canoes and rowboats
shared the same fate. What life existed in the district which the water
covered was in constant danger and helpless until the flood subsided.
Bodies were found as far out as Wayne Avenue, which is more than a mile
from the river. At Fifth and Brown Streets the water reached a height of
ten feet. At least one of those drowned met death in the Algonquin
Hotel.
The rumor that the St. Elizabeth Hospital with 600 patients had been
swept away, which gained circulation Tuesday night, proved to have been
false.
Although it was impossible to reach the hospital, field glasses showed
that the building was still standing. The water was not thought to be
much above the first floor of the building, and it was hoped that the
patients had not suffered.
Dayton was practically cut off from wire communication until late in the
afternoon. Then two wires into Cincinnati were obtained and operators
plunged into great piles of telegrams from Dayton citizens, almost
frantic in their desire to assure friends outside of their safety.
Operators at opposite ends of the wires reported that thousands of
telegrams were piled up at relay offices. These were from people anxious
over the fate of Dayton kinsmen.
Two oarsmen who braved the current that swirled through the business
section of the city reported that the water at the Algonquin Hotel, at
the southwest corner of Third and Ludlow Streets, was fifteen feet deep.
From windows in the hotels and business buildings hundreds of the
marooned begged piteously for rescue and food. The oarsmen said they saw
no bodies floating on the flood tide, but declared that many persons
must have perished in the waters' sudden rush through the streets.
Oarsmen who worked into the outskirts of the business section at night
reported that two hundred and fifty persons marooned in the Arcade
building and two hundred imprisoned in the Y. M. C. A. building were
begging for water.
"SEND US FOOD!"
Before the terror of fire had dwindled, gaunt hunger thrust its wolfish
head on the scene. Famine became an immediate possibility. All of the
supply and grocery houses were in the submerged district and there was
not enough bread to last the survivors another day. Every grocer in the
city was "sold out" before noon.
The flood came with such suddenness that food supplies in homes were
whisked away by the torrent that reached to second floors in almost the
flash of an eye. Skiffs skirted the edge of the flooded districts
attempting to take food to those whom it was impossible to carry off,
but the fierce current discouragingly retarded this work.
"Food, food, food," was the appeal that reached the outside world from
the portions of Dayton north of the rivers. The plea came from a relief
committee which started out in boats and met an employee of the American
Telegraph and Telephone Company, who attempted to drive to Dayton. The
telephone man immediately "cut in" on a line and transmitted the appeal.
The relief committee had progressed less than two miles from Dayton when
they met the telephone employee. They told him that any and all kinds of
provisions were needed and could be distributed, but the relief must
come soon if indescribable suffering was to be avoided.
Police officers of Dayton who were able to get about at all were
swearing in all available men as deputies, commandeering provisions and
charging the expense to the State of Ohio. The available supplies were
so slender, however, that thousands of persons on the north side of the
river were already destitute. Efforts to learn the condition of the
2,500 inmates of the old soldiers' home on the west side brought a
report that the institution was in no danger because of its location on
a high hill.
Leon A. Smith, one of the relief committee in North Dayton, was sworn in
as a deputy justice of the peace with power to enlist other deputies to
preserve order, guard against crimes and relieve distress.
"What we need most," said Mr. Smith over the telephone, "is food for the
living and assistance in recovering and burying the dead before an
epidemic sets in."
Farmers in the vicinity offered their teams to haul towards Dayton any
supplies that could be gotten together, and the housewives of the
countryside denuded their pantries.
Relief committees issued the following statement:
"An awful catastrophe has overtaken Dayton. The centers of Dayton and
the residence district from the fair grounds hill to the high ground
north of the city are under water.
"Bring potatoes, rice, beans, vegetables, meat and bread and any other
edibles that will sustain life.
"We have cooking arrangements for several thousand. We are sending
trucks to nearby towns, but ask that you haul to us, as far as
possible."
The first trainload of provisions from Cincinnati, with a detail of
policemen to help in the rescue work, reached Dayton after being twelve
hours on the road. This, with two cars from Springfield, relieved the
immediate suffering. Word also was received that a carload of supplies
was on the way from Detroit.
Encouragement was received in a message from the Mayor of Springfield,
who said he was sending six big trucks loaded with provisions that
should reach Dayton early Thursday. With the arrival of motor boats
Wednesday night it was hoped to begin to distribute provisions among the
marooned early next morning.
Messages from the flood's prisoners in the business section said
children were crying for milk, while their elders suffered from thirst
that grew hourly. Volunteers were called for to man boats and brave the
dangerous currents in an attempt to get food to the suffering.
PATTERSON CONTINUES RESCUE WORK
Rescue work efficiently managed, in which John H. Patterson was a
leading spirit, proceeded smoothly throughout the day. A boat, which was
engaged in rescue work, capsized, and all of the crew but Frederick
Patterson, son of John H. Patterson, were drowned. Young Patterson acted
as captain of the crew.
Missing members of families were restored to their loved ones through
human clearing houses established at several points in the fringe of the
flood district. Great ledgers filled with names presided over by
volunteer bank clerks were at the disposal of persons seeking missing
kinsmen. If these had registered in the clearing house their addresses
were quickly given to the inquirer.
Up to seven o'clock in the evening three thousand of the homeless were
housed in different places of refuge, most of them being cared for at
the plant of the National Cash Register Company. Scores of the waters'
victims were being carried from their places of imprisonment late in the
evening, and leaders of the rescuing parties were arranging for relays
of torch bearers to light the work during the night.
The powerful current on each cross street made it impossible for those
manning the rowboats to pass a street crossing without the aid of tow
ropes. Lines were stretched in many places and trolley boat paths
brought many victims out. Every automobile in the city was pressed into
service and used to meet paths and take the refugees at once to the
hospitals.
"Our greatest need is a dozen motor boats and men to run them," was the
message contained in an appeal sent out by Mr. Patterson. Skiffs and
rowboats could not live in torrents rushing through the city's principal
streets.
The big plant of the National Cash Register Company was made relief
headquarters. As persons were rescued they were taken to a relief
sub-station, where their names were recorded and they received first
aid. At frequent intervals these lists were sent to relief headquarters
and announced to crowds who waited in the rain for hours.
Two expert oarsmen, Fred Patterson and Nelson Talbott, conquered the
current for a short distance on Main Street late in the afternoon.
"We penetrated to almost the center of the city," said Mr. Patterson.
"Everywhere people yelled to us to rescue them, but it was impossible,
for we were barely able to keep afloat. Large sums of money were offered
us to take persons from perilous positions. The windows of the Algonquin
Hotel seemed filled with faces, and the same conditions prevailed at
most of the buildings we passed. We did not see any bodies, but the loss
of life must have been great."
At Xenia a relief committee was organized to send supplies to Dayton.
All the churches were made ready for Dayton refugees.
PHONE OPERATOR BELL A HERO
Two employees of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, John A.
Bell, wire chief at Dayton, and C. D. Williamson, wire chief at
Phoneton, Ohio, by unprecedented devotion to duty kept Dayton in touch
with the world.
At midnight they had been on duty continuously for forty-eight hours,
and, although there was no prospect of their being relieved, they gave
not the slightest indication of any inclination to leave their posts.
Bell reached the Dayton office before the flood broke on Tuesday
morning. The water came with such suddenness that all batteries and
power were out of commission before any measure could be taken to
protect them. This left the wires without current and effectually cut
off Dayton. Bell rummaged around and found a lineman's "test set." With
this he made his way to the roof of the building, "cut in" on the line
to Phoneton and reported to Williamson, whose batteries were still in
condition. Over this meagre equipment messages were exchanged by means
of the underground wires of the company, which held up until after the
noon hour Tuesday before the cable in which they were incased gave way.
The break, however, was south of Dayton, and Phoneton was still in touch
with the flood-stricken city.
Except for brief intervals, Bell remained on the roof of the building
suffering the discomforts of pouring rain and low temperature, in order
that the waiting world might have some word from Dayton.
EXPERIENCES OF THE SUFFERERS
Late in the afternoon several refugees told stories that gave an insight
into conditions in East Dayton, hitherto unexplored. The flood victims
declared they knew of no loss of life in this section, because a great
number of people had availed themselves of warnings and fled.
A Mrs. Van Denberg, who remained until the flood enveloped her home,
when rescued declared she had seen no bodies in the flood.
Sixty-five persons were marooned in the central police station. Nothing
had been heard from Mayor Phillips, of Dayton, or from Brigadier-General
Wood, marooned, it was believed, in North Dayton.
The whole story of the Dayton disaster probably never will be told--the
heroism of men; the martyrdom of women; the mad hysteria that seized
some and caused them to jump into the flood and death; the torture of
despair that gripped those who, imprisoned in their homes by the water,
waited in vain for help until the advancing flames came and destroyed
them. The most heartrending feature of the situation was the pitiable
terror of the women and children. Many of them sat up and sobbed through
the night refusing to believe that their fathers had been drowned in the
satanic waters.
Mrs. James Cassidy and her three children were brought from the flood
last night. Mrs. Cassidy was grief-stricken over the report of the death
of her husband by drowning. Even as she was being registered there was
brought into rescue headquarters a drenched man who had to be carried.
"Jim! Jim!" suddenly shrieked the woman. "That's you, Jim, isn't it? You
aren't dead, Jim. Say you aren't dead."
Jim had been rescued from drowning. The return of James Cassidy was the
one bit of joy in the awful gloom at the rescue headquarters, where
gathered the victims of flood, fire and famine.
CRAZED BY HER EXPERIENCE
A woman, maddened by the horrors of the day, fought with Bill Riley and
his companion, Charles Wagner, who had rescued her in a boat.
She bit Riley in the hand and choked Wagner, who sought to restrain her.
The little boat swayed and was on the point of capsizing when the woman
suddenly became calm and began to pray.
A big sturdy man cried like a child in the offices of the National Cash
Register Company. He had been to the hospitals, the schools where
refugees are housed and to the churches--but in none of these was his
family.
In many similar cases relatives of the supposed dead were uncertain as
to the fate of the missing. The money loss was heavy, but nobody cared
about money loss, though it ran into the millions.
In this hour of Dayton's woe money apparently was the most useless thing
in the world.
A graphic story was told by Edsy Vincent, a member of the Dayton fire
department. His engine house was within a few doors of Taylor Street,
where the break of the levee occurred.
The department watchers, fearing being flood-bound, sounded the fire
call simultaneously with the break in the levee.
"When the horses, which were hitched in record time, reached the
street," said Vincent, "we were met by a wall of water which must have
been ten feet high. The driver was forced to turn and flee in the
opposite direction to save the team and the apparatus."
INSTANCES OF SELF-SACRIFICE
The dark colors in these incidents were lightened here and there by
stories of bravery exhibited by many of the flood prisoners.
A woman with three children marooned in the upper floor of her home on
the edge of the business district called to the oarsmen:
"I know you can't take me off!" she cried, "but for the love of humanity
take this loaf of bread and jug of molasses to Sarah Pruyn down the
street; I know she's starving."
Twice the boatmen attempted to take the food, but waves that eddied
about the submerged house hurled them back.
LOOTERS AT WORK
Numerous stories of looting were told, and many prisoners were locked
up. In most cases these had entered houses and had been searching for
valuables. A gang of roughs went through the southern part of the city
late at night instructing the people to extinguish all lights for fear
of a gas explosion and then began raiding. The police dispersed them.
All day and all night strings of automobiles were going back and forth.
Those coming to Dayton were seeking friends or relatives. Those going
back had people to take back with them.
At night the temperature dropped suddenly. A blinding snowstorm and high
winds followed close upon the fall of the thermometer. The blizzard
weather caused added suffering. Survivors who escaped the horrors of a
flood and fire stricken city at night were huddled roofless in an arctic
storm. Countless men, women and children were marooned in the storm who
had had no warm food or clothing since Tuesday morning.
CHAPTER IV
DAYTON IN THE THROES OF DISTRESS
PITIABLE CONDITION OF MAROONED--FALSE REPORT CAUSES PANIC--THE
FLOOD RECEDES--A SURVEY OF THE FLOOD'S DAMAGE--MARTIAL LAW
ENFORCED--RESTORING SANITATION--FEEDING THE HOMELESS--PATTERSON
CONTINUES NOBLE WORK--STORIES OF SURVIVORS.
When Thursday morning dawned on stricken Dayton the food situation which
had threatened to become serious was relieved temporarily by the arrival
of a special train from Richmond, Indiana, bringing seven cars of
provisions. Quartermaster Logan also received word from the United
States Army quartermaster general that 300,000 rations had been ordered
shipped from Chicago, 100 ranges and one complete quartermaster depot
from Columbus, 3,300 tents, 100 hospitals tents and 400 stoves from
Philadelphia, and 300,000 blankets and 500 bedsacks from St. Louis or
Cincinnati. Quartermaster Logan was authorized to purchase in open
market all rations needed.
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE RIVERS AND CREEKS WHICH RUN THROUGH
DAYTON, AND THE PRINCIPAL SECTIONS OF THE CITY]
[Illustration: Showing the difficulties experienced by the rescuers in
getting to the hundreds of people whose lives were imperiled by being
caught in the flooded buildings]
[Illustration: Copyright by George Grantham Bain.
Mayor of Cleveland getting motor boats ready for relief work in Northern
Ohio. For days after the flood reached its height, even strong boats
could reach many of the marooned people only with great difficulty and
risk]
The thing that made the situation most difficult for concerted rescue
work was the peculiar geographical situation of the town. It is divided
into six sections: central Dayton, comprising the down-town business
district; West Dayton, the territory extending several miles west of the
big Miami; Riverdale, the northeast, across the river from the central
district; Dayton View, the extreme northeast; Southern Dayton, the
manufacturing district in which the National Cash Register Company's
plant is located and separated from the central district by lowlands
which were deep in flood water, and North Dayton, northwest of the
business district, across the river from the business section.
PITIABLE CONDITION OF MAROONED
The river forms a horseshoe around the business district, making it
impossible to reach that part until the torrents that poured down the
valley should recede.
Dayton View, West Dayton and Riverdale were the only sections between
which communication was possible.
The suburb of Riverdale up to Helena Street was penetrated by the
down-town relief commission and conditions found much similar to those
in the southern suburbs. Everyone was crowded to the second floors or
roofs of their homes, but few of the more stable dwellings were washed
away.
North of Burns Avenue as far as Fourth Street the water was found to be
from three to six feet deep. Beyond Fourth Street the water had receded
to make it possible in many places to proceed on foot.
Nothing was known of the foreign settlement in North Dayton close to the
Miami River. It was this part of the city where the flood first made its
way and where the occupants of the houses had ignored warnings to
leave. It was here also that it was feared most of the deaths would
occur. The only body found on Thursday was that of Charles Parker, a
livery man, discovered in the court house yard.
Captain of Police H. E. Lackhart declared that water in North Dayton,
Miami City and East Dayton reached the housetops. His estimate of the
number of dead in that district was three hundred.
The bodies of a woman and a baby were seen floating down Jefferson
Street, one of Dayton's main thoroughfares. It was thought that they
came from the district north of the river.
A report which had been current in the water district south of Main
Street that Brigadier-General Wood had been fatally injured by falling
plate glass, proved to be untrue. He continued in full charge of the
relief work, although his arm had been badly cut.
Parts of Main Street were impassable because of debris. At several
points it comprised outbuildings that had struck more stable buildings
and been dashed to pieces.
Hourly apprehension for the appalling sights to be uncovered when the
waters return to normal was growing.
PLANS FOR FIGHTING PESTILENCE
Pestilence was feared and sanitary and health officials mapped out their
work. Sewers were burst by the flood, manholes were simply blown from
the earth, and it was realized that many days must elapse before the
water service could be restored and before street car companies could
operate.
Because of the lack of electric lights, and as a precaution against
looting, military notices were posted, forbidding citizens to be on the
streets between the hours of 6 P. M. and 5 A. M.
Word was received that a number of motor boats with men to operate them
were on the way from Cleveland and Cincinnati.
The water receded rapidly during the day. An occasional snow flurry and
biting gusts of wind added to the discomfort of the rescue crews, but
they remained steadily at work.
The Emergency Committee began publication of an official newspaper from
the plant of the National Cash Register Company. It was a one-sheet
poster designed for free circulation in all accessible parts of the
city. Its leading article warned the people to beware of thieves and
burglars.
A thief was caught robbing homes of flood victims who had been taken to
refuge stations. He was shot to death by state guardsmen.
The progress of the first canoe into the water-bound district was
greeted by appeals for bread and water. In nearly every house left
standing wistful faces were to be seen pressed against window panes. All
of these were asked whether there had been any deaths and with only a
few exceptions all replied that there had not.
Temporary morgues were established in the United Brethren Church and
also at Fifth and Eagle Streets. At these points many bodies were cared
for, chiefly those of women and children.
FALSE REPORT CAUSES PANIC
Needless suffering was caused during the day by an announcement of the
breaking of the Lewistown reservoir. Men rushed through the uptown
streets shouting:
"Run for your lives! The reservoir has broken!"
There was really no danger. The reservoir contained 17,000 acres of
water space, but it was pointed out that the flood extended over several
million acres and the worst possible effect of the breaking of the
reservoir would be to retard the rescues and could not cause a rise of
more than a foot. The waters at the time were seven feet lower than the
high water of Tuesday night.
The alarm was spread by a policeman who was posted on the edge of the
flood district. Others were quick to take up the cry.
Soon thousands of men and women crowded the streets. Many of them fled
for the hills, but hundreds hurled themselves past guards and into the
main office building of the National Cash Register Building, which was
already crowded.
Not until John H. Patterson, president of the company, had addressed the
throng was any semblance of order restored.
Mr. Patterson was appointed military aide in the southeast district of
the city, with full control under martial law. He at once ordered every
available motor car and truck to scour the farmhouses south of the city
and confiscate all available food supplies.
Colonel H. G. Catrow arrived with his military aides from Columbus in
the afternoon and took charge of the militiamen.
SIGHTSEERS BARRED FROM CITY
Sightseers of Springfield who sought to visit Dayton received a rude
shock. On the first train to the stricken city from Springfield were
fifty linemen and three coaches full of people on a sightseeing tour.
The Governor learned of this and on his orders when the train reached
Dayton two soldiers were stationed at each car door and none but linemen
were permitted to alight. The train was then run back to Springfield
with its disappointed passengers.
The Governor then ordered guardsmen at Springfield to let none board
trains for Dayton who did not have a military pass. The purpose in this
was to prevent idle visitors draining the limited food resources of
Dayton.
DYNAMITE AND LIME SENT
Dynamite, gasoline and lime were sent from Springfield as supplies for
the sanitary corps ordered there to prevent the spread of disease and a
feared epidemic. The dynamite was needed to blow up dangerous
obstructions, the gasoline to burn rubbish and the lime for disinfecting
purposes.
Mutiny broke out in the city workhouse, where one hundred prisoners were
confined. Terror-stricken by the flood and fire, the prisoners were
demanding freedom.
They beat at their cell doors and shouted imprecations at their keepers.
Superintendent Johnson applied to the militia for help. One workhouse
prisoner was released because he knew how to run the water-works pumps.
The two hundred and fifty guests of the Algonquin Hotel were kept
comfortable except for the continuous dread that the fire would spread
to them. The water reached the second floor, but all the supplies had
been moved to places of safety, and those in the hotel experienced
little discomfort.
From Fourth Street to the Miami River, relief work was taken up by a
committee headed by Chief of Police Allaback. All of the grocery stores
were commandeered and, although in most cases the goods were covered
with water, yet sufficient supplies were found to prevent great
suffering among those in the interior dry strip.
SUFFERERS CHEERFUL
One of the remarkable features was the cheerful spirit with which flood
victims viewed their plight. This was Dayton's first big flood in many
years. Much of the submerged area had been considered safe, but as the
majority of residents of these sections looked out on all sides upon a
great sweep of muddy, swiftly moving water, they seemed undisturbed.
In some of the poorer sections the attitude of the marooned was not so
cheerful. As a motor boat passed beneath the second floor at one partly
submerged house, a man leaned out and threatened to shoot the boat's
occupants unless they rescued his wife and a baby that had been born the
day before. The woman, almost dying, was let from the window by a rope
and taken to a place of refuge.
Further on, members of a motor boat party were startled by shots in the
second floor of a house, about which five feet of water swirled. The
boat was stopped and a man peered from a window.
"Why are you shooting?" he was asked.
"Oh, just amusing myself, shooting at rats that come upstairs. When are
you going to take me out of here?" he replied.
Three babies were born in one church during the afternoon. One was born
in a boat while its mother was being conveyed to safety. Such scenes
were common.
WOMEN BECAME HYSTERICAL
At the rescue stations the scenes enacted were heartrending and the most
pitiful were witnessed at the temporary morgues. At the West Dayton
morgue frantic crowds all day and night watched every body brought in,
hoping against hope it was not that of some loved one.
Women became hysterical at times when searching for missing members of
their families whom they had failed to find at the relief stations.
With the coming of nightfall Thursday the efforts to rescue more persons
were slackened, and all of Dayton not in the central flood districts
waited in dread for the nightly fires which had added horrors to the
already terrible situation.
The flood situation at night appeared brighter than in the morning. The
water had fallen from three to five feet, the currents of the river and
creek had slackened, and there was food enough left for the town's
breakfast and dinner.
As Galveston and San Francisco pulled themselves together after calamity
so Dayton began pulling itself together on Friday of the week of the
flood. Emerging from the waters and privation, citizens began
co-operating with those who rushed to the rescue from outside.
Considerable progress was made toward the restoration of order and in
giving relief to those in the worst distress.
Much cheer was taken from the fact that so far as loss of life was
concerned it was not so great as had been feared, though no exact
estimates were yet calculable.
Financially the citizens had a great burden to bear. Investigators on
Friday put the figures of the losses at double that of the previous day,
making it $50,000,000.
THE FLOOD RECEDES
The down-town district was practically free of water. Fire engines
pumped out the basement of the Algonquin Hotel, that the Algonquin's
artesian well supply might be pumped into the empty city water mains for
fire protection.
Water was still from ten to fifteen feet deep in certain districts of
the west side. A mile of residences on Linwood Avenue had been swept
clear and nothing remained to indicate that the street had existed.
A SURVEY OF THE FLOOD'S DAMAGE
In a tour of the business sections it was found that the high stage of
the flood had been nine feet at Third and Main Streets, the heart of the
city.
The tower of Steele High School was levelled and the Leonard Building on
Main Street was undermined so that it collapsed. Other buildings stood
up.
The following buildings were found to have withstood the flood,
furnishing shelter to about 7,000 people who were marooned in them since
Tuesday: Conover Building, Kuhns Building, The Arcade, two Cappel
Buildings, Callahan Bank Building, Schwind Building, Commercial
Building, Mendenhall Building, Rike Kumler Building, Reibold Building,
Elder & Johnson's building and United Brethren Publishing Company's
building.
NO PUBLIC BUILDINGS GONE
None of the public buildings was destroyed. Among these buildings were
the Dayton Club, Victoria, National and Colonial theatres, city hall,
court house, Beckel, Phillips, Algonquin and Atlas hotels, Masonic
temple, post office, Y. M. C. A. and various churches.
The Log Cabin, 115 years old, the first house built in Dayton, still
stood, although it is on the south bank of the Miami, right in the path
of the flood.
The electric light and gas plants were safe from the high water. The
city's water comes from a reservoir high above the river.
In Dayton less than one hundred bodies had been recovered by Friday
night, though thousands were missing. The fire was out, however, and the
flood had so receded that relief boats were able to get to practically
all parts of the city.
MOST HOUSES WRECKED
Every house in the flooded district was practically ruined. Streets were
so clogged with wreckage that it was almost impossible to get through
them.
"Strange to say, there was not much suffering in our particular
neighborhood," declared George Armstrong, who had been marooned in the
Capell furniture store building. "There was one woman with a
three-weeks-old baby. We took excellent care of her. And did we pray?
There never were such prayers in church. We had a case of whiskey and
offered to send it off to persons who seemed exhausted. They refused to
take it, although ordinarily they are not teetotallers."
BOATMEN TOUR DISTRICTS
Members of the United States life-saving crew of Louisville navigated
sections of flooded Dayton heretofore unexplored, reporting conditions
in North Dayton and Riverdale quite as deplorable as the first estimates
concerning suffering were concerned.
Cruising the southern end of Riverdale, where it was feared there would
be found a big death list, Captain Gillooly, in charge of the crew from
the United States life saving station at Louisville, Ky., reported
conditions paralleling those in other sections of the stricken city, but
only two bodies were reported as having been recovered. The flooded
territory in Riverdale, which is a section of substantial home owners,
was approximately seventeen blocks long and seven blocks wide.
After having descended the Miami River, Captain Gillooly reported that
in the south central section of Dayton, where the flood flowed wildest
on Tuesday night and Wednesday, thousands of persons still were
imprisoned in upper floors of their homes. He stated that from numerous
inquiries among people whose residences had been inundated it appeared
the life loss would not be nearly so large as it was placed by first
reports.
This section still was flooded, although the water rapidly was receding,
and while a few corpses eddied out from the flood's edge, yet in the
center of the area it was stated that only two bodies had been seen.
DRINKING WATER DISTRIBUTED
Captain Gillooly and his men distributed food and quantities of drinking
water to a large number of the flood's prisoners. Arrangements also were
made to provide the needy ones with the necessary supplies from time to
time until the flood waters receded.
At many different points along the route stops were made and the crew
detoured away from the rivers. It was found that many of these detours
could be made afoot, the water having rapidly fallen since the night. At
no place was the water behind the levees deeper than four feet.
The Louisville men took relief to several hundred families in the low
district in the vicinity of Ludlow and Franklin Streets. Here the water
had reached the roofs of all two-story buildings. Only a few of the most
desperate cases were brought out, the first move being to leave bread
and water in as many places as possible.
Sixty Catholic sisters at the Academy of the Sisters of Notre Dame and
eighteen persons for whom they had provided refuge were found to have
been without food or water since Tuesday. There were several cases of
illness, and the suffering had been intense. The life savers left bread
and water and planned to take further help.
Meanwhile Capt. H. A. Hansen and the crew from Cleveland were operating
several boats in North Dayton. There many of the poorer class live, and
few of the buildings were substantial. Dozens of them were swept away,
upturned and shattered.
Mayor Phillips was still marooned in his house, and G. B. Smith,
president of the Chamber of Commerce, continued in active aid of relief
operations.
The Fourth National Bank Building, which was reported several times to
have been destroyed by fire, was found untouched by the flames, although
a building immediately adjoining was burned. The newspaper offices, the
_News_ and _Herald_ and _Journal_ buildings, were safe, but none was
issuing papers.
The Cleveland battalion of engineers were the first of a horde of troops
which began to pour into Dayton in the morning. They were immediately
put at work distilling the water. The fifteen men of the Dayton Ohio
National Guard companies, who had been on duty since midnight Tuesday,
frankly had been unable to cope with the situation. The police force
was also depleted by the fact that many of its members had been marooned
by high water. The looter had been in high glee.
MARTIAL LAW ENFORCED
Strict martial law was put into force. With headquarters at Bamberger
Park, Col. Zimmerman of the Fifth Ohio Regiment organized the forces of
protection, and by noon every accessible section was under strict guard.
Frequent fights and skirmishes were held with the pillagers, who sought
to steal under the cover of darkness. Orders to shoot to kill looters on
the third shot were issued to the militiamen. The pillaging of abandoned
homes and stores and the slugging and robbing of men and women in the
streets after nightfall had reached a desperate stage when the troops
arrived, and drastic orders were necessary.
"Shoot at the legs first, and then shoot to kill," was the way the
soldiers were instructed to act.
Colonel Zimmerman listened to thousands who sought passes to go through
the flood area to reach marooned friends and kinsmen. Only a few were
allowed to go, and these were compelled to prove special causes. To
those who asserted they had starving friends, Colonel Zimmerman rejoined
that provisions and medicines constantly were going into the inundated
district.
"Be satisfied you're not dead yet," was the Colonel's disposition of
many of the applicants.
All during the night and until dawn revolver and rifle shots had
sounded. Most of the shooting was in the bottoms near the river, but
about midnight there was a lively volley of shots, evidently an exchange
of bullets, believed to have been between soldiers and pillagers.
A robbery was thwarted when the police arrested a man who was escaping
from the city with a satchel containing $50,000 in diamonds and jewelry
which he had stolen from downtown jewelry shops.
"Beware of thieves and burglars," said an official bulletin given wide
circulation. "Don't leave your houses without protection. It was thieves
who scared you about the reservoir and natural gas explosion. The
natural gas has been turned off and there is no danger of explosions."
REFUGEES IN FIGHTS
At three o'clock Friday morning it was unofficially announced that three
pillagers had been shot to death in various parts of the city during the
night.
Over in North Dayton, when the lowlands were inundated by the rush of
the waters of the Mad River, the foreign population, which practically
occupies that section, was driven to the upper floors and the housetops.
With the extinguishing of the city's lights bedlam broke loose in
various portions of North Dayton. Men in the frenzy of their trouble
fell to desperate quarreling among themselves, and shots were heard at
all hours of the day and night Wednesday and Thursday.
There were unconfirmed reports that more than a dozen murders had been
committed. Troops were ordered into this district to stop the conflicts.
RESTORING SANITATION
Problems of sanitation, the water supply and the reconstruction of the
wrecked sewer system were resumed by engineers. Citizens were ordered to
dig cesspools in their yards and to get rid of all garbage. Members of
the State Board of Health, bringing carloads of lime and other
disinfectants, reached here to ward off disease.
A report was circulated that an epidemic of typhoid fever and pneumonia
had developed in Riverdale and West Dayton. It was ascertained, however,
that not a single well-developed case of either disease was known in the
sections mentioned, although there was considerable sickness among the
refugees, particularly women and children, due to privation.
Three deaths from diphtheria in other sections were reported by
Secretary of Health Board Miller.
FEEDING THE HOMELESS
The food situation was much brighter. The trucks sent from the Cash
Register Company, manned by men with military orders to confiscate
potatoes and food from the farmers, brought back a good supply of
vegetables and several relief trains reached the city.
The problem of providing for refugees was bravely faced by an army of
workers, many of whom came from neighboring cities equipped with car
loads and train loads of food.
"We can't tell how much we need," said John M. Patterson "and we don't
know yet in just what shape we want some of the supplies. For instance,
there came a carload of flour. We can use it later, but if that flour
had been made into bread it would have been immediately available for
the persons imprisoned in their homes whom it has been impossible to
remove. We could take bread to them, but flour is not serviceable."
Many motor boats went into the flooded district taking food and water
and bringing out persons who needed medical attention. Many of them were
so weak from deprivation and suffering as to be scarcely able to move.
Hundreds were taken to the Cash Register Hospital and other places where
they could be aided.
Among those taken out of the Algonquin Hotel were Stephen Patterson and
his wife. Mr. Patterson is a brother of John H. Patterson, the cash
register manufacturer. Great anxiety had been felt for their safety and
also for Mrs. Frank Patterson, a sister-in-law. The latter was found in
her home on West Fifth Street.
HUNDREDS STAND BY HOMES
In that section on the east side of the Miami River and north of the Mad
River rescue work went forward with the two United States life-saving
crews in charge. Hundreds of people living in upper stories and
practically without food or water since Tuesday morning refused to leave
their homes, believing they would have a better chance for safety there
than elsewhere. Water and food were supplied them. Hundreds of others
had left their homes, in some instances effecting exits by chopping
holes through the roofs. Very few of these were accounted for.
[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
While the flood was raging, hundreds of fires which started throughout
the flooded States were left to consume millions of dollars worth of
property, and to destroy many lives, because of the inability of the
fire-fighters to get near the burning buildings]
[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
President John H. Patterson, of the National Cash Register Company,
third man from the right, directing the work of rescue at Dayton, Ohio.
Through his magnificent skill as an organizer, and his coolness of mind,
scores of lives were saved that would otherwise have been lost, and a
great deal of suffering was alleviated by his prompt measures of relief]
A central morgue was established at the Probate Court building, and as
fast as possible identifications were made. Many of the bodies thus far
recovered, however, presented difficulties in the way of identification.
Colonel Zimmerman reported that boatloads of provisions continuously
were going into the still inundated districts. Milk for babies and
medicine for invalids were not forgotten by the rescue squads. Governor
Cox solved the problem of getting milk for Dayton's babies by
confiscating in the name of the State the entire output of the
Marysville dairies, and having it sent to the stricken city. The state
also seized two cars of eggs at Springfield found in a railroad yard and
sent them to Dayton.
PATTERSON CONTINUES NOBLE WORK
The dead bodies were placed in coffins as soon as they were identified.
These coffins and decent burial for the victims were paid for by the
President of the National Cash Register Company, who footed most of the
bills in the tremendous and efficient work of relief.
The weather was bitter cold, but the rain ceased to fall. Thousands of
survivors who spent two nights marooned in buildings without light, heat
or food on Friday night slept in warm beds.
CHAPTER V
THE RECUPERATION OF DAYTON
SPIRITS GO UP--SECRETARY OF WAR GARRISON ON THE SCENE--CLEARING
AWAY THE DEBRIS--BOAT CREWS SAVE 979--RELIEF ON BUSINESS
BASIS--STRICT SANITARY MEASURES--TALES OF THE RESCUED--A SUMMARY OF
WORK ACCOMPLISHED--RAILROADS AGAIN WORKING--COMMISSION GOVERNMENT
ESTABLISHED--A HOME OF TENTS--MILLIONAIRES IN THE
BREAD-LINE--ORVILLE WRIGHT'S ESCAPE--DEATH AND PROPERTY LOSS--THE
TASK OF REBUILDING.
Dayton passed Friday night in terror because of constant shooting by the
militiamen. Just how many looters were killed was unknown, as
information was refused. The facts figure only in military reports.
Fifty shots were fired between midnight and three o'clock Saturday
morning within hearing of the main hospital quarters in the National
Cash Register Building. Civil workers in the center of the town, where
efforts were being made to clear away debris, reported that five looters
were shot after midnight.
One of these was a negro who had succeeded in entering a Madison Street
house where he was seen by a militiaman and shot in the act of looting.
It is declared that only one of the five men shot was killed.
Orders were issued to the soldiers to inflict summary execution on
corpse robbers--ghouls who sneaked through the business and residence
streets like hyenas after a battle.
Dayton came out in force on Saturday to look around and judge for itself
the extent of the tragedy that confronted its people. Business men with
forces of assistants penetrated the business section and set about the
task of learning whether they had been stripped of their possessions
completely.
Haggard faces, worn out with sleepless nights and days of weary struggle
and apprehension for the future, brightened with the flush of new-born
hope as some of the searchers found that the flood had not proved
completely disastrous for them.
Scores of business interests, not alone in the central section, but as
well in the outlying manufacturing districts, faced ruin. The work of
reconstruction, already in the forming, meant for them going back to the
beginning for a fresh start, but on every hand one heard in spite of
this words of hope and cheerfulness that the disaster was no greater.
SPIRITS GO UP
The bitter cold gave way to a day of sunshine and comparative warmth.
The military authorities lifted the ban on uninterrupted travel about
the city. This privilege and the brightness of the day brought most of
the people out of their discouragement and great throngs appeared on the
streets. They found the death toll smaller than they had expected and
the property damage, while almost crushing in the size of the figures it
represented, not so utterly annihilating as was generally feared.
Military engineering experts began the work of extricating Dayton from
its covering of debris, and its menace to general public health. H. E.
Talbot, of Dayton, who built the Soo Locks, was placed in charge and the
Pennsylvania Railroad sent in seventy-five engineers to assist him.
While fifty additional experts appeared from other points, the Ohio
National Guard Battalion of Engineers from Cleveland became a part of
the organization to "sweep up" the city.
Relief from the suffering because of the closing down of the public
utilities bade fair to be accomplished by Sunday. The city lived up to
its motto "Dayton does" with the amendment that if it cannot find a way
it will make one.
With real philosophy and high courage its people set about the arduous
task of retrieving the ground and the fortunes they lost. The lives that
were taken by the disaster were not sacrificed in vain. The Citizens'
Committee, headed by John H. Patterson, the relief agency, and H. E.
Talbot, determined to find a way to protect the city against a
repetition of the horrors of the week.
Things looked brighter. It was announced that on Sunday the water would
be turned on in all the mains that were not broken, in order to give
pure drinking water to practically the entire city, something the
sanitary and engineering experts were working for as imperative if
epidemics were to be avoided. Until such time as the city mains could
be used, water was distributed from artesian wells by water carts and in
kegs, which were carried to the various districts by the "flying
squadron" of the auto relief corps.
SECRETARY OF WAR GARRISON ON THE SCENE
Secretary of War Garrison and his staff arrived at Dayton at noon, and
immediately went into conference with John H. Patterson, chairman of the
committee of fifteen, in charge of the relief work.
Soon after Mr. Garrison arrived the relief committee began to call local
physicians to consult with him to determine whether to place the city
under federal control. It was said Dayton's sanitary condition appeared
to warrant the presence of federal troops and government health experts.
It was later decided to leave the city in control of the state militia
and the local committee, except that sanitary experts from the federal
health service should be brought to Dayton. Mr. Garrison stated that
Major Thomas Rhoades, in co-operation with Major James C. Normoyle,
would have charge in Dayton. Major Normoyle had experience in furthering
relief in the Mississippi flood district last year.
GARRISON'S REPORT
Secretary Garrison gave out the substance of his telegram to President
Wilson as follows:
"I find the situation at Dayton to be as follows:
"The flood has subsided so that they have communication with all parts
of the city, no one being now in any position of peril or without food
or shelter. The National Cash Register plant has been turned into a
supply depot and lodging place for those who have no other present
place.
"Surgeon General Blue and some of his officers are here, as are also
some naval surgeons. We are all working in concert. The Governor, the
Mayor, the local committees and the citizens have all expressed much
gratitude for the action of the National Government, and have welcomed
us warmly, all of them stating that the fact that a direct
representative has been sent to their community has been of the greatest
benefit to the morale of the situation.
"I find a competent force is already organized to clean up the streets,
remove the debris and do general work of that description and has agreed
to work under the direction of the army surgeon I leave in charge of
sanitation. The National Guards have their Brigadier-General, George H.
Wood, here in command of the military situation and he has cordially
offered to co-operate in every way with our work of sanitation.
"I think that the situation here is very satisfactory and that this
community will find itself in a reassured position within a very short
time and facing only then the problem of repair, restoration and
rehabilitation.
"I will go back to Cincinnati tonight to get into touch with matters
left unfinished there and will go to Columbus at the earliest moment.
Governor Cox tells me that he thinks matters are in a satisfactory
condition at Columbus; that he has ample immediate supply of medicines
and other necessities; and that much of each is on the way. The weather
is very fine and there does not seem to be any cause for apprehension of
further floods in the vicinity of Dayton."
CLEARING AWAY THE DEBRIS
Efforts were made to clear away debris in sections where the flood water
had run off, and it was feared bodies might be found in these masses of
wreckage. With well organized crews doing this work, others took food to
persons still marooned in Riverdale and North Dayton.
The two hundred and fifty persons marooned in the Algonquin Hotel, in
the heart of the flood district, moved from their prison after the
waters had receded. Most of them said there was a general scare at the
fire which burned along Jefferson and Third Streets, on Wednesday night.
There was one death in the hotel, Johnny Flynn, a bell boy. Several of
the guests organized the majority after the flood waters had cut off
escape on Tuesday, and for three evenings programs of entertainments
were given in the hotel dining-room. It was decreed by a safety
committee that any person who declined to contribute to the
entertainment would be compelled figuratively to walk the plank. There
were no dissenters.
Among those marooned in hotels were one hundred from New York, Chicago,
Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia,
Detroit, Boston and St. Louis. All were safe.
A brilliant sunshine threw an uncanny light over the distorted scenes in
the areas where the homes of 75,000 people were swept away or toppled
over. A view down almost any street revealed among the wreckage,
tumbled-over houses, pianos, household utensils and dead horses brushed
together in indescribable confusion. At two points the bodies of horses
were seen still caught in the tops of trees.
Digging bodies out of the mud was the chief work of rescuing parties.
The water had drained off from almost all the flooded area. In some
instances the mud was several feet deep.
The rush of the currents claimed the greatest toll of lives, judging
from how most of the bodies recovered were found. They were washed up
onto the ground from new-made rivers and many were found buried in the
wreckage. In moving this workmen moved carefully, fearing they might
tread upon bodies, but they were not found in groups.
It was anticipated that the majority of the bodies of flood victims
would be found buried under the debris in the Miami Canal under great
piles of wreckage and far down the Miami River, at Miamisburg,
Middletown and Hamilton. Those who were drowned for the most part were
caught in the streets either while on their way to their places of
business and employment or while trying to get to places of safety when
forced to flee from their houses. Lieutenant Leatherman, surgeon of the
Third Regiment, O. N. G., who went through the flood in West Dayton,
said that he saw scores of dead bodies floating down the Miami River and
many people were swimming, but there was not one chance in ten thousand
that these were saved, he said.
The policing of the city by the military was reorganized with
Brigadier-General George H. Wood commanding and Captain Tyrus G. Reed as
Adjutant General. The city was turned over into a military district of
five military zones, and rigid orders were laid down for the conduct of
its affairs.
Chairmen of the various committees were unanimous in asking that word be
spread broadcast that mere sightseeing visitors were not wanted. The
railroads were informed of this attitude and conductors refused to
accept passengers who could not show that their presence here was
necessary. There were thousands of visitors in the city. Most of them
were from surrounding towns.
BOAT CREWS SAVE 979
The work of extending succor to the marooned inhabitants of the
districts which were still flooded continued during the day. In many
sections were to be seen rowboats, skiffs and canoes making their way
with extreme difficulty among the heaps of wreckage and overturned
houses among tangled meshes of telegraph, telephone and electric light
wires, seeking out possible victims who had been uncared for.
Among the organizations engaged in rescue work was the company of naval
reserves from the United States ship Essex at Toledo, under command of
Captain A. F. Nicklett. The company reached Dayton on a special relief
train from Toledo Thursday and immediately launched a number of boats on
the raging torrents which were sweeping the city from end to end. Up to
six o'clock Saturday night the sailors had been constantly on duty and
had to their credit a total of 979 lives saved, and they were not
thinking of sleep when darkness fell.
One crew in command of Ensign E. E. Diebald, with two boats, rescued 375
persons from the business section and that district immediately east of
Main Street and west of Eagle Street. Many of the people were taken from
their homes only after the sailors had mounted to the tops of partially
overturned houses and chopped their way through to the attics where the
inmates were huddled together waiting for death to enter.
Another crew under Junior Lieutenant Ross Willoh succeeded in saving
360, while three boats in command of Senior Lieutenant Theodore Schmidt
rescued 244 persons. The majority of these latter were taken from box
cars, warehouses, freight sheds and grain elevators in the railroad
yards. It was here that the water attained its greatest violence,
rushing in whirlpools between the irregular buildings on either side of
the tracks. Navigation was extremely perilous on account of many
submerged box cars, flat cars and overturned sheds.
Several times the sailors were capsized, but managed to keep with their
boats and right them again. Not a single life was lost either among the
reserves or among the hundreds whom they attempted to rescue.
While sailors worked incessantly to save lives, Lieutenant Walter
Gayhart, also of the ship's company, succeeded in establishing a supply
station on East Fifth Street, where many refugees congregated, and
issued rations to the suffering. He slept Saturday night after
seventy-one hours of continuous labor.
With the additional military forces which arrived the city was
thoroughly policed. At night the city was in darkness again. It was
impossible to do much relief work at night and the curfew order was due
in part to the advisability of keeping the men where they could protect
their own households if necessary.
RELIEF ON BUSINESS BASIS
The distribution of food supplies and clothing and relieving of distress
was put on a business basis. Supplies reached Dayton in large
quantities, and the relief stations were sufficiently organized to take
care of the incoming refugees from the flood districts. The problem of
caring for the homeless was still serious, but with all promise of warm
weather it was hoped there would be less suffering. Health officers
reported that there was only one car of lime in the city, and there was
great need of more.
Fifteen thousand persons were subsisting on rations given out under
direction of the relief committee. Ten thousand of these, it was
estimated, were in their homes, and food was carried to them in boats
and automobiles. About five thousand were being cared for at the relief
stations. This showed a marked reduction in the number of persons being
publicly fed.
There was plenty of food, and it was placed into baskets in lots to
serve five persons for two days. Over candles given out with the food
the people boiled coffee, but the other food was eaten cold. There was
no gas and little coal.
Announcement was made by the relief committee that until conditions
became normal, no private messages to persons here would be delivered or
answered, as the wire capacity was taxed to the utmost to carry official
and public business.
Major Dupuy stated that he feared an epidemic of some kind unless the
most rigid sanitary rules were enforced.
STRICT SANITARY MEASURES
Major Dupuy stated that the city had been divided into six sanitary
districts, each district in charge of an officer of the sanitary corps
of the National Guard. Strict orders regarding the disposition of
garbage were issued and the people were advised, by means of bulletins
posted in conspicuous places in the streets, how best to preserve the
public health.
Several cars of lime reached the city and many more were en route from
different points. A carload of ambulance supplies was on the way from
Cincinnati.
Members of the Citizens' Relief Committee were apprehensive of a water
famine. It was believed there was little chance that the present supply
could be made to last until the water mains were in use again. R. H.
Grant, head of the Relief Supplies Committee, issued an appeal to all
cities in the country asking that as much bottled water as possible be
shipped to Dayton immediately.
It was especially desired that this water be strictly pure, as it was
practically impossible to boil the water for drinking purposes.
Considering the number of persons affected by this flood, there was
comparatively little sickness, the cold weather being responsible for
this to a great extent. The cold caused great suffering among those
marooned without food, water, or heat, but in the end it proved a
blessing.
Dr. William Colby Rucker, Assistant Surgeon General of the United States
Public Health Service, who arrived from Washington at the direction of
the Secretary of the Treasury, with Surgeon General Rupert Blue, gave
the following outline of the sanitary conditions existing in the city:
"A survey of conditions in Dayton today shows that the sanitary
situation is not so bad as was at first thought. Citizens have been
warned to boil all drinking water and to bury refuse. City water is now
flowing under twenty-pound pressure. Sewers in some sections are again
in operation. The city expects to have others working tomorrow.
"The city has been divided into six sanitary districts and tonight
physicians who have been sworn in as district sanitary officers are
being instructed as to their precise duties as heads of these
districts."
TALES OF THE RESCUED
Pathetic scenes, so intense as to bring tears to the eyes of
undertakers, were witnessed when scores of fear-stricken parents and
children walked down the rows of dead lying upon slabs in the temporary
morgues.
In Riverdale and North Dayton, where the flood waters attained the
greatest depth and degree of destructiveness, several thousand persons
waded knee-deep in slimy mud, rummaging their desolated homes for
clothing. All of this, of course, was soaked and plastered with mud, but
it was dried on the hillsides, where the populace had taken refuge. In
some places in these districts the water had so far receded as to render
possible the beginning of the work of cleaning the lower floors of the
mud and debris.
The dead line around Riverdale, where the water remained about three
feet in depth around most of the houses, continued to be maintained in
order to guard against looting during the absence of residents. It was
estimated that not more than a week would be required to immunize all
homes requiring it outside of the Riverdale section, to free them from
water and prepare them for cleansing.
A SUMMARY OF WORK ACCOMPLISHED
Following are some of the things accomplished since the flood broke over
the city Tuesday morning:
The water-works pumping station was in operation, but the distribution
of water was greatly retarded by open pipes in wrecked houses. The
pressure was feeble, but growing stronger as leaks were checked.
The main sanitary sewer was in operation, although many of the laterals
leading from houses were clogged with mud and backed-up water.
The flood sewers, separate from the sanitary, were almost ready for
service. These sewers carry off the rainfall from the gutters, and were
needed to remove the water being pumped from basements.
Sightseers in motor cars felt the heavy hand of public necessity when
General Wood began impressing machines. The sightseers were ordered from
their cars and the latter were pressed into public service. Protests
were unavailing. The more stubborn surrendered at the points of rifles,
and gave up their cars "until released by order of the chairman," as the
placards placed in them read.
The militia also began impressing citizens into service as workers. Men
who had the appearance of being able-bodied, but idle, were questioned
by officers of the National Guard; if they had not good reason for being
in the streets, and no duties of a mandatory nature, they were pressed
into service.
The Sixth regiment, O. N. G., from Toledo and northern Ohio towns, which
had been on duty in Dayton, commandeered a train when ordered to
Cincinnati and departed before nightfall. The naval reserves from Toledo
went on train.
Coroner J. W. McKemy estimated that one hundred bodies had been
recovered, though there was record of only seventy-two. He said some had
been buried without usual official action and that in some cases he did
not expect to get records.
The postoffice was put out of business on Tuesday and it was not until
Sunday that any sort of service was attempted. Telegraph and telephone
service was almost entirely crippled until Saturday night, when even
short messages were accepted only on condition that the sender assent to
indefinite delays.
Telegrams were relayed through Cincinnati. The only long-distance
telephone wires in service were two private wires connecting with
Cincinnati. On those who succeeded in securing permission to use these
wires a time limit of three minutes conversation was imposed.
No braver services were performed during the flood than those by the
telegraph and telephone linemen who made possible the dissemination of
news to hundreds of thousands of friends and relatives of Daytonians.
They waded and swam icy floods and entered tottering buildings
unhesitatingly in pursuit of their duty. Operators who had not removed
shoes or clothing since last Tuesday were found Saturday.
RAILROADS AGAIN WORKING
Direct railroad communication was established Sunday night with
Springfield, Ohio, Cincinnati and Richmond, Indiana. The Cincinnati,
Hamilton and Dayton lines, on which Dayton passenger traffic depended
mostly, were not working. The tracks leading into the Union Station were
completely blocked and the few trains arriving discharged their
passengers on the outskirts of the city.
H. E. Talbott, who was commissioned by Governor Cox, chief engineer of
the military zone, completed his plans for beginning the rehabilitation
of the city. He announced that four departments had been created, with
an assistant engineer in charge of each. One had charge of rebuilding
the streets and alleys; another the levees along the rivers; another the
sewerage system, and still another the bridges.
[Illustration: Photograph by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
Life lines strung across one of the streets. The rescuers caught persons
carried down on wreckage in the raging flood and brought them to a place
of safety]
[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
Man walking along the telephone cables after escaping from his house,
which was washed away by the flood. The houses in the center have been
washed from their foundations and are floating away]
Hundreds of persons still looking for relatives passed along the lines
at the morgues, fearing they should find their loved ones there. Only a
few bodies had not been identified.
Because of the city's financial condition, the problem of paying the
costs of rejuvenation caused great concern. The treasury was practically
empty, and the borrowing capacity would be exhausted when $900,000 was
raised. It was planned to seek immediate relief from the Legislature.
By order of Governor Cox, the reign of martial law over Dayton was
extended to take in the whole county. The flood did more than sweep away
property, for it swept away the city administration, temporarily at
least, and brought in what amounted to a commission form of government.
The extension of the area under martial law developed from action taken
by local dealers whose places were closed. They complained that saloons
on the outskirts were sending whiskey into the city, and that
considerable drunkenness had been observed. Brigadier-General Wood
reported the situation to the Governor, and his action was prompt and
decisive.
COMMISSION GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED
As soon as martial law was proclaimed, the municipal administration was
eclipsed. Brigadier-General Wood for the moment became supreme under the
Governor. On the heels of this Mr. Patterson was appointed chairman of a
committee of five to administer the affairs of the city. The militia was
instructed to obey his orders and thus became a police force.
Under martial law the city enjoyed the free services of the biggest
business men and the most expert professional men in Montgomery County.
Citizens who ventured into the streets were impressed from the time they
left their doors that Dayton is steadied and perhaps somewhat depressed
by the absolute grip of martial law. Soldier government was maintained
inexorably. Owners of business places could not set foot on their
property without the permission of the khaki-clad militiamen, standing
at the curbs with loaded carbines. If a citizen found himself some
distance from his home when the curfew rang at 6 P. M. his return was
beset with much difficulty, because of the necessity of halting by the
many sentries he encountered.
A citizen fearsome enough to venture from his threshold after 8 P. M.
literally took his life in his hands, because the fingers of the militia
rested on hair triggers.
Nine colored men and one white man were added to the seven suspected
looters shot and killed since martial law was proclaimed. Absolute
secrecy concerning the deaths was maintained by the military
authorities. Citizens who heard repeated firing between midnight and
dawn in the business center of Dayton and near Ludlow Street, in which
were located many of the handsomest homes in Dayton, spread these
reports. The reports were confirmed in a non-committal way by militiamen
who were on duty in these sections, who admitted they had fired ball
cartridges as a "warning" to suspected looters.
The most detailed account of the death of the white man had it that he
was halted near Main and Third Streets shortly after 2 A. M. He had one
hand behind his back, and when ordered to open it two watches fell to
the pavement. He was then searched and eighteen watches were found in
his pockets. The sentry called a corporal's squad of six militiamen and
reported the loot found on the prisoner. The prisoner was led to the
wall of a near-by building, faced toward the wall, and the squad, which
had received instruction from its commander, fired. A white band with a
red insignia, made apparently to simulate a Red Cross badge, was taken
from the man's arm, and the body was thrown into the canal.
EXECUTIONS DENIED
The nine colored men reported as killed were discovered by sentries in
various parts of the city. A dozen militiamen on duty near Main and
Third Streets, about 2 A. M., said that they had heard firing at the
locality named, but attributed it to warning shots. One of the men said
that a sergeant in his company told of shooting and killing a colored
man Friday night, when the man tried to escape in a boat on the Miami
Erie Canal.
Brigadier General George H. Wood, when asked about the reports of
squad-firing and the deaths of ten suspected looters, said:
"There was some squad-firing after midnight by sentries posted in the
Ludlow section, where are located the homes of some of Dayton's
wealthiest citizens. But neither there nor in other sections of the city
where shots were fired was any one killed. The report that executions
followed the detection of militiamen caught looting are without
foundation. There have been no drumhead or other courtmartials and none
will take place while I am in command here in Dayton.
"We have the situation well in hand. I have 1,400 doing sentry duty
throughout the city and I intend to guard homes and suppress all
lawlessness."
In spite of the rigor of this military government of Dayton, praise of
General Wood's administration was heard on every side. Citizens
discredited the stories of executions of looters and were not
over-inquisitive of details, because they realized that drastic measures
were imperative under the existing conditions.
In accordance with suggestions made Saturday by Secretary of War
Garrison and General Leonard Wood, chief of staff, Major Thomas L.
Rhoades, President Wilson's military aide, took charge of the sanitary
campaign and permanent relief organization. He had for his chief
lieutenant Eugene T. Lies, of Chicago, who was in command of the Red
Cross forces. Investigation of the financial standing of every
householder whose home has been damaged by the flood was begun. In
worthy cases money or materials with which to make repairs were
furnished from the Red Cross funds.
A HOME OF TENTS
Major Rhoades took up plans for establishing a tented camp in North
Dayton in which to shelter residents of the flood districts. These
flooded homes were inspected and when found to be unsanitary the
occupants were invited to take up quarters in the tented camp. Where the
invitation was refused recalcitrants were escorted by a corporal's guard
to the camp and compelled to remain there until their homes were cleaned
and fumigated. Major Rhoades was supported by the militia in carrying
out a policy to immunize every home in Dayton if necessary, and thus
minimize the danger of epidemics.
The medical authorities forbade the use of old clothing until after it
had been fumigated. It was urged upon the general public that old
clothing was not desirable for fear it might bring a pestilence in some
form to a city unable to cope with more disaster.
Nothing to indicate the approach of an epidemic due to flood conditions
was reported, although the number of diphtheria cases was slightly above
normal. Eight persons suffering from diphtheria were at the Miami Valley
Hospital. Seven of them were caught in a house with a person who had
recently become ill with the disease. Four persons hemmed in with one
who had measles were suffering with that disease. Typhoid fever and
pneumonia were a little more prevalent than usual. Clear skies and warm
sunshine contributed to the comfort of the city and made possible good
progress in the work of redemption.
Two hospitals in Dayton were flooded on the first floor, so all sick and
injured were taken either to the Great Miami Hospital or to the state
insane asylum. Eight persons whose minds temporarily became affected
because of hardships suffered in the flood were cared for at the latter
place.
With warmer weather, the greatest problem was the removal of the
carcasses of dead horses. Every available automobile truck and all the
horse-drawn drays were impressed by the sanitary officials and hundreds
of men were engaged all day removing the carcasses to the different
incinerating plants and to vacant lots on the outskirts of the city,
where they were burned.
George F. Burba, Governor Cox's private secretary, reported to the
state's executive that there were 40,000 persons in Dayton who must be
fed and sheltered for at least a week, and 10,000 who were destitute.
The latter were without either sufficient clothing or food, and until
business activities were restored, they had to be financed and
maintained in lodgings until they could become self-supporting.
Theodore A. Burnett and T. H. Smith, government food inspectors, took
charge of the food supply, in so far as inspection was concerned, and
appointed twelve deputies. All shipments of supplies from other places
were carefully examined before being given to the refugees. Particular
attention was paid to meats and canned goods.
Announcement was made that the particular need of the people was
drinking water, shoes, clothing, picks and shovels. Money also was
wanted, although a considerable amount had already been subscribed by
cities throughout the country.
Food was on hand in ample quantities, free to all, but the variety was
limited to staples such as beans, potatoes, bread and canned vegetables.
Of fresh meat there was practically none and butter and eggs were
scarce. All food supplies were those contributed by the outside world
and distributed from the various relief depots on the requisition of
householders. Neither provision nor other stores received any
consignment of goods.
Citizens and visitors alike were impressed with the facts that Dayton's
condition was distressing. A review of the streets from sunrise until
the curfew bell's toll furnished a practical illustration of this.
Except for the comparatively few householders who had supplies on hand
in considerable quantities, daily sustenance was secured by the market
basket method. This was as true of the fairly well-to-do families as of
the laboring classes.
HOW RATIONS WERE ISSUED
The head of a family made out a requisition each morning stating his
needs for the day. This requisition was presented at any of the supply
depots, and on it were issued rations consisting of potatoes, canned
meats, prunes or preserves, beans, biscuits or bread. Men, women and
children with their baskets were seen in the streets throughout the day.
Most of the absolutely destitute were cared for in one or another of the
buildings comprising the huge plant of the National Cash Register
Company, which is on high ground at the southern end of the city,
untouched by the flood. On the ninth floor of the administration
building, known as the office's club, and where there is a dining room
with a capacity for 1,000, more than 5,000 destitute persons were fed
daily. The menu for Sunday was a typical one, as follows:
Breakfast--Oatmeal and milk, coffee and bread.
Dinner--Vegetable soup, stewed canned meat, stewed corn, coffee and
bread.
Supper--Bean soup, potatoes, coffee or tea and bread with butter.
John F. Patterson, head of the plant, had his dinner in this general
dining room on Sunday. The only luxuries enjoyed by him and not provided
for the others were hard-boiled eggs and preserved peaches. Among the
most active of the uniformed waitresses was Mr. Patterson's
nineteen-year-old daughter. Volunteer waitresses helped out their paid
sisters during these days of hardship.
Monday in Dayton was much like the days that immediately preceded it,
except that rapid progress was made toward the restoration of the city
to a habitable condition. Electric current was supplied Monday night in
a limited residential district and in a few downtown buildings, and the
narrow zone of street lighting was extended. Automobile fire engines
were brought overland from Cincinnati to assist in pumping out
basements.
Ample telegraph equipment was installed in the Beckel House. Thousands
of telegrams remained undelivered, and it was still impossible for the
telegraph companies even to attempt delivery. The line of citizens
waiting in front of the Western Union's temporary office, to ask for
messages from friends, extended during the morning a full block.
The Bell Telephone system promised partial restoration of service by
Tuesday. Its plant manager, John A. Bell, complained of his linemen
having been impeded by refusal of guardsmen to honor the military
passes. This was called to the attention of Brigadier General Wood,
commanding the Ohio Guard, and relief was given.
Practically no newspapers had been received here since Tuesday and the
people of Dayton grew very anxious to learn of conditions in other
cities. News of the death of J. P. Morgan first reached the public
through a bulletin posted by a representative of the Associated Press.
Later the Dayton _News_, whose plant was inundated, put a two-page paper
on the street in which a few details of the death of the financier were
printed.
Impressed and volunteer laborers were put to work Monday refilling the
broken levees. Removal of dead animals was the most pressing work of
sanitation.
Major Thomas L. Rhoads, President Wilson's aide and personal
representative in charge of sanitary work, said that the situation was
quite encouraging; that hospital facilities so far were ample; no
epidemics of disease were in evidence and in two weeks there would be
substantial relief, although it would require two months to remove the
dirt and debris.
WOMEN SHOVEL IN STREETS
Monday for the first time, offensive odors came from the mud and slime
that was shovelled into the streets by householders and storekeepers. In
this work men, women and children were engaged. Wives of prominent
citizens were seen with shovel and hoe, some of them wearing their
husbands' trousers and rubber boots, doing as best they could the work
of men.
On Monday, John H. Patterson, chairman of the Citizens' Relief
Committee, issued the following statement:
"Our committee has now at its disposal all the food and clothing
necessary. Money, however, is required to put our city in condition to
prevent the outbreak of diseases and to rehabilitate the thousands, many
of whom have lost their homes entirely and all of whom have lost their
household and personal effects.
"The committee sends an urgent appeal to the citizens of the United
States for the necessary funds. All contributions should be sent direct
to W. F. Bippus, treasurer of the relief committee."
MILLIONAIRES IN THE BREAD-LINE
In the bread-line on Monday was Eugene J. Parney, a multi-millionaire,
whose gifts to charity have been very large and who recently included
$25,000 to the Y. M. C. A. of this city. The day after the flood he was
offering $1,000 for enough wood alcohol to heat malted milk for his
infant grandchild. Monday he was no more successful in buying
provisions. He appeared with a basket on his arm, rubbed elbows with
those nearest in the motley line and apparently none was more grateful
than he when his basket was filled with beans, potatoes, canned
vegetables, rice and other staples. He was eager to pay for his
supplies, but money is refused at the supply depots. It was arranged to
change this system on Tuesday to enable those well able to pay to do
so.
Fred B. Patterson, only son of John H. Patterson, stopped work in the
morgue at his father's factory long enough to tell for the first time of
the part he took in the rescue work. Like his sister Dorothy, who worked
as a waitress feeding refugees, young Patterson was doing the things
that many poor men had avoided.
ORVILLE WRIGHT'S ESCAPE
Orville Wright, the aeroplane builder, and his family, who had been
marooned in the west side, reported to relief headquarters on Monday.
The flood stopped just short of wiping out of existence the priceless
models, records, plans and drawings--all in the original--of the Wright
brothers, who gave the airship to the world.
Out in West Dayton live the Wrights--Orville, his father, Bishop Wright,
and Miss Katherine Wright, the sister, in a small, unpretentious frame
house. Orville Wright and his father and sister were in the old
homestead when the flood swept in.
The aged father was placed in a boat, but instead of conveying him to a
place of safety, the boatman carried him to a house nearby where he was
marooned until the waters subsided three days later. Orville Wright and
his sister escaped to safety on an auto truck, being carried through
four feet of water.
In fleeing, however, the inventor of the aeroplane was compelled to
abandon the small factory adjoining the homestead in which were stored
all of the originals from which the plans for the air craft were
perfected. Had these gone, there would have remained nothing of the
priceless data save what exists in the brain of Orville Wright.
At the height of the flood a house adjoining the factory took fire.
There were no means to fight the flames. For several hours the factory
was in peril, but a special providence protected it and it came out of
both flood and fire unscathed.
"We were lucky," said Orville Wright, whimsically, on Monday. "It is the
irony of fate that at the critical moment I was not able to get away
with my folks on one of my own machines. However, we came through all
right and there doesn't seem to be anything more to be said."
Just one week after the coming of the deluge Governor Cox entered his
home city for the first time, accompanied by several of the members of
the Ohio Flood Relief Committee.
Governor Cox praised Mr. Patterson for his invaluable part in the relief
work. "Mr. Patterson is the one man who is in the eye of America more
than any one other man," said the Governor.
Mr. Patterson, after he returned Tuesday night in company with H. E.
Talbott, chief engineer, from a tour of sections of Dayton that were
swept by the flood, issued a statement in which he said:
"Dayton is facing one of the gravest problems that any city of the world
ever faced and we want the world to know we need money and food for our
stricken people."
In speaking of a tentative plan to ask the Federal Government for a
loan of from $20,000,000 to $40,000,000 to be used in reconstruction
work, Mr. Patterson said:
"At a meeting of bankers and officials of the building associations this
evening it was decided to make an appeal for Federal aid. The banks and
building associations have $60,000,000 worth of assets which they will
put up as collateral. It may be deemed advisable to ask the Government
to give us some financial assistance. We feel that the disaster is an
emergency which would justify extraordinary action on the part of
Congress."
Since Sunday more than $750,000 in cash was received from banks in
Cincinnati to replace damaged money in local banks which remained closed
until April 8th.
DEATH AND PROPERTY LOSS
Mr. Talbott estimated that the property loss in Montgomery County
totaled at least $150,000,000. He declared that one manufacturing
company alone had lost half a million dollars.
Although several carloads of provisions were received on Tuesday,
officials in charge of relief work stated that the food situation was a
matter of grave concern. "We must have rations for more than 100,000
people for an indefinite period," Mr. Patterson declared.
A carload of automobile tires, contributed by an Akron rubber company
for use in relief work, arrived on Tuesday.
One of the great losses sustained from the flood was that which befell
the public library. An inspection of the institution disclosed the fact
that the children's library, the medical library and the reference
library had been wiped out of existence. Included in the loss were all
the public and official accounts and copies of the newspapers dating
from the first issues, back in 1822, none of which could be replaced.
County Coroner John McKemy, who in the week following the flood handled
nearly one hundred bodies, said that at least twenty-five bodies were
disposed of before he was released from his imprisonment by the flood.
He estimated that the number of lives lost from the flood in Dayton
exceeded two hundred.
THE TASK OF REBUILDING
So day followed day in the recuperation of Dayton; but, looking ahead,
it was evident to the magnificent corps of expert men in charge of the
work that months must elapse before all Daytonians could again live in
their own homes. There were 15,000 residences to plaster and paper
before they could be occupied. There were 4,500 houses to build
foundations under, to straighten, re-roof, put in doors and windows,
rebuild chimneys and make other repairs before their owners could move
in again. There were 2,000 houses to raze and new structures to be
built.
The Citizens' Relief Committee, on advices from engineers, decided that
this reconstruction work would require four months, even if building
material could be obtained promptly.
So far as the business and industrial buildings were concerned, it was
estimated by architects who looked over the different premises that it
would require eight months before repair work and rebuilding could be
accomplished. In the interim business was done in whatever premises were
available.
Thousands of men were employed, together with many teams of horses, and
work was pushed to the utmost in all departments. Surveys of the damage
done were made and large quantities of material were ordered by
telegraph, to be shipped immediately.
Generations must come and go before the Dayton flood will be forgotten,
and standing out in bright contrast with all else there will perhaps
remain longest the inspiring picture of the energy and fortitude with
which the stricken residents set about the retrievement of their city
from the devastation of the angry waters.
CHAPTER VI
DAYTON: "THE CITY OF A THOUSAND FACTORIES"
SURVIVOR OF SIX FLOODS--ESTABLISHED BY REVOLUTIONARY
SOLDIERS--PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS--OTHER OF DAYTON'S FEATURES OF
INTEREST--A CITY OF CIVIC PRIDE--"A THOUSAND FACTORIES"--ITS
SUCCESS.
Dayton has stood in the shadow of disaster from flood ever since its
foundation. No less than six times previous to the present inundation
have the rivers which flow through it left their accustomed courses and
brought death and destruction of property upon the town. The first of
these floods occurred in 1805, the very year that Dayton was
incorporated as a town. The sixth was in 1898 and the others in the
years 1847, 1863, 1866 and 1886.
The site of the present city was purchased in 1795 by a group of
Revolutionary soldiers and laid out as a town in the following year by
one of them, who named it after Jonathan Dayton, a Jerseyman who had
fought in the Revolution and who later served in Congress and the United
States Senate. It became the county seat of Montgomery County in 1803
and received its city charter in 1841, something more than a score of
years after the opening of the Miami Canal gave a boom to its growth and
prosperity.
[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
Crowds at the end of one of the streets which was turned into a racing
river. Many persons floating down on the debris were rescued by willing
hands as they neared this point]
[Illustration: Copyright by George Grantham Bain.
Even before the flood reached its height, the wood-working department of
the National Cash Register Factory was busily putting together
improvised boats that were afterwards of great value in rescuing
marooned residents from their flooded homes]
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Within the city limits the waters of Wolf Creek, Stillwater and Mad
Rivers unite with those of the great Miami. The latter stream flows
through the city from north to south. As it reaches the corporation
limits at the north it sweeps to the westward and is joined by
Stillwater River a mile and a half from the court house. Then it takes
an easterly course for half a mile and is joined by the Mad River at a
point about half a mile from the court house.
The river then bends again to the west for more than half a mile and is
joined by Wolf Creek. Its course lies thereafter to the southeast. Great
bridges, some of them of great architectural beauty, cross all of these
streams. The Miami Canal takes water from the Mad River about two miles
northeast of the court house, runs parallel with the Mad River to its
confluence with the Miami and then runs southward to the city limits.
The city is regularly laid out, the street and house number plan being
arranged with arithmetical exactness. Main Street is the center of this
system and the house numbers begin from it or the point nearest it on
the streets that run east or west. For the streets running north and
south the house numbers begin on Third Street or the point nearest Third
Street. Main and Third Streets are respectively the dividing lines of
all streets crossing them.
SPLENDID PUBLIC BUILDINGS
The court house stands at Main and West Third Streets. Distances are
measured from it, and it is at the center of the scheme according to
which streets are laid out. Its original portion was modeled after the
Greek Parthenon and is built of rough white marble taken from quarries
in the vicinity. It is only one of the many buildings of which the city
is proud. Among others are the Steele High School, St. Mary's College,
Notre Dame Academy, Memorial Building, Arcade Building, Reibold
Building, post office, Algonquin Hotel, public library and the Y. M. C.
A. building.
There is also the Union Biblical Seminary and a publishing house
connected therewith. The Central Theological Seminary was established in
1908. Among charitable institutions are the Dayton State Hospital for
the Insane, Miami Valley and St. Elizabeth hospitals, the Christian
Deaconess', Widows' and Children's homes and the Door of Hope, a home
for girls. Just outside the city is the central branch of the National
Home for Disabled Soldiers. In addition to these buildings there are a
number of very handsome churches.
OTHER OF DAYTON'S FEATURES OF INTEREST
Dayton is on the Erie, the Dayton and Union and the Pittsburgh,
Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroads. There are one hundred and
twenty-five trains entering the city daily. The Union Station was opened
to the public in July, 1900, and cost, including tracks, $900,000. The
city has an area of ten and three-quarter square miles.
The Mayor, Treasurer, Auditor, Solicitor, and Board of Public Service,
of three members, are elected by popular election. The Board of Public
Safety, of two members, and the Board of Health, are appointed by the
Mayor and confirmed by Council. The City Council, composed of thirteen
members from ten wards, is elected by popular vote, for two years, each
member receiving an annual salary of $250. It is a legislative body
only.
The supply of water for the city is almost inexhaustible in quantity and
of absolute purity. In 1904 there were one hundred and thirty-three
miles of street mains, 1,300 fire hydrants and 15,503 service taps. The
Fire Department has a force of ninety men, fourteen engine-houses, fifty
horses maintained at a cost of $86,728.48, and with property worth
$375,000. A complete system of surface and underground sewerage, both
storm and sanitary, is provided. In 1904 there were sixty-seven and
nine-tenths miles of storm sewerage.
There are seven National Banks and two Savings and Trust Companies.
Dayton takes rank as foremost in building associations of any city of
its size in the country. A large number of the 20,000 or more homes in
the city have been built with the aid of these associations.
A potent force in the development of the city has been the electric
traction lines, of which Dayton has more than any other city in Ohio.
There are nine lines, with a total mileage of three hundred and
eighty-five miles, which radiate in all directions through the populous
and rich country of which Dayton forms the center. The city railway
lines, three in number, have a total mileage of nearly one hundred miles
and render excellent service.
The Dayton public school system has for many years enjoyed the
reputation of being one of the best school systems in the West.
Dayton had the first library incorporated in the state, one having been
established in 1805. The Public Library was opened in 1855 and is
supported by public taxation, having an income of $18,000 per annum.
There are five daily newspapers, each with weekly editions, besides
seventeen church and other publications. There are also three large
church publication houses.
The city hospitals include the St. Elizabeth Hospital, the Miami Valley
Hospital, and the Protestant Hospital, which has a large central
building known as the Frank Patterson Memorial of Operative Surgery, one
of the most complete buildings for its purpose in the United States. The
Dayton State Hospital for the Insane is maintained by the state. The
Hospital of the National Military Home which adjoins the city is the
largest military hospital in the world and has an average of 600
patients, all of whom are veteran volunteer soldiers of the Civil and
Cuban Wars.
A CITY OF CIVIC PRIDE
Dayton was early imbued with the spirit of civic pride and the results
are seen in a system of drives and parks. The streets are well built and
numerous good hard gravel roads radiate into the surrounding country, a
fertile farming region which abounds in limestone. The levee along the
Miami is made of hard gravel and is wide enough at the top to form a
foundation for a drive.
"A THOUSAND FACTORIES"
Dayton is sometimes known as "the City of a Thousand Factories," and
some of its varied industries are known throughout the world. Leading
these is, of course, the National Cash Register Company, which employs
something more than 7,000 men.
In addition to cash registers there are manufactured agricultural
machinery, clay-working machinery, cottonseed and linseed oil machinery,
railway cars, carriages and wagons, automobiles, flying machines, sewing
machines, paper, furniture, soap and tobacco. Almost every industrial
product finds a maker in this town. Barnum & Smith are the well known
manufacturers of street cars. There is the Davis Sewing Machine Company,
the Speedwell Automobile Company and many others. Water-power in
abundance is supplied from the Mad River.
Dayton is the fifth largest city in Ohio. The final abstract of the
Federal census for 1910 placed the population at 116,577, as compared
with 85,333 in 1900 and 61,220 in 1890.
With its industries so diversified, its banks and building associations
so strong and uniformly successful, and with its people so well
educated, it is one of the richest and most prosperous communities in
the Union.
CHAPTER VII
THE DEVASTATION OF COLUMBUS
THE RISING FLOOD--MOST OF THE CITY DARK--GREAT AREAS UNDER
WATER--THE MILITIA IN CONTROL--THE RELIEF OF THE VICTIMS--THE
EXTENT OF THE DISASTER--STORIES OF THE HORROR--ORDERS TO SHOOT
LOOTERS--RECOVERING THE DEAD--GOVERNOR COX INDEFATIGABLE--HUNGRY
REFUGEES SEIZE FOOD--INCIDENTS OF HEROISM--SCENES OF PATHOS--LOSS
BY DEATH AND OF PROPERTY--THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION.
At Columbus, on Tuesday night, March 25th, darkness settled down on a
swirling flood that covered large areas of the city. Thousands of
persons were separated from members of their families and were frantic
because they were unable to get into communication with their homes.
THE RISING FLOOD
Hundreds of fathers, sons, brothers, sisters and daughters had left
their homes on the west side of the city in the morning to go to work,
before the Scioto River had reached a flood stage. Rising suddenly, the
water cut them off from their homes and when night fell they only knew
that their homes were flooded and that the members of their families
were dependent for food and shelter on more fortunate neighbors.
Because the city was in darkness, only meager details of the condition
of the flood-marooned inhabitants were obtainable.
Wringing their hands, weeping and appealing vainly for help, scores of
girls crowded in as close to the water's edge in the darkness as state
troops and policemen on duty would allow them, but there was no chance
to cross the stream to their home district.
MOST OF THE CITY DARK
Owing to the high water, electric lights in the flooded district and a
part of the business section of the city were out, and the water supply
was cut off. The supply of gas was also cut off, with a view to
preventing explosions.
In Columbus the west side was practically wiped out, and the reported
loss of life ranged from a half dozen to 200. Houses were floating down
the river with people on their roofs. Several fires in the submerged
district added to the horrors. Refugees slept in public buildings, while
militia helped the police patrol the streets, which were in total
darkness.
It was estimated that over 10,000 persons were homeless on the west side
as a result of the flood and that at least 15,000 were living on the
second floors of their homes. Only about ten per cent of the street cars
were able to operate and steam railroad and suburban lines were tied up.
Damage amounting to $30,000 was done by fires in the west side during
the afternoon, which for a time threatened greater damage owing to the
water supply being cut off. Even had there been water, most of the
fire-fighting facilities were on the east side of the city and unable to
reach the section affected.
GREAT AREA UNDER WATER
Bridges connecting the west side with the eastern portion of Columbus
were swept away shortly after noon. Dozens of smaller bridges went down.
Hundreds of men were marooned in factories on the west side, and police
and National Guardsmen were making rescues in boats where it was
possible. All street car traffic was abandoned. Fifteen hundred homes
were flooded.
With a great roar the levee at the foot of Broad Street let go shortly
before eleven o'clock, sending down a deluge of water that swelled the
Scioto River and covered a great area. Several small buildings
collapsed. Just before the break the police ordered all persons in the
lowlands to leave their homes quickly and flee for high land. All fire
and police apparatus assisted in the work. The residents were told not
to stop for clothes or valuables.
The Sandusky Street levee also collapsed, permitting the water to wash
out a railroad embankment and pour into all the low districts between
the river and Sandusky Street. With water to the hubs, a horse-drawn
wagon galloped out West Broad Street filled with police, who shouted as
they went a warning to all to fly to the hills.
While being swept down the channel of the swollen Scioto River just as
darkness was gathering late in the day, a man, woman and child were
rescued from the roof of a house that had been torn from its foundation
by the flood. Two other children of the same family fell into the water
and were drowned.
THE MILITIA IN CONTROL
State troops at the order of Governor Cox patrolled the streets in the
flooded sections of the city and scores of automobiles were busy
carrying the suffering to higher ground.
Meantime, the rain which began Sunday night continued, at times
moderately and at other times in torrents. The fact that the water had
already destroyed several bridges and broken a levee gave cause for the
alarm that other levees might break and further damage result.
Because of the proportions of the flood, which washed out nearly every
bridge of steam and electric roads leading out of Columbus, nearly all
train service was annulled.
Floodgates were closed against all trains coming in or going out of
Columbus on all roads except the Norfolk and Western. A train on that
road practically swam into the Union Station at 9 P. M. after having
crept along through high waters for most of the run from Portsmouth to
Columbus.
During the day several trains on roads from the East were detoured
through Columbus over the Norfolk and Western, but this was discontinued
because of washed-out bridges between Columbus and Pittsburgh and other
points. Norfolk and Western officials said they had no assurance that
they would be able to operate any trains from here.
Ten solid miles of Pullman and other trains, including the Twentieth
Century Flyer, on the Pennsylvania Railroad, extended from Lima to
Lafayette, held up by a wash-out. Repairs allowed the trains to move on
about eleven o'clock.
In taking charge of the relief work Governor Cox issued an order
directing Adjutant-General John C. Speaks to call out the entire
National Guard of the state for duty in the flooded districts.
BRIDGES SWEPT AWAY
Bridges were swept away, barring those who would have fled to places of
safety. The rush of waters caught hundreds in their homes, and as the
darkness fell the scramble to escape became wild and foreboding. Those
who were able to do anything sent their appeals for aid to outlying
cities before the wires had absolutely failed.
Added to the terrors of flood and darkness was that of fire. In the wild
rush for places of safety that followed the first warning of the danger
from the bursting levees, lamps were toppled over, electric wires were
crossed and soon flames were mounting high in many sections of the city.
Representative H. S. Bigelow introduced a bill in the legislature to
appropriate $100,000 for the flood sufferers in Ohio, the money to be
handled under the direction of the Governor.
With no change in the number of reported dead in this city, estimates on
Wednesday placed the probable dead at from one hundred to one hundred
and fifty. Columbus was still being drenched and torn by flood waters of
the Scioto and Olentangy Rivers. The scene of devastation on the west
side was partly made visible to residents of other sections of the city
for the first time in two days. The isolation of the western section
again became real when the last remaining bridge gave way before the
torrents.
Numerous persons who were considered conservative asserted that they saw
scores of bodies float down stream and dozens of persons carried away in
their houses.
Miss Esther Eis, rescued from her home on the west side, said she saw
the house with George Griffin, wife and seven children collapse and
disappear, and another house containing John Way, wife and five
children, break up in the flood.
Besides the actual tragedies that were enacted in connection with the
flood the most exciting incident occurred at the announcement that the
storage dam, several miles north of the city, had broken, sending its
great flood to augment that of the Scioto River.
The scene that followed was one of wild panic in all parts of the city.
Patrolmen, soldiers and citizens in automobiles, tooting horns, ringing
gongs and calling through megaphones a warning to every one to seek
safety in the higher parts of the east side, sent thousands in flight,
while many, stunned by the supposed impending disaster, collapsed from
fear or gave way to hysteria.
It was more than an hour before the report was officially denied. Police
officials assert that the report was made to them by persons connected
with the military end of the patrols.
City officials said that the storage dam was holding fast against the
millions of gallons of water that were being poured against it, and they
expressed confidence that it would continue to do so despite the great
pressure upon it.
The Governor telegraphed the War Department at Washington, asking that
50,000 tents and 100,000 rations be made available for use and
distribution by the Ohio National Guard.
Governor Cox also sent out appeals for aid to the Governors of all the
border States of Ohio, including Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Michigan,
Indiana and Kentucky. Tents and provisions were badly needed, according
to the Governor's appeal.
After working all night in the Adjutant-General's office in the State
House, officers of the Ohio National Guard reported that they had
succeeded in assembling 3,500 militiamen, ready for service in the flood
districts.
Mobilized at all points of the state, companies and regiments of the
Ohio military force started at daybreak on Wednesday for the stricken
cities and towns as soon as arrangements for their transportation, the
most serious problem confronting the militia headquarters, could be
arranged. The relief which they carried was held back by the lack of
railroad facilities everywhere.
THE RELIEF OF THE VICTIMS
Howard Elting, president of the Chicago Association of Commerce,
telegraphed Governor Cox that citizens of Chicago were raising a relief
fund for flood sufferers.
"I am pleased to state," the telegram said, "that $100,000 will be
placed at the disposal of Ohio through the American Red Cross Society."
The Senate passed the Lowry Bill making appropriation for the relief of
the flood sufferers, but increased the amount to $500,000.
The action was taken in response to the following message from the
Governor:
"The flood disaster that has befallen our state is of such magnitude in
loss of life and human suffering that I respectfully urge upon your
honorable body the importance and propriety of making an appropriation
for the succor of those in distress.
"May I further suggest that it be of such size and made with such
dispatch as to reflect the great heart and resource of our
commonwealth?"
THE EXTENT OF THE DISASTER
On Thursday it was apparent that the part of the city between Central
and Sandusky Avenues was almost wiped out, and estimates of the death
toll of the flood in this city ran into the hundreds.
It was not until Thursday when the waters began to recede, and after two
nights of horror, during which hundreds of people clung to the
housetops, while others sought safety in trees, that the fact dawned
upon the inhabitants that their city had been visited by as great a
calamity perhaps as that which had fallen upon the Miami Valley.
The bodies of 200 persons lay huddled in the United Brethren Church on
Avondale Avenue, according to O. H. Ossman, an undertaker, who explored
the flood district in a rowboat.
He said this report was made to him by a man who said he had been able
to reach the building and look through the windows. Police who sought to
confirm the story were unable to reach the church because of the
current.
Ossman said nineteen bodies had been taken to his undertaking rooms and
that he has been asked to be prepared to care for sixty-nine other
bodies. He said he counted fully two hundred bodies in wreckage on West
Park Avenue.
Members of searching parties who were able to explore the west side of
the city, south of Broad Street, for the first time reported that that
section was a scene of vast desolation for a great area, much of it
being still under water.
The names of more than a half hundred persons were placed under the
caption "known dead," while the list of probable dead was too great to
be collated at that time. The number of missing and unaccounted for, it
was said, would reach far into the hundreds.
An Associated Press operator, who was marooned for hours in the flood
after it broke early Tuesday, reached the Columbus office Thursday after
having traveled by a circuitous route covering more than forty-five
miles in order to get into the main portion of the city.
He saw more than a score of bodies washed through the flood, and said
that house after house was carried away in the flood. Many of the small
frame cottages were wrenched to pieces by the currents and their
occupants thrown into the water to be seen no more.
It was believed that many bodies would be found at the Sandusky Street
bridge or lodged against such part of it as was left in the river at
that point. Further exploration of that part of the west side was begun
Thursday afternoon.
Because she had no home after she was rescued from the flood district,
Miss Florence P. Shaner and William G. Wahlenmaier were married. They
had intended being married in May. The girl was rescued by Wahlenmaier.
Her mother was drowned and their home swept away.
STORIES OF THE HORROR
Other men who had ventured into the flood district told corresponding
stories of awful loss of life. To add to the horrors of the situation
reports reached the State House that the buildings in the flood-swept
district were being looted by men in rowboats. To meet this emergency
and to better patrol the west side, which is under martial law, Governor
Cox ordered Troop B of the National Guard to patrol the ruined section
of the city. It was believed the cavalrymen could cover more territory
than foot soldiers.
As the waters receded the militia guarded the west side under
arrangements made between the Adjutant-General's department and Chairman
Nass of the Columbus Relief Committee.
Hundreds of people were still marooned in flooded homes, their rescue up
to that time being impossible because of the swift current of the
river. Rescued people in dire straits were brought to the City Hall in a
stream all day, where people by the hundreds waited to obtain news of
missing relatives and friends.
Families were separated, and men, women and children stood night and day
at the edge of the water waiting for the flood to subside that they
might reach abandoned homes.
The body of a man was suspended in a tree near Glenwood Avenue, beyond
reach of the rescuing parties. Other bodies were among debris washed up
on the edge of the waters in the southwest end of the city. Near this
debris were two submerged street cars.
Many of the refugees were in state institutions on the high ground at
the west end. The water fell several feet and some of the streets
inundated could be traversed, but in the lowlands, where it was feared
the greater number of dead would be found, it was several days before a
thorough search could be instituted.
Many of the refugees were in a pitiable condition when rescued. They
were benumbed by the cold and suffering from hunger and exposure.
FOUR BORN AS OTHERS DIE
Colonel D. N. Oyser, an attache of the city sanitary department,
reported that two truckloads of bodies were removed from one point on
the west side.
The cold wave which struck the section Wednesday night caused many to
freeze, lose their grip, and drop into the water.
[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
Part of the residential section of Fremont, Ohio, flooded. The water
reached to the second story of the houses]
[Illustration: Copyright by George Grantham Bain.
Carrying on the work of rescuing Dayton flood sufferers from their
houses in the boats made for the purpose at the National Cash Register
Factory]
With military glasses rescuers standing on the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad near Center Avenue could see several dead forms lying on the
roof of a building to the east.
Four babies were reported to have been born in a school house on the
hilltop.
According to those who invaded the stricken district, the churches, big
state institutions and storerooms in the hilltop section were crowded
with refugees. They tell stories of indescribable horrors.
Former Mayor George S. Marshall, who was in telephone communication with
Cecil Randall, his law partner, said that Mr. Randall estimated the
death toll at several hundreds. Throngs of excited groups of people from
the flood-stricken section of the city who were crowded into the
temporary rescue quarters asserted that the estimate of Mr. Randall was
not exaggerated.
Neither the extent of the awful tragedies enacted during the sweeping
away of homes nor the exact death tolls could be known for days until
the mass of wreckage, houses and uprooted trees which were strewn on the
level lowlands south of the city were uncovered. This mass of debris was
under several feet of water, with swift currents running in many
directions.
Many of those rescued told of escaping from their homes by fractions of
minutes, just before the rushing waters swept their homes away and
crushed them like eggshells against bridges. Scores of entire families,
these people assert, were swept down with their houses in the swift
current.
Every available inch of space in the Columbus State Hospital for the
Insane and Mt. Carmel Hospital on the hilltop was occupied by refugees.
Fire Chief Lauer, who was marooned on the hilltop beyond the flooded
section, reaching that point of safety in his automobile just before the
waters swept the lowlands, said that he saw scores of people standing on
their porches as the waters swept down and that he could not see how
scarcely any of them escaped.
After two nights of horror, during which hundreds clung to housetops
calling for help until their voices gave way, while dozens perched in
the branches of trees, many were still beyond the reach of rescuers.
ORDERS TO SHOOT LOOTERS
J. W. Gaver, Justice of the Peace at Briggsdale, swore in several
deputies and armed them, with instructions to shoot down all looters.
Relief trains from Marysville and London, bearing food and clothing,
relieved the situation in the refugee quarters on the hilltop, where
hundreds of homeless were waiting news from relatives.
Relief work was directed toward rescuing two hundred and fifty from the
marooned plant of the Sun Manufacturing Company, where they had been
imprisoned for two days without food or heat. One boat which got within
hailing distance before it was stopped by the swirling current was
informed that conditions were terrible.
With a blinding snowstorm and the temperature falling, gnawed by hunger
and suffering from the cold, the thousands of flood sufferers of the
state faced the uncertainties which the freezing temperature was adding
to their plight.
Although some of the early morning reports said flood waters were
receding slowly in some of the flooded sections there was scarcely a
perceptible change in the flood height. In other places, even though
receding, the water was still of such height as to maroon the sufferers,
many of whom were suffering from exposure which followed their clinging
throughout the night to some points of vantage above the murky waters.
All were facing the chilly winds, blinding rain, sleet and snow.
Governor Cox issued a proclamation declaring a holiday in all districts
flooded in Ohio for the next ten days. This was done to protect
negotiable paper that might be subject to presentation.
Hundreds of the refugees harbored in the various relief stations and in
private homes just outside of the flooded district were separated from
relatives, and many of them believed that lost sons or daughters,
fathers or mothers had perished.
The authorities were fearful of looting in the flood district and the
militia, under strict orders, in several cases arrested rescue workers
and interfered with their work, suspecting them of looting. A large
quantity of supplies was transported to the flood district by automobile
and rail, and the refugees were made comfortable as fast as they could
be released from the grip of the waters.
RECOVERING THE DEAD
Thursday's bodies were recovered from jams of driftwood that had piled
up along the shallow shores of the flood. All of them were badly
mutilated and in several cases identification was difficult. The
authorities organized a squad of men to cover the entire inundated area
in the search of bodies. Up to date fifty-one known dead had been
reported.
Hundreds of those whose homes were in the flooded district, but who were
marooned in the business section of the city, away from their families,
were able to get to the flood section Thursday by a circuitous route
about twenty-five miles long. All manner of vehicles and pedestrians
crowded the road throughout the day, and at the end of the way pathetic
reunions of families separated since Tuesday took place in the muddy,
flood-swept streets.
Daniel A. Poling, general secretary of the Ohio Christian Endeavor
Society, issued an appeal to the 160,000 Christian Endeavorers in the
state, urging them to forward contributions to state headquarters.
West Columbus remained virtually under martial law. Militia companies on
duty were ordered to shoot looters on sight. Thousands of curious people
and those with friends and relatives in the flooded districts were kept
out of the west side by police and troopers. The city relief station, at
the city hall, and the newspapers maintained and compiled lists of the
rescued, as well as lists of the dead.
By Friday order was being rapidly evolved out of chaos, and missing
loved ones were being accounted for by hundreds. Ample shelter and food
were being provided for the thousands of homeless.
Flood waters drained off from the devastated districts, railroad service
was slowly resumed and telegraph and telephone wires were being
restrung.
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING ONE OF THE CIRCUITOUS ROUTES BY WHICH NEWS OF
THE FLOOD WAS CARRIED TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD]
GOVERNOR COX INDEFATIGABLE
For three days Governor Cox tirelessly accomplished the work of a dozen
men, laboring from daylight to long past midnight to aid the
unfortunates of Ohio. His hand guided everything done in the work of
rescue and on Friday he turned his attention to new problems of
preventing epidemics, safeguarding life and property, relieving the
sufferings of surviving flood victims and the care of the dead.
The hero of the Dayton disaster, John A. Bell, the telephone official
who, marooned in a business block had been keeping Governor Cox informed
every half hour of conditions in the stricken city and delivering orders
through boatmen who rowed to his window, called the State House at
daybreak and greeted the Executive with a cheery "Good morning,
Governor. The sun is shining in Dayton."
But sunshine gave way to a blizzard like a snowstorm later in the day
and the reports coming from Bell were less cheering as the day advanced.
On Friday the Governor seized the railways to insure passage of relief
trains and to keep sightseers and looters away from the afflicted
municipalities.
The entire military force of Ohio was on duty in the flooded districts,
which included practically the entire state. Because of the interrupted
communications headquarters had not been able to keep fully in touch
with the movements of all the troops. The officers in command in most
cases had to determine routes and procure their own transportation.
Under the most difficult conditions they uniformly showed both energy
and ingenuity in reaching their destination.
Estimates of the flood death list in Columbus continued to range from
fifty to five hundred, although these figures represented largely
opinions of officials on duty in the flood zone. The efforts of the
authorities were directed almost entirely to relieving the suffering of
those marooned in houses in the territory under water, and until all of
these had been rescued the search for the dead did not begin in earnest.
The waters receded slowly on Friday and the swirling currents abated a
trifle, allowing the rescue boats a wider area of activity.
ORGANIZING RELIEF
George F. Unmacht, civil service clerk, connected with the
quartermaster's department of the United States army, stationed at
Chicago, arrived in Columbus Friday to assist in directing the
distribution of supplies. Rations for 300,000 arrived together with
tents for 20,000 persons; 100 hospital tents, 400 stoves, 29,000
blankets, 8,900 cots, 100 ranges.
Officers at Columbus were ordered to report at Fort Wayne, Cincinnati,
Youngstown and Hamilton, while a hospital corps was sent to the Columbus
barracks.
The Governor's attention on Friday was devoted largely to organization
of the work of relief. He received telegrams notifying him of
collections of more than $250,000. A New York newspaper had sent
$150,000 subscribed to a fund it raised. Word was received that the
Chicago Chamber of Commerce had raised $200,000, half of which had been
forwarded to Ohio. Judge Alton B. Parker subscribed $5,000 and James J.
Hill $5,000. A thousand dollars was sent from Walkerville, Ontario.
Governor Dunne wired that a bill appropriating $100,000 for Ohio flood
sufferers had been introduced in the Illinois Legislature, while
Governor Osborne telegraphed that the Michigan Assembly had appropriated
$20,000.
Colonel Myron T. Herrick, of Cleveland, Ambassador to France, cabled his
deep anxiety over the Ohio disaster, and Governor Cox in reply asked him
to call a meeting of the Ohio Society in Paris and wire funds, saying
the losses exceeded the San Francisco earthquake.
The Ohio Society of Georgia wired the Governor it was sorry and it too
was invited to show how much it was sorry.
HUNGRY REFUGEES SEIZE FOOD
The need for relief was indicated when a company of telephone linemen
working outside of Columbus had their supplies taken from them by hungry
flood refugees.
Governor Cox recalled some of his former comments on the need of
expenditures for the National Guard. "The National Guard," he said, "has
saved itself. Its efficiency has been a revelation to me." In the
organization so promptly effected by the Governor the moment the floods
came, his most efficient aid came from Adjutant-General Speaks and the
National Guard officers, and with the Guard the work of rescue and of
maintaining order was made possible. The officers and men performed
every duty faithfully.
Martial law prevailed in most of the stricken cities and the soldiers
prevented the looting of the abandoned houses and cared for the
refugees.
Colonel Wilson, of the Paymaster's Department, was made financial
officer as well as treasurer of the relief funds. Under his direction
and the Governor's supervision the Ohio relief commission prepared for a
War Department audit, as is required by the Red Cross Society. The
Governor demanded that there should be but one relief committee in the
state, and to that end the local committees formed were subordinate to
the state commission.
INCIDENTS OF HEROISM
The work of rescue brought out many striking incidents of personal
heroism.
From two o'clock Tuesday afternoon until nearly nightfall Wednesday
Charles W. Underwood, a carpenter of this city, held two babes in his
arms while he clung to the branch of a tree near the Greenlawn Cemetery,
where he had been carried fully a mile by the current. One babe was his
own, the other belonged to a neighbor, and as he clung to them he saw
his own twelve-year-old daughter on another limb of the same tree weaken
from exposure and die, her frail body swaying limply as it hung over the
branch. He also saw a woman refugee in the same tree weaken and fall
into the swirling waters. Underwood and the babes were finally rescued.
Two hundred and thirty-three souls marooned in the building of the Sun
Manufacturing Company succeeded in sending out a note by messenger,
praising the work of John Brady, who, with a skiff, after his home was
swept away, rescued two hundred men, women and children and brought them
to the Sun plant.
"Track out at Columbus because of floods," was the message that Albert
E. Dutoit, a Hocking Valley Railway engineer, read when his train was
stopped Wednesday at Walbridge, near Toledo. His heart gave a bound,
for he knew his family must be threatened. He detached his engine from
the train and started on his race with death. Like mad he shot his
engine across the country between there and Columbus. All night
Wednesday he tried to get through the military lines and succeeded on
Thursday. He induced men in motor boats to rescue his family. In a few
more moments, he had his eight-months-old baby in one arm with the other
around the waist of his wife. The reunion brought tears of sympathy to
the eyes of the rescuers.
Mrs. Emil Wallace, living southwest of the city, in the lowlands, ran
toward a hill when she saw the onrushing waters. She reached safety just
as the water was up to her neck. Her home was submerged.
A street car was washed a quarter of a mile away from the track. The
conductor and half a dozen passengers were drowned like rats in a trap
before they could get out of the car.
Two unknown men lost their lives while trying to save a twelve-year-old
girl from a raft floating near Greenlawn Avenue. On horseback the men
fought desperately against the swift current of the flood until at last
they were carried away.
Nearly one hundred babies were born in the flood district and in the
refuge camps between Tuesday morning and Saturday. In the majority of
cases neither the mothers nor the babies received any medical attention.
Many of the babies died from exposure.
As the sun broke through a fringe of clouds Saturday morning it looked
down upon scenes of utter devastation in the stricken west side of this
city, where a mighty torrent of water had rendered what was a prosperous
and happy community of 40,000 souls into a place of death, want and
disaster.
SCENES OF PATHOS
The scenes were full of human pathos. Torn bodies, disfigured almost
beyond recognition, were being dug from debris. Whole families, marooned
for four long days and nights in the upper stories of houses that had
escaped as if by miracle, many of them without food or water and in fear
of constant death by flood or flame, were being reached by rescuers.
Many of those rescued were in a critical condition from the long hours
they had spent in the bitter cold--their clothing soaked by the
incessant rainfall of three days and nights and no fuel or bedding with
which to combat their fearful condition. The water was subsiding
materially and the work of rescue was thus made easier.
The work of the searching parties in the flooded district increased the
list of bodies recovered from the water to sixty-one. All of these were
lodged in the temporary morgue, and most of them were identified.
Accurate estimates of the dead were still impossible. Safety Director
Bargar said not more than one hundred had been drowned. Coroner Benkert
asserted that the loss of life would reach 200, while former Mayor
Marshall, commanding the rescue workers in the southern end of the
flooded district held that both estimates were too high.
Of the sixty-one bodies recovered twenty-seven had been identified.
Estimates placed property loss at from $15,000,000 to $30,000,000. But
no one seemed to care about the monetary loss. The city was staggered by
the weight of human suffering.
Governor Cox received a telegram from D. T. McCabe, vice-president of
the Pennsylvania Lines, offering to transport free of charge all relief
supplies to points in the flooded area of the state if properly
consigned to the relief authorities. The Governor also received a
telegram from Governor Ralston, of Indiana, saying that ten carloads of
supplies had been started for Ohio points by Indiana relief
organizations.
Approximately one thousand persons, refugees from the Dayton flood,
arrived in Columbus on Saturday, most of them having made their way by
automobile and trains. As if pursued by tragedy, it fell to them that
their landing place in this city should be within the radius of the
recently-flooded hilltop district of the west side. The arrival of the
refugees was unexpected and no arrangements had been made to care for
them. Adjutant-General John C. Speaks was notified and said that the
state would do the best that could be done to provide them with food and
shelter. General Speaks said that the local relief committees were being
sorely taxed, but that he had been advised by the Columbus relief
committees that they would give all possible assistance in housing and
feeding the Dayton arrivals.
Scores of transfer wagons traversed the inundated streets carrying
relief to the hundreds marooned in the upper stories of houses. An
element adding to the difficulty of the situation was the refusal of
hundreds to leave their homes in the submerged district. This despite
the fact that they were compelled to live in damp upper stories, with
little heat or cooking facilities and in the face of threatened illness.
"We've saved our bedding and furniture, and that's all we have," said
one of these. "We are not going to take any chances of losing that."
City Health Officer Dr. Louis Kahn ordered an immediate cleaning up. The
health authorities also called attention to the necessity of boiling all
water for drinking purposes.
Miss Mabel Boardman, head of the Red Cross Society, reached Cincinnati
Saturday night. She came to confer with Governor Cox. The Governor again
asserted that the property damage caused by the floods in Ohio would
aggregate $300,000,000, and that this amount would be increased by the
high water in the Ohio River.
With the water fast receding in Columbus and the danger stage passed,
the food problem promised on Sunday to become the most serious for the
relief workers to solve.
Mayor Hunt, of Cincinnati, had been sending food to Dayton and other
places, but on Saturday as the flood descended upon his own city from
the upper reaches of the Ohio River, he put an embargo on further
exports of provisions. Though fifty-five carloads of provisions
consigned to the state were in Columbus last night, and supply trains
were headed for Ohio from Chicago, Washington, New York and other
places, Governor Cox was by no means reassured that the relief in sight
would be sufficient.
All of the people in the marooned district were reached and those
willing to leave their homes were brought over to the east side of the
city and cared for in hospitals, private homes or temporary places of
refuge. Boats and other contrivances were in constant use carrying
provisions and fuel to those who could not leave their homes. Eight more
bodies were recovered.
A majority of the rescued presented a pitiable sight, some hardly able
to stand on their feet and others, thinly clad and benumbed by the cold,
trembled as they were lifted into the boats. The hospitals were crowded
with people dangerously ill from days of exposure.
The morgues, hospitals and places of refuge were constantly besieged by
people looking for lost relatives. Those received related tales of
horror and heroism unparalleled except in great disasters like the
Titanic or Johnstown.
A year-old baby, wrapped in a blanket, was washed ashore in front of the
gates of the state institution for feeble-minded. Although chilled by
the water the child was soon revived. Pinned to its underclothing was a
piece of paper, upon which the name, "Walter Taylor," was written. The
boy was restored to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Taylor,
twenty-four hours later. The family had been penned in its home for two
days. As the water rose gradually the parents moved to the second floor
and then to the attic. Finally the father was forced to hold the child
for hours above his head. Climbing out to the roof as a last resort, the
baby was swept away and the parents had given it up for dead.
Governor H. D. Hatfield, of West Virginia, arrived in Columbus at seven
o'clock Sunday night on a special train from Charleston. The train
brought supplies, motor boats and skiffs. The motor boats and skiffs
were later taken through the different sections of the city to rescue
hundreds who were marooned. The local military company took charge of
the rescue work and pushed it forward as rapidly as conditions would
permit.
The sum of $50,000 was raised by voluntary contributions in Columbus for
a relief fund. In addition, the city council voted $75,000, and great
stores of provisions and clothing were contributed by local people and
outsiders. Thousands of the homeless people were cared for in homes of
those willing to share them, or in public halls. One thousand were fed
daily in the Masonic Temple.
In a statement full of feeling, issued Sunday evening, shortly before he
left the Executive office for home and the first full night's rest he
has had in more than a week, Governor Cox said:
"Refreshed by the tears of the American people, Ohio stands ready from
today to meet the crisis alone.
"Ohio has risen from the floods. Such a pitiless blow from Nature as we
sustained would have wiped out society and destroyed governments in
other days. We cannot speak our gratitude to President Wilson for
federal aid, to the Red Cross, to states, municipalities, trade
organizations and individuals that sent funds and supplies. They will
never know their contribution to humanity.
"The relief situation, so far as food and clothing are concerned, is in
hand. Thankful to her friends who succored her, Ohio faces tomorrow
serene and confident."
Governor Cox and members of the Legislature began on Monday an outline
of reconstructive legislation, to be followed in all of the flood
districts by the state. It was decided that the San Francisco relief
plan should be placed into effect for the Ohio flood sufferers. Under
this plan the relief was based upon property loss of the individual and
the income loss incurred. The amount of relief each person received was
prorated on such a basis.
Upon the recommendation of Governor Cox, the Legislature recessed until
next Monday, thereby giving state officials a week to formulate plans.
Resolutions warmly thanking the citizens of New York State and
Pennsylvania for their flood relief contributions were passed.
All that human effort could accomplish on Tuesday failed to penetrate
the part of the debris piled in the west side, where, it was believed,
many of the bodies of persons missing finally would be recovered. As
matters stood Tuesday night, however, eight more bodies had passed
through the morgues.
In addition to this number, was the body of James M. Kearney, a
merchant, who was drowned several months ago, and which, cast up by the
flood, was found lodged in a tree when the waters had receded. That many
other bodies would be recovered after the army of men employed in the
work had attacked the great pile of debris made at several points by
wrecked homes was generally conceded.
[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
View of River Street In Troy, New York, showing the Collar, Cuff and
Shirt Factory of Cluett, Peabody & Company, the largest of its kind in
the world, closed on account of the floods. Thousands of people were
thrown out of work on account of the overflowing of the Hudson]
[Illustration: Photograph by Underwood & Underwood.
Under the martial law established at Dayton, citizens were kept off the
streets at night as a precaution against looting]
LOSS BY DEATH AND OF PROPERTY
Four more bodies were recovered Wednesday from flood wreckage, making
the total of bodies found in this city stand at eighty-four. Of these
all except seven were identified.
Coroner Benkert, who made a wide-spread investigation among families,
some members of which were among the missing, said that he estimated
that at least one hundred and twenty-five bodies would be recovered. It
was expected that other bodies that had been washed down the river would
never be identified as Columbus victims.
The property damage in Columbus, like the death toll, was confined
principally to the west side, the business and manufacturing districts
having gone almost unscathed.
THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION
Governor Cox and the State Relief Commission on Tuesday left on a tour
of the state to visit cities and districts that were hit hardest by the
flood to determine what relief was necessary in each case. Before their
departure, however, conditions in Columbus were fast approaching normal,
and the residents with a cheerful, courageous spirit had commenced the
repair of their devastated city.
CHAPTER VIII
COLUMBUS: THE BEAUTIFUL CAPITAL OF OHIO
CAPITAL OF OHIO SINCE 1810--EARLY HISTORY--CITY OF BEAUTIFUL
STREETS AND RESIDENCES--SPLENDID PUBLIC COMMODITIES--TRADE AND
INDUSTRIES--CHARACTERISTICS OF ITS RESIDENTS.
Columbus, Ohio, the capital of the state and the county seat of Franklin
County, is located at the center of the state at the junction of the
Scioto and Olentangy Rivers, on a slightly elevated alluvial plain, and
is nearly equidistant from Cincinnati, southwest; Cleveland, northeast;
Toledo, northwest; and Marietta, southeast, the average distance from
these points being one hundred and fifteen miles. It has a population of
some 180,000.
Columbus was made the capital by the legislature in 1810, and became the
permanent capital in 1816, the original territorial and state capital
having been Chillicothe. The first state buildings were of brick, and
cost $85,000. The present massive buildings and additions are of dressed
native gray limestone, in the Doric style of architecture. They cover
nearly three acres of ground, and their total cost has been $2,500,000.
CITY OF BEAUTIFUL STREETS AND RESIDENCES
As early as 1812 Columbus was surveyed in rectangular squares; it was
incorporated as a village in 1816, and chartered as a city in 1834. In
general outline the city resembles a Maltese cross. It extends eight
miles north and south, and seven miles east and west on its arms of
expansion. Its longest streets, High and Broad, bisect the city north
and south, and east and west respectively. The uniform width of the
former is one hundred feet, and the breadth of the latter is one hundred
and twenty feet. Broad Street is planted with four rows of shade-trees
for its entire length east of Capitol Square, where it penetrates the
fashionable residence district. High Street is the leading business
thoroughfare. Capitol Square, a miniature park of ten acres, is situated
at the intersection of these streets, two squares east of the Scioto
River. The residence portions of the city contain many beautiful homes
and fine mansions. There are numerous apartment buildings; the houses of
the average people are substantial and comfortable. On the business
streets are many handsome, commodious blocks; many steel, brick and
stone office buildings, as well as commodious railway buildings and
stations. The streets are wide, well paved and lighted, and are kept in
good condition.
SPLENDID PUBLIC COMMODITIES
The police and fire departments are excellent; the water supply is pure
and ample, and the sewerage system good. The waterworks are owned by the
city. A large municipal electric-lighting plant was completed in 1908.
Natural gas is the principal fuel for domestic use. Bituminous coal, in
unlimited quantities, is found a few miles to the south.
The church buildings of Columbus include those of the following
religious denominations: Methodist Episcopal, United Presbyterian, Roman
Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Disciples, Friends, Christian Scientist,
Evangelical, Jewish, Independent German Protestant, German Evangelical
Protestant, African Methodist Episcopal, Seventh Day Adventists and
United Brethren. The newspapers and periodicals include English and
German dailies, secular weeklies, and trade, professional, religious,
fraternal and other publications. There are numerous public school
buildings, four being devoted to high-school purposes. Among
institutions for higher education are the Ohio State University, Capital
City University and the Evangelical Theological Seminary. Professional
schools include one dental and three medical colleges, and a law school;
and there are also private and religious educational institutions.
Columbus is the location of a state hospital for the insane; state
institutes for the education of deaf mutes, blind and imbecile youth;
the Ohio penitentiary; county, city and memorial buildings; five opera
houses; and a board of trade building. There are five public parks and a
United States military post, Fort Columbus. This post, known also as
Columbus Barracks, was originally an arsenal, and now has quarters for
eight companies of infantry.
From Columbus steam railroads radiate to all parts of the state,
intersecting all through lines running east, west, northwest, northeast
and south; and interurban lines connect with a model street-railway
system.
TRADE AND INDUSTRIES
Columbus is near the Ohio coal and iron fields, and has an extensive
trade in coal, but its largest industrial interests are in manufactures,
among which the more important are foundry and machine products, boots
and shoes, patent medicines, carriages and wagons, malt liquors,
oleomargarine, iron and steel, and steam railway cars. There are several
large quarries adjacent to the city.
CHARACTERISTICS OF ITS RESIDENTS
The citizens of Columbus possess the characteristic push and enterprise
of western people, and much of the culture and artistic taste of those
in the east. The population is drawn chiefly from the counties in the
state, and especially from those which are centrally located. The
largest foreign elements are German, Irish, Welsh, English and Italian,
and include scattered groups and individuals from almost every civilized
and semi-civilized country in the world.
CHAPTER IX
CINCINNATI: A NEW CENTER OF PERIL
A GREAT MANUFACTURING CITY--THE TUESDAY CLOUDBURST--ANXIOUS
WAITING--HOMES SUBMERGED--FACTORIES FORCED TO CLOSE--THE SITUATION
EVER GRAVER--EXPLOSIONS IN THE CITY--THE CRISIS--FLOOD DAMAGE.
Scarcely had Dayton, Columbus and Zanesville begun their real battle for
restoration when Cincinnati became a new peril center. Situated on the
Ohio River at the point where the Muskingum, Scioto, the two Miamis, and
the Licking were pouring their millions of gallons of flood water into
the river, the city was bound to suffer. It seemed as if the Buckeye
State would never be able to escape from the clutches of the great demon
of flood.
A GREAT MANUFACTURING CITY
Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County, in the extreme
southwest of the state, one of the great commercial and manufacturing
centers of the Union, tenth in nominal rank, and seventh or eighth in
fact. It is situated on the north bank of the Ohio River, almost exactly
half way from its origin at Pittsburgh to its mouth at Cairo, Illinois.
On the western side of the city from west to south runs Mill Creek, the
remains of a once glacial stream, whose gently sloping valley, half a
mile or more wide, forms an easy path into the heart of the city, and
was an indispensable factor in determining its position. Highways,
canals and railroads come through it, and the city's growth has pushed
much farther up this valley than in other directions. The railroad
stockyards are on its eastern slope. Cincinnati extends for about
fourteen miles along the river front, to a width of about five in an
irregular block north from it, but attains a width of six or seven miles
at the extreme point along the creek valley.
The bottom level below the bluffs along the riverside is the seat of the
river shipping business, and has as well the usual fringe of low
quarters; it is paved, and there is a broad public landing fronted by
floating docks, wharf-boats, etc. Above are the wholesale and then the
retail business streets, with great extent and variety of fine business
architecture, and gridironed with electric roads. The principal lines
converge at or near Fountain Square, and connect with a ring of
beautiful suburbs, within and without the city limits, unsurpassed in
America.
Among the sights of interest is the busy public landing or levee. The
Grand Central Depot, a terminal of several of the largest roads, is
centrally situated near the river. Among the most prominent buildings
are that of the United States Government Custom House, the City Hall,
the City Hospital, the Springer Music Hall, the Odd Fellows and Masonic
Temples, the Public Library, with 431,875 volumes, and the Museum of
Natural History. St. Peter's Cathedral, St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal
Cathedral, St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church, the First and Second
Presbyterian Churches, and the Jewish Synagogue are handsome edifices.
Fine hotels and theaters are numerous. The biennial musical festivals
are famous.
THE TUESDAY CLOUDBURST
The troubles of Cincinnati began on Tuesday, March 25th, when the city
experienced a cloudburst that started the gauge rising in the Ohio
River, temporarily flooded the streets of the city and carried away two
bridges over the White Water River, at Valley Junction a short distance
to the south.
PREPARING FOR THE WORST
By Thursday Cincinnati was facing one of the worst floods in her
history. It had rained steadily for twenty-four hours. The flood had
entered several business houses in the lower section during the night
and early morning found the entire "bottoms" a sea of moving vans,
working up to their capacity. At eight o'clock in the evening the gauge
showed 60, a rise of more than three feet since the same hour that
morning.
East and west of the city on the Ohio side of the river the lowlands
were inundated and much damage done. In the low sections of the city
many houses were flooded and the inhabitants of these sections fled to
higher ground.
Across the river at Newport and Covington, Kentucky suburbs of
Cincinnati, similar conditions prevailed and the police early warned
dwellers of the danger that threatened. Dayton and Ludlow, other
Kentucky suburbs, were also sufferers from the rising flood and many
houses were already completely under water.
[Illustration: TOPOGRAPHY OF STRICKEN SECTION OF TWO STATES
Practically every town and city shown in this illustration suffered from
the floods, most of them from loss of life and all of them from property
damage.]
A seventy-foot stage for Cincinnati was predicted. The Central Union
Station was abandoned and all trains leaving or entering the city were
detoured.
ANXIOUS WAITING
Slowly the treacherous waters rose while tired watchers waited
anxiously. Conditions were not acute but distressing. The people knew
that they must face conditions worse than the present. All the lowland
to the west and east of the city had been submerged and also along the
water front of the business section the commercial houses were gradually
disappearing under the yellow river. Hundreds of families along the
river front in Cincinnati had been forced to move by the encroaching
river and many merchants had removed their goods from cellars and
basements to higher ground.
Chief of Police Copeland, however, had the flood work well in hand. The
police were put on twelve-hour duty and worked in the flooded territory
in rowboats.
The city armory sheltered many persons and preparations were made to
distribute food at the city jail. Nearly every landing place along the
river front was piled high with furniture, bedding and other household
effects.
HOMES SUBMERGED
Along the Kentucky shore conditions rapidly became worse. At Covington
more than five hundred houses were submerged and their occupants given
shelter and protection in public buildings.
Plans were formulated to care for flood sufferers, and a meeting was
held at Covington at which arrangements were made to raise a sufficient
fund for the poor. At the same time arrangements also were made for
policing the flood zone and preventing looting.
The river-front section of Ludlow was deep under water and the residents
had moved. Bromley was entirely cut off from other neighboring towns.
Dayton, Kentucky, and other nearby small towns were in the same isolated
condition, and there was much suffering in consequence.
FACTORIES FORCED TO CLOSE
Many of the large manufacturing plants closed because operatives were
unable to reach their places of employment.
Newport, which, with Covington, is directly opposite Cincinnati, forming
the larger of the suburban sections, was in almost as bad a case as its
neighboring city. The flood of water had risen in all parts of the town.
One of the bridges across the Ohio had been closed, and the authorities
were preparing to close others to the public, thus cutting off the south
shore from communication with Cincinnati, and also closing practically
the only railway outlet the latter city had to the South and East.
No food shortage was anticipated, but warnings were issued by the mayor
of this and other nearby cities that merchants must not take advantage
of the situation to charge extortionate prices. All attempts of this
nature in Cincinnati were promptly curbed by the authorities.
THE SITUATION EVER GRAVER
With nearly 15,000 persons in the towns on the Kentucky side of the Ohio
River driven from their homes by the rising flood that was sweeping down
the Ohio Valley and with more than 3,500 homes altogether or partly
submerged, the flood situation in the vicinity of Cincinnati on Saturday
was assuming graver proportions hourly.
The water reached the second floor of a number of business houses along
Front Street and was half way up on the first floor of several blocks of
houses on Second Street. Several lines of the Cincinnati Traction
Company, operating in the lower district were abandoned. Reassuring word
from the packers, commission men and general produce merchants came
early in the day, when it was estimated by experts that Cincinnati had
enough food supplies to last at least ten days without inconveniencing
any one.
Railway service into and out of Cincinnati was virtually at a
standstill. The Louisville and Nashville trains were leaving the city
for the West on time, but arriving trains were much delayed.
So far only one life had been lost as a direct result of the high waters
here. Miss Anna Smith, the first victim, drowned in an attempt to reach
Newport in a skiff that capsized in midstream. Her three men companions
were rescued while swimming to shore.
KENTUCKY SUBURBS IN TROUBLE
Newport and Covington were virtually surrounded by water. Conditions
there were worse than elsewhere and nearly ten thousand people were
driven from their homes. Relief measures, however, were adequate.
Manufacturing plants in the lowlands ceased.
In these two cities the only fear was that health conditions would be
seriously affected because of the clogging of the sewage system and the
stagnation of back water. The water works and gas plants continued in
operation, but the electric light plants had been forced to cease.
In the Kentucky towns of Dayton, Ludlow, Bellevue and Bromley identical
conditions existed, but in their cases all communication with
Cincinnati, Newport and Covington was suspended. These towns remained in
isolation until the water had fallen sufficiently to permit the
operation of street cars on the south side of the river.
In these towns there were 2,000 persons cared for by relief committees.
More than 500 homes disappeared under the flood waters. Property damage
assumed alarming proportions, especially as this was the second time
within three months that the Ohio Valley had suffered from high water.
By Sunday the outlook for Cincinnati was brighter. No trains had gone
out of the city except south to Kentucky by way of Covington, and rail
and telegraph communications were still badly demoralized, but fair,
warm weather which had continued since Thursday had greatly helped the
complex situation. It was predicted that the river would reach its
greatest height at Cincinnati on Monday.
EXPLOSIONS IN THE CITY
Spreading over a vast expanse of territory in Cincinnati, as well as an
almost equal amount in the various towns that lie along the river on the
Kentucky shore, the Ohio continued to rise.
During Saturday night the central part of the city was thrown into a
semi-panic by an explosion that could be heard for miles. The Union
Carbide Company, at Pearl and Elm Streets, had been destroyed in an
explosion caused supposedly by the carbide coming in contact with
water.
The river reached the stage of 69.3 feet at noon, Saturday, and
continued to rise at the rate of two-tenths of a foot every two hours.
Two companies of the Ninth United States Infantry, stationed at Fort
Thomas, Kentucky, were held in readiness to march at an instant's notice
to Covington, where Mayor George S. Phillips feared the city might be in
need of military protection due to high water that virtually surrounded
the town. When the river stage reached more than 68 feet on Friday the
gas plants were put out of commission and the city was in darkness.
Of the few important towns in Kentucky, opposite Cincinnati, only one,
Newport, maintained direct communication with Cincinnati. Through
Newport communication was obtained with Covington by a circuitous route.
In Newport there were already under water nearly one hundred and twenty
square blocks, located in the section along the south bank of the Ohio
River. The other towns, Bromley, Dayton and Ludlow, were still without
outside communication, but reports from there were that there was no
immediate need of assistance.
THE CRISIS
The river continued to mount. It rose two-tenths of a foot during Monday
night and early Tuesday the stage was 69.8 feet. The weather forecaster,
Devereaux, said he expected the river to rise another tenth, after which
it probably would recede. Up-river points reported the river either
stationary or falling slowly.
At midnight Tuesday the river began to fall. The whole city breathed a
sigh of relief. The Government stated that the river would be inside its
banks within a week.
FLOOD DAMAGE
The direct and indirect damage caused in Cincinnati by the flooding of
the river-front and low-lying residential sections was very great. An
estimate of the indirect loss can never be made, while the direct loss
is placed at more than $2,000,000.
Across the river in the Kentucky suburbs conditions were deplorable.
Estimates were that one thousand homes there had been inundated and that
more than four thousand persons were homeless.
CHAPTER X
THE FLOOD IN WESTERN OHIO
DISTRESS IN BELLEFONTAINE--PIQUA DELUGED--TROY A HEAVY
SUFFERER--MIAMI ON THE RAMPAGE AT MIDDLETOWN--HAMILTON HARD
HIT--BIG RESERVOIRS THREATENING--OLENTANGY RIVER A LAKE AT
DELAWARE--FLOOD AT SPRINGFIELD--NEW RICHMOND UNDER WATER.
The rushing torrent of water that swept down the Miami River, surging
over Dayton, devastated a score or more of towns in its mad course from
the creeks around Bellefontaine to the point southwest of Cincinnati
where the waters of the Miami merge with those of the Ohio.
DISTRESS IN BELLEFONTAINE
Cries of distress arose from Bellefontaine on Wednesday, March 26th. At
that time millions of gallons of water were pounding against the banks
of the Lewiston reservoir, fifteen miles from Bellefontaine, and it was
feared that if the increasing flood should burst the banks the lives of
every inhabitant of the Lower Miami Valley would be imperiled.
The immense reservoir at Lewiston did burst its banks between Lake View
and Russell's Point and swept through the great Miami Valley like a
tidal wave. It was this vast quantity of water, added to the already
overflowing river, that inundated the cities of Sidney and Piqua.
[Illustration: Photograph by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
The engraving shows a view of Broadway, Watervliet, New York, the
principal business street of that city, covered with eight feet of
water]
[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
The bridge shown in the illustration leads to the Carnegie Steel Company
at Youngstown, Ohio. Ordinarily this bridge is far enough above the
water to allow the large river steamers to pass under]
At Sidney there was no loss of life, but the town was badly flooded and
early reports of loss of life ran high.
PIQUA DELUGED
The flooded Miami swept over Piqua in a great deluge. The water reached
the first floor of the Plaza Hotel, which is situated in the high part
of the city. Panic-stricken the people fled from their homes or sought
refuge in the upper stories of high buildings. Fire broke out in many
places. At one point in the city the water was twelve feet deep. Many
persons were drowned. Many lost all their possessions.
Relief measures were taken by city authorities. The property loss was
great, as most of the manufacturing plants were destroyed by the flood.
A company of militia from Covington maintained order and cared for those
made destitute by the flood.
TROY A HEAVY SUFFERER
The town of Troy was also a heavy sufferer. The state troops who arrived
in the town on March 27th with provisions for Dayton were stranded.
One-third of the town was cut off from gas, electricity and water
supply. A train load of provisions arrived. The provisions were
carefully distributed.
One-half of the state troops left on foot for Dayton, following the
tracks of the railroad.
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FLOOD EDITION
THE PIQUA DAILY CALL
Vol. 29 PIQUA, OHIO, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 1913. No. 134
Calamity Strikes Piqua; Our City Bowed in Grief
Appalling Loss of Human Life, and Great Destruction of Property.
Thousands Are Homeless
City Under Martial Law--Communications Cut Off with Outside
World--Relief Station Established at the Y. M. C. A.
Piqua is today a stricken city; a city bowed down, broken with grief. We
have been visited by the greatest calamity in our history. The loss of
life that has been suffered from the flood cannot be estimated now.
It is sufficient now to tell that relief measures are being taken. The
Business Men's Association, the Y. M. C. A. and citizens generally are
co-operating with the city and military authorities to bring order out
of chaos to rescue those confined in houses still standing in the
flooded sections to house and feed the homeless.
The city is practically under martial law. Company C. and Company A. of
Covington are here and patrolling the city under the the direction of
the city authorities.
Last night, we regret to say, there was a beginning of looting and
plundering in the south part of the city.
Rigorous measures will be taken by the military and the police to
repress and prevent such in the future.
Piqua still is cut off from communication from the outside world. All
the telegraph and telephone wires are down. Bridges and tracks are down
on both railroads and no trains are running.
The only outside communication possible has been by using a Pennsylvania
freight engine to Bradford from which point it has been possible to use
the telegraph.
All the traction lines still are crippled and unable to run their cars
in or out of the city. How soon it may be possible to re-open these
lines of communication it is impossible to say.
While greatly crippled the local telephone service has been maintained
by both exchanges. The operators have done heroic work day and night
ever since the first danger began to threaten.
No mail has been received or sent out of Piqua since Monday. Local
deliveries, of course, are impossible.
North and south the C. H. & D. R. R. is crippled. From Sidney to Dayton
the washout is practically complete.
The Pennsylvania R. R. bridge was washed out at the east end, and there
is no communication across the river. It is understood that much track
has been washed out. A line is open to Bradford and westward.
The Y. M. C. A., the Spring street, Favorite Hill Schools, the
Presbyterian, Christian, Church of Christ, Grace M. E., St. Marys school
hall, and countless homes have been opened freely to the flood
sufferers. The Y. M. C. A. has been the center of the relief
administration and from which all directions have been issued and to
which the sufferers have come.
Provisions can and are being brought from Fletcher and other places east
to the sufferers who have reached the hills on the east of the river.
This morning Mayor Kiser placed the fire department at work freeing the
most necessary places from water. The electric light plant was first
pumped out. Last night the city was in darkness except for gas, oil
lamps, and candles. The hospital was found needing little attention.
The damage to property is beyond calculation. Over 200 houses at least
have been washed away and destroyed. Shawnee is practically wiped out.
The above is a facsimile reproduction of the first page of _The Piqua
Daily Call_, issued the day after the city was inundated by the flood.
Ordinarily the Call is an eight-page newspaper, 17 × 20 inches in size.
This issue consisted of four pages 7½ × 10 inches.
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MIAMISBURG CUT OFF
Miamisburg, a town of eight thousand, was cut off for days. When news
finally reached neighboring towns the death list was estimated at
twenty-five. Later estimates placed it at less. Only one body has been
recovered, but the property damage ran high.
MIAMI ON THE RAMPAGE AT MIDDLETOWN
As the result of the worst cloudburst known in twenty years the great
bridge over the Miami River, at Middletown, was carried out on March
25th. Fifteen persons were afterward missing and scores of houses could
be seen floating down the stream. The water and electric light plants
were out of commission.
Two hundred houses were under water, their former occupants finding
shelter in the school houses, churches and city buildings. The great
Miami River was a mile wide at this point.
The city was practically cut off from the outside world. Tracks of both
the Big Four and Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroads were under
water and no trains were running. The tracks of the Ohio Electric
Railway were washed out in many places. A portion of the state dam in
the Miami River, north of Middletown, was washed away.
Water from the river started the Maimi and Erie Canal on a rampage and
submerged half of Lakeside, a suburb. The families of Harold Gillespie
and Mrs. Mary Fisher were forced to flee from their homes in their night
clothes.
The casualty list could not be estimated with accuracy. It was believed
that from fifty to one hundred had been claimed by the waters.
About three o'clock the following morning the river began to fall
slowly, but the situation was still dangerous. Supplies were rapidly
running out, and a food famine was looked for. Misery was averted by the
arrival of food late Thursday night, but building of fires was not
permitted. The authorities feared an outbreak of flames similar to the
Dayton conflagration. Ten thousand of the eighteen thousand population
were homeless.
HAMILTON HARD HIT
Of all the cities in the Miami Valley with the exception of Dayton,
Hamilton was hardest hit. Many persons killed, a thousand houses wrecked
by the rushing torrent and 15,000 homeless was the toll of the flood in
this city and environs, and the harrowing scenes attending flood
disasters in the past decade faded into insignificance when compared
with the havoc wrought by the latest deluge.
Before darkness blotted out the scene on March 25th, house after house,
with the occupants clinging to the roofs and screaming for help, floated
on the breast of the flood, but the cries for help had to go unanswered
because of the lack of boats. What little rescue work there was
accomplished was done before night came on, as the rescuers were
powerless after darkness.
The city was then without light of any kind, the electric light and gas
plants being ten feet under water. Soldiers rushed to this city from
Columbus were in charge of the situation, the town being under martial
law.
The victims of the raging waters were caught like rats in a trap, so
fast did the flood pour in on them, and few had even a fighting chance
for their lives. Ghastly in the extreme was the situation. The cries of
the women and children as they faced inevitable death, and the frantic
but unsuccessful efforts of husbands and fathers to rescue loved ones,
presented a scene that will go down in the history of world's
catastrophes as one of the worst on record.
Fire added to the horror of the situation when shortly after midnight
the plant of the Champion Coated Paper Company, which is six blocks long
by one block wide, broke into flames. In less than a quarter of an hour
the entire factory was a mass of fire and there was no chance of
checking its progress in the least as the water service needed by the
fire department was put out of commission early in the day.
The Beckett Company's paper mill, valued at $500,000 for buildings and
equipment, collapsed into the flood the following morning.
SUFFERING AMONG THE REFUGEES
On Wednesday, March 26th, the river began to fall at the rate of nine
inches an hour. After the season of awful horror the change brought
hope. The work of rescue and relief, however, was exceedingly difficult.
There were only a few boats that could be used in the work of rescue
and relief. Ohio National Guardsmen who arrived from Cincinnati Tuesday
night did heroic work. They came in four motor trucks and brought food
and clothing with them. One of the trucks returned to Cincinnati for
more boats.
A relief train arrived from Indianapolis Wednesday morning and other
cars and automobile trucks, loaded with supplies, managed to reach the
outskirts of the city.
The Lakeview Hotel, which had previously housed fifty refugees,
collapsed early Wednesday, but all the occupants left in time to escape
death.
Williamsdale, Cooke, Otto and Overpeck, the north suburbs of Hamilton,
were in ruins. On the west side of the river many residences were saved,
but there was despair among the survivors, who were unable to get word
from husbands and fathers who were caught on the east side and unable to
cross after bridges were destroyed. Efforts to get lines across the
river were futile.
Provisions for the homeless continued arriving in abundance, but the
gas, electric light and water plants were in ruins and this added to the
terrors of the living.
More than two hundred and fifty persons spent two days and nights in the
little court house without light, food, water or heat, and often they
were drenched with rain that leaked through holes in the roof.
REMOVING THE DEAD
As the flood waters receded on March 27th, the authorities immediately
began the work of removing the dead. The first hour of the search saw
ten bodies uncovered from the ruins, and the most conservative estimates
placed the death roll at fifty.
[Illustration: THE FLOOD IN MIAMI VALLEY
The above map shows a part of Ohio which was devastated by the most
disastrous flood in American history. A large number of small streams
converge into larger streams and then into still larger water courses,
several of which form a junction at Dayton, where the greatest loss of
life and the heaviest damage to property occurred.]
Piled high upon the east side of the court house on Friday were coffins
awaiting the flood victims, whose bodies were being gathered as rapidly
as possible.
On April 3d, the city offered a reward of ten dollars for each body
recovered from the debris left by the flood. Up to that time seventy-one
bodies had been recovered. It was believed, however, that many bodies
had been swept out of the Miami into the Ohio River and perhaps would
never be found.
DAMAGE OF $4,000,000
Secretary Garrison, of the War Department, who toured the flood district
of Hamilton on March 30th, as the personal representative of President
Wilson, was told that the property loss was estimated at $4,000,000.
With Secretary Garrison were Major-General Wood, chief of staff of the
army, and Major McCoy. They permeated the very heart of the city through
zones of devastation which in many respects rivaled in horror those
through which they passed in Dayton. They saw block after block in both
the residential and business sections of the city, where street lines
virtually were eliminated by upheaved and overturned houses jammed
against each other and against the buildings which withstood the shock,
in great and almost unbroken heaps of debris.
South Lebanon was cut off from Lebanon by a raging current that swept
all the surrounding farm lands, entailing a property loss of thousands
of dollars. All rivers and creeks south of Dayton to Lebanon were
swollen by a heavy rainfall.
The flooding of the Miami at Cleves, seven miles below Cincinnati,
caused the railroad embankment to break and that part of the town was
under fifteen feet of water. The operator at Cleves said he distinctly
heard cries for help, but he could not learn if there was any loss of
life or the extent of the property damage.
The following day the waters had receded, but part of the city was still
under water; no loss of life was reported. Hartwell and the vicinity
felt the force of the rising Mill Creek caused by the breaking of the
canal at Lockland. The large factories at Ivorydale were forced to close
down, and many thousands of employees were thrown out of work.
BIG RESERVOIRS THREATENING
The Grand Reservoir at Celina, Ohio, in the extreme western part of the
state, seriously threatened Celina and the adjacent towns. For two days
the very worst was feared, but on March 28th, the river was slightly
lower and no water was flowing over the banks.
OLENTANGY RIVER A LAKE AT DELAWARE
The Olentangy River, ordinarily only a creek, became a lake that covered
most of Delaware. In many places people were left clinging to trees,
roof-tops and telegraph poles crying for assistance. The work of rescue
was practically impossible because of the swift current of the flood,
and most of those who were seen trying to save themselves were swept
away to death.
The village of Stratford, five miles to the south, was entirely under
water and the loss great. Property damage in Delaware itself was
estimated at $2,000,000.
FLOOD AT SPRINGFIELD
Springfield suffered the worst flood in its history. Both Buck Creek and
Mad River broke from their banks and flooded the lowlands. Several
hundred houses in the eastern section of the city were surrounded by
water. They contained families who refused to abandon their homes. Many
factories were compelled to close.
There was no loss of life, but intense suffering due to insufficient
food supply and the destruction of many homes.
NEW RICHMOND UNDER WATER
The flooding of the Ohio in the southwestern part of the state caused
disaster in many other towns besides Cincinnati. On April 1st the entire
town of New Richmond was under water. The people took up quarters on the
hills surrounding the town. Provisions were received from Batavia and
there was no suffering. No one was reported dead or missing.
At Moscow, near New Richmond, fifty houses were washed from their
foundations.
CHAPTER XI
THE FLOOD IN NORTHERN OHIO
YOUNGSTOWN AND GIRARD--CLEVELAND AND ITS SUBURBS--AKRON--MASSILON,
FREMONT AND TIFFIN.
No section of the country suffered more extensively from the flood than
Ohio, of which state no part seemed to escape. In the northern counties
the loss of life and damage to property were quite as extensive as in
many other parts.
Fed by incessant rains, the Mahoning River rose at the rate of
seven-eighths of an inch per hour until it reached a stage of
twenty-five feet, which was ten feet higher than ever before recorded.
Every large industrial plant in the city was flooded and fully 25,000
workmen were out of employment.
The financial loss to the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, Republic
Iron and Steel Company, Carnegie Steel Company and other plants easily
reached $2,500,000, while the loss in wages to men was extremely heavy
because of the fact that weeks elapsed before the industries were again
able to operate at full capacity. Fully 14,000 workmen employed in
various industries of the city are thrown out of employment as a result
of the high water.
At East Youngstown the Mahoning River was nearly half a mile wide and
the Pennsylvania lines through the city and for a number of miles east
were entirely submerged. The Austintown branch bridge of the Erie, which
crosses the Mahoning River, was weighted down with a train to prevent
its being washed away, the water having already reached the girders.
Every bridge was guarded by policemen.
But one pump was working at the water-works pumping station. The flood
was the worst experienced by Youngstown since October, 1911, when
millions of dollars of damage was done.
Two hundred families were temporarily homeless, but the Chamber of
Commerce with a relief fund of $10,000, attended promptly to their
welfare.
Youngstown's only water supply during the flood was from the Republic
Rubber Company, pumping 3,000,000 gallons a day, and the Mahoning Valley
Water Company, which turned 4,000,000 gallons a day into the city mains
from its reservoir at Struthers.
At Girard, northeast of Youngstown, Mrs. Frank Captis, who was rescued
just before her home was swept away in the flood, gave birth to a baby
boy at the home of a friend, where she was taken. The baby was named
Noah.
CLEVELAND AND ITS SUBURBS
At Cleveland scores of families were driven out of their homes by the
greatest flood in the city's history. Many narrow escapes from drowning
were reported from all over the city, where people were being
transferred in rowboats by police and other rescuers.
One big bridge, in the heart of the city, used by the New York Central
lines, went down. The steel steamer, "Mack," moored to it was unharmed.
All traffic was kept off the bridge and no one was hurt. The loss
exceeds $75,000. Other bridges were in danger. Boats broke from their
moorings and battered the shore. Dynamite was used to open a way for the
water into the lake. Great damage was done all along the Cuyahoga River
through Cleveland, where hundreds of big manufacturing plants are
located. Fifty thousand men were idle. The telegraph companies were
crippled and many lights were out throughout the city, as the
electric-light plants were partly under water. All the suburbs suffered
severely.
All railroad traffic in Cleveland was suspended because of washouts and
no trains entered or left. The Lake Shore Railroad tracks along the
shore of Lake Erie were thought immune, but that road suffered along
with the Big Four, Pennsylvania and Wheeling and Lake Erie.
Boston, Ohio, and Peninsula, Ohio, between twenty-five and twenty-eight
miles south of Cleveland, on the Cuyahoga River, were submerged.
The dam of the Cleveland and Akron Bag Company went out at four o'clock
Thursday morning, March 27th, dropping thousands of tons of water into
the valley in which the two villages, with a total population of about
four thousand five hundred, are located.
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING DANGEROUS RESERVOIRS IN OHIO]
AKRON
The big state reservoir three miles south of Akron, which supplies water
for the Ohio Canal, broke Tuesday afternoon at two o'clock, sending a
flood of millions of gallons of water which swept away farmhouses and
other buildings from the banks of the canal and damaged several million
dollars' worth of property.
The huge volume of water which had been gathering in the three
hundred-acre reservoir caused a report that there was danger of the
concrete walls bursting. Most of those living near the canal sought
refuge in Akron.
When the heavy rain continued over night the dam began to show signs of
wear. Cracks in the concrete appeared. All during the night horses were
kept saddled to carry the news ahead if the danger became imminent. When
the masonry showed flaws Thursday morning the riders were sent out. They
started several hours before the dam collapsed, and warned everybody
near the canal in time for them to escape. The rush of water from the
broken dam struck the city within a few minutes after the break.
Most of the bridges in the county were swept away. The city was in total
darkness at night, and telephone and telegraph connections were
destroyed. A few bodies were seen floating down the canal. Many houses
were swept away.
MASSILON, FREMONT AND TIFFIN
At Massilon five known dead, three thousand homeless, half the town
inundated and heavy property damage was the toll of flood water from the
Tuscarawas River. The town was without light and gas. Citizens raised
$11,000 to aid the sufferers.
The effect of the flood at Fremont was very severe. The water in Main
Street was fifteen feet deep. Wires were down and buildings collapsed.
Several lives were lost.
Death and intense suffering marked the great flood which swept clean the
Sandusky valley. Tiffin became a city of desolation. Every bridge went
down, and half the city was under water. Many were carried to death in
the treacherous currents.
CHAPTER XII
THE FLOOD IN EASTERN OHIO
MOUNT VERNON HARD HIT--MILLERSBURG CUT OFF--THE TUSCARAWAS
RIVER--COSHOCTON IN DISTRESS--ENTIRE CITY OF ZANESVILLE UNDER
WATER--MARIETTA FLOODED--SCIOTO RIVER AT CIRCLEVILLE--STRUGGLES OF
CHILLICOTHE--FLOOD AND FIRE IN PORTSMOUTH--HOMELESS IN EAST
LIVERPOOL AND WELLSVILLE--FLOOD WASHES STEUBENVILLE--HIGHEST FLOOD
IN HISTORY OF GALLIPOLIS--IRONTON REQUESTS AID--A CRITICAL
SITUATION.
In the eastern part of the state there were two great floods, the flood
of the Muskingum River and the flood of the Ohio River. Besides these
there were many local floods of grave importance.
Mount Vernon, in Knox County, was hard hit by the flood. Many lives were
lost, communication was entirely cut off, and thousands of dollars worth
of damage was done. Miles of track on the Pennsylvania, Baltimore and
Ohio Railroads were washed away.
MILLERSBURG COMPLETELY CUT OFF
For two days Millersburg was completely cut off. The river rose four
feet higher than ever before. It swept through the Cleveland, Akron and
Columbus Railroad depot two feet deep, driving everybody out. Water, gas
and electric light were shut off with the exception of one gas line.
Telephone service was limited, hence nothing could be sent or received
for two days--until intermittent communication was re-established.
THE TUSCARAWAS RIVER
The flood in the Tuscarawas River was the worst in its history. All the
lowlands were under water, and a highway bridge west of Dennison was
carried out by the tide. Two bridges on the Baltimore and Ohio, near
Uhrichsville, were washed away, and the village of Lockport was cut off
from all communication. Supplies in Lockport were exhausted and two men
were reported drowned.
Eighteen families were marooned in the school house at Port Washington,
ten miles west of Dennison, on the Tuscarawas River. Operator A. W.
Davis, of the Pan Handle Railroad, was isolated in a signal tower for
several days without food or fire.
Newcomerstown was isolated for four days. All houses in the village,
with the exception of those on Rodney Hill, were flooded by the
Tuscarawas River. There was no death, but great damage.
Conditions throughout the Tuscarawas Valley were very bad. From a point
near Uhrichsville, about one hundred miles west of Pittsburgh, to
Coshocton, a distance of thirty miles, the valley was one great lake.
Thousands of acres of the richest farm lands in Ohio were under water
and the loss of live stock was heavy.
COSHOCTON IN DISTRESS
The Tuscarawas and Walhonding Rivers unite at Coshocton to form the
Muskingum River, and it is the water from these swollen streams that
poured down to Zanesville, thirty-two miles below, and thence to
Marietta.
Reports from points along the Muskingum River, all told the same story
of destruction, flooded towns and great property damage. Many days were
required to restore railway communication.
Above Coshocton on the Walhonding River many villages were flooded and
the loss to farmers was great.
Coshocton itself naturally suffered. A railroad bridge on the Columbus
division of the Pan Handle Railroad went out, and scores of highway
bridges throughout the section were washed away. All the streams were
torrents.
ENTIRE CITY OF ZANESVILLE UNDER WATER
"Entire city under water. It is coming into our office. Have placed the
records as high as I possibly can and have done everything possible. The
building next door has just collapsed and I am compelled to leave now
for safety----"
This message flashed across the wire as the operator at Zanesville fled
for life. With fifteen reported dead, and the Muskingum River at a stage
of forty feet and still rising, the city faced the worst flood in its
history. The big Sixth Street bridge had already been swept away by the
flood, and much of the business section was inundated.
At least two thousand had been driven from their homes by the high
water. Food was growing scarce and the water was threatening the light
and water plants.
The suffering during the night was intense. The temperature took a
sudden drop and the thousands who were forced to spend the night
marooned in buildings or on the hills without heat and proper clothing
presented a spectacle to excite pity.
With the break of day on March 27th, disorder and terror prevailed
throughout the whole city. The Muskingum, in its rampage, was sixteen
feet higher than the previous record mark set in 1898. The city was one
vast lake and the waters covered the valley from hill to hill. Only the
buildings high on the sides of the slopes escaped the ravages of the
deluge. The water varied in depth from one to fifteen feet. Many lives
were sacrificed.
Six hundred buildings were torn from their foundations and swept away by
the mill race currents, while many others collapsed and were hurled
against those still holding.
The water reached a depth of eight inches in the Clarendon and Rogge
hotels at noon on Thursday. The court house was surrounded.
In sections which were bearing the brunt of the deluge little could be
done to relieve the people who were marooned in their houses and in the
large buildings. Every effort was being directed by the city officials
and volunteer relief parties to lend aid to the sufferers, but the
swift, onward rush of the waters made the undertaking extra hazardous.
The authorities turned their efforts toward relieving the suffering of
women and children driven from their homes by the high water, and some
progress had been made. Putnam lay in ruins. Muskingum and Linden
Avenues had been washed out, and where three days before stood many
residences, watchers from the highest buildings saw nothing but a waste
of swirling waters.
MARIETTA FLOODED
The valley between Zanesville and Marietta became a surging lake, which
picked up buildings and everything movable and carried them along with
incredible speed. The loss of property was tremendous.
Marietta suffered from the swollen waters of both the Muskingum and Ohio
Rivers. The situation was serious on Wednesday; by Sunday it was
alarming. At eight o'clock Saturday morning the river had reached the
stage of 60.6 and was still rising. All the business section of the town
was flooded and many residences were under water. There were no public
utilities in operation and food and medical supplies were sorely needed.
There were many rumors concerning loss of life, but the swift current
prevented communication to those parts of the city where persons were
reported drowned.
Immediately upon reciept of the message from Whipple, a station on the
Marietta Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, that Marietta was under
water, preparations were made by the railroad company to send out a
relief train from Cambridge. It reached Whipple Saturday night and from
there help was brought to the distressed city.
SCIOTO RIVER AT CIRCLEVILLE
The flooded Scioto River, which surged through the streets of Columbus,
carried destruction down through farm lands and towns to the Ohio River.
Circleville, Chillicothe and Portsmouth, being the principal towns on
the river course, suffered most.
At Circleville on March 26th all the bridges had been washed away, and
the Scioto River stood three feet higher than ever before. Another rise
was promised. The city was cut off from railroad communication, and all
trains on roads entering Circleville were annulled.
STRUGGLES OF CHILLICOTHE
Many dead, one hundred houses washed away, and property loss of
$1,000,000--such was the tale of destruction in Chillicothe. On Friday,
March 28th, the waters had begun to recede, leaving seven bodies hanging
on the Kilgore bridge, three miles south of the city, but it was
impossible to recover them immediately.
Conditions were much improved, the light plant having been able to
resume service, and the water supply also was now adequate. The water
had receded from the streets, and all public utilities resumed
operations.
The homeless refugees were being cared for in the homes which withstood
the flood and in school houses. Provisions were plentiful and there was
no disorder. Many citizens were sworn in as deputy marshals.
The looting problem was one difficulty for the authorities.
Notwithstanding their efforts much looting took place.
Near Omega, to the south, Mr. and Mrs. Hatfield and their family of
seven children were drowned when their home, barn and all their other
buildings were swept down the river.
FLOOD AND FIRE IN PORTSMOUTH
Portsmouth presented a picture of distress as the flood from the swollen
Scioto and Ohio Rivers advanced. On the night of March 27th the Scioto
bridge was swept away by the flood. By morning hundreds of persons had
been driven from their homes, school houses had been thrown open to the
homeless, the streets were filled with household goods and merchants in
the heart of the city were moving their wares to places of safety in
anticipation of flood conditions more serious than ever before.
On March 29th the Ohio River stood at sixty-eight feet, the highest ever
known, and was rising.
Fire broke out in several places and was difficult to control because
the flood had interfered with the water facilities.
Efficient management, however, soon brought the situation under control.
The arrival of the steamers, "Klondike" and "J. I. Ware," on March 31st,
brought sufficient provisions to supply those in need for a week.
HOMELESS IN EAST LIVERPOOL AND WELLSVILLE
We have already seen the swollen waters of the Ohio at Cincinnati,
Portsmouth and Marietta. It remains to treat of the devastation wrought
in other Ohio River towns in the eastern and southern parts.
At East Liverpool on March 27th, more than a thousand families were
driven from their homes, five thousand potters were deprived of
employment temporarily and the city water works were out of commission
as the result of the flood. The electric light plant was seriously
threatened and trolley lines were tied up.
The following day the river had eclipsed the 48.8 foot stage of 1884. A
stage of at least fifty-one feet was expected.
Conditions remained the same, but the situation at Wellsville, a city of
ten thousand, three miles south, was perilous. Over three thousand were
homeless. The city is located on a flat promontory, with the eastern
portion a slight apex against the fast rising stream.
Back water had already made an island of the city, precluding any
possibility of escape to the high hills.
Both East Liverpool and Wellsville were in darkness because of the
shutting down of the power plants. All the river front potteries and
mills were idle. Street railway and railroad traffic was at a
standstill.
Police and fire departments of Wellsville and East Liverpool made many
thrilling rescues during the day. Seven Italians, dumped from a skiff,
were taken from the water half drowned.
Food supplies were diminishing at Wellsville, there was no electricity
or gas, the supply of coal was constantly lessening and the river still
rising.
FLOOD WASHES STEUBENVILLE
At Steubenville the Ohio River at 9 o'clock on March 26th was at the
34.4-foot stage and rising at the rate of seven tenths of an inch an
hour. The west part of the town was under water and twenty-five houses
flooded. Many families were rescued by wagons. Five large manufacturing
plants were forced to close down, throwing 1,300 men out of work.
HIGHEST FLOOD IN HISTORY OF GALLIPOLIS
The river at Gallipolis reached the sixty-seven-foot stage, six feet
higher than ever before, but was gradually falling. The State Hospital
remained unharmed, and was for a time taking care of two hundred people,
while the town was taking care of three hundred. There was no loss of
life. Traffic was at a standstill, and train service into Gallipolis
suspended.
IRONTON REQUESTS AID
Ironton suffered by both flood and fire. A block and a half in the
business center of the city were consumed by fire and several buildings
were dynamited to check the flames. No loss of life occurred.
A citizen of Ironton wired to a friend in Philadelphia:
"Floods here awful. Any charity funds that can be directed here through
clubs or otherwise would be appreciated."
A CRITICAL SITUATION
Even taking into account the tremendous seriousness of the flood in
Dayton and Columbus, the situation all along the Ohio River was one that
called for sympathy and sustained relief. Governor Cox, of Ohio, in one
of his early proclamations covering relief work said:
"There is every indication that the Ohio River will reach the highest
stage in its history. Calls for food and clothing are coming from
unexpected parts of the State. A critical situation has developed in all
Ohio River towns. We are still greatly in need of help."
CHAPTER XIII
THE FLOOD IN EASTERN INDIANA
HORROR OF THE RISING WATER--THE FOUR FLOODS--DISASTER IN
BROOKVILLE--PEOPLE GATHERED IN CHURCHES--NEWS FROM LAUREL--SURGING
FLOOD AT FORT WAYNE.
"Every stream we crossed seemed to be a raging torrent, its waters
racing at top speed," said one traveler who arrived in Chicago on March
26th. "We could hear the swish of the waters and hear the cries of
people in distress," reported another.
Yet these eye-witnesses could not see the worst of the four vast floods
that swept over the state of Indiana, tying up the railroads, rendering
thousands of persons homeless, killing scores of others, wiping out
whole towns. Just how many persons lost their lives in the great floods
will probably never be known.
THE FOUR FLOODS
Indiana had known many devastating floods, but none like to this in
either destructive force or extent. On March 26th three distinct flood
districts prevailed--the eastern part of the state including the valley
of the White Water River and the Fort Wayne territory, the valley of the
White River and its tributaries, and the valley of the Wabash. Later
the flooding of the Ohio River and its tributaries added to the awful
tale of disaster. The entire state was practically one huge sea, and
every brook, creek and river exacted its toll of damage.
The overflow, coming with astonishing suddenness, caught farmers
throughout the state unprepared and the breaking of levees in many
places forced persons living along the rivers to desert their homes. In
the crowded cities it added woe upon woe.
The appalling swiftness with which the waters rose found city as well as
state unprepared. Streams that were brooks Easter morning had become
raging torrents on Tuesday. Persons who retired in apparently safe homes
Monday were rescued the following day from second-story windows with
boats. Lowlands became vast lakes.
The dawn of Wednesday, March 26th, found anxiety in Indiana centered in
Brookville and Connersville, on the White Water River, from which
frantic appeals for aid were received by Governor Ralston.
Other despatches from the same region declared that the smaller towns of
Metamora, Cedar Grove and Prenton were swept away completely.
DISASTER IN BROOKVILLE
Sixteen persons were drowned at Brookville, when they were caught by the
east and west forks of White Water River which meet in that town.
Survivors told of attempts of men, women and children to escape by the
light of lanterns. Cross currents rushing along streets and alleys
carried them down to a united stream a mile wide just south of the town.
Five children, all of one family, were seen clinging to posts of an
old-fashioned wooden bed when they were swept into the main stream and
lost.
The person from Connersville who first talked with the Governor said
that a break in the White Water River levee had flooded the valley,
sweeping many persons before it. After that it was impossible to
re-establish communication even for a few minutes. Militia were ready
all during the night to hurry to the town, but no train was operated in
that direction.
PEOPLE GATHERED IN CHURCHES
Five wagon bridges, the Big Four Railroad bridge, the depot and a paper
mill were utterly destroyed. Fifty summer houses on White Water River
south of Brookville were washed away, foundations and all. People, bowed
down by the calamity, gathered in churches, where religious services
were held. None of the bodies were recovered for several days.
Hall Schuster was drowned Thursday night in an attempt to cross the West
Fork of the White River at Brookville to rescue Harlan Kennedy, a
hermit, formerly a Methodist minister.
Two hundred and fifty children rescued from the flood had only night
clothes. Wagon trains carried food and clothing from Connersville to the
stricken people.
On Friday, March 28th, the list of known dead in Brookville was
sixteen. Heavy loss of property and a food and fuel famine imminent were
the precise situation.
There were six persons missing, and it was feared that they had been
drowned and their bodies washed away or buried in debris that had not
yet been searched.
Brookville was practically under martial law, and twenty men were driven
out of the city after they were discovered looting damaged homes and
buildings.
NEWS FROM LAUREL
News from Laurel reached Connersville on Saturday when Deputy Postmaster
George Lockwood came through on horseback. He said the White Water River
valley, eleven miles around Laurel, was flooded, and the damage
estimated at $300,000.
Four buildings and many small houses were wrecked in Laurel, but no
lives were lost. Several farmers in the valley between Brookville and
Laurel were missing and their houses had disappeared. Several other
towns in the valley were inundated and many houses had been swept away.
SURGING FLOOD AT FORT WAYNE
At Fort Wayne, in the northeastern part of the state at the confluence
of the St. Mary's and the Maumee Rivers, the flood surged for three
days.
A keeper in the Orphan Asylum and five men in a surfboat did splendid
work in saving seventy-five inmates of the asylum from drowning. All
life-saving stations in the flooded district devoted their utmost
efforts to the work of rescue and used their funds and supplies without
stint. The relief work was in every way well organized.
SITUATION UNDER CONTROL
On March 28th, with the flood receding at the rate of three inches an
hour, Fort Wayne had the situation in control and stood ready to assist
its less fortunate neighbors. Many of the refugees were able to get back
into their homes. The property loss was estimated at $4,000,000, and it
was almost certain that the loss of life would not exceed six.
The pumping station had been started up the previous night, two
locomotives sent by the Lake Shore Railroad furnishing the power. The
water was being pumped from the river. The only drinking water available
for several days was brought in bottles.
CHAPTER XIV
THE DESOLATION OF INDIANAPOLIS AND THE VALLEY OF THE WHITE RIVER
THE TWO FORKS OF THE WHITE RIVER--WORST DAMAGE IN
INDIANAPOLIS--SYSTEMATIC RESCUE WORK--THIEVES BENT ON
PLUNDER--PREDICAMENT OF WEST INDIANAPOLIS--THE RECEDING
WATERS--FLOOD VICTIMS HELPLESS--AN APRIL WEDDING--OTHER TOWNS
AFFECTED.
The two great forks of the White River and their tributaries drain about
half of the area of Indiana. Indianapolis, the capital of the state, is
situated on the West Fork. In this city and more particularly in West
Indianapolis the torrent roaring through the White River valley did its
worst damage.
Hundreds of spectators were watching the river on Tuesday evening, March
25th, when, with a roar that could be heard for blocks, hundreds of tons
of dirt in the Morris Street levee crumbled under the pressure, and
great walls of water rushed through the opening.
Men, women and children fought through the water toward a near-by
bridge, which seemed to offer the only safety. Many houses were torn to
pieces by the rush of the water, and others were carried away. Families
in one-story homes were at the mercy of the sudden rush of water that
followed. The people were literally trapped in their own houses.
OTHER TOWNS AFFECTED
Other towns affected by the flooding of the White River and its
tributaries were Muncie, Elwood, Anderson, Noblesville, Bloomington,
Washington, Newcastle, Rushville, Shelbyville, etc. At Noblesville the
river was the highest it had been in thirty-three years, at Muncie a
dike in the water plant broke and the city was without fire protection.
At Rushville Flat Rock Creek waters rose with a roar, and clanging fire
bells warned the people to flee. The entire business section was
submerged. One person met death in Muncie; one in Newcastle; one in
Rushville, and five in West Indianapolis.
Indianapolis awoke the following morning to find the waters higher than
ever appeared before, with a property loss that two days before would
have been unbelievable. It was hard to bring the full realization of the
damage to the people, who had no thought of a flood from streams that
ordinarily are unimportant, aiding only in beautifying the city's parks
and boulevard driveways.
A NIGHT OF DISASTER AND FEAR
During the night the water advanced upon the exclusive residence section
along Fall Creek. It tore away one bridge, destroyed the city's most
pretentious driveway and forced the families living along its banks to
desert their palatial homes.
A few hours before they had no idea they were in any danger, and were
awakened by the militiamen to be ordered from the threatened buildings,
only to find every hotel in the city full. They were cared for at the
homes of friends.
The Washington Street bridge over the White River that connects
Indianapolis and West Indianapolis, which was closed for traffic late
Tuesday night, in the early morning was torn apart by the waters, the
floor of the structure being carried away.
A DESOLATE CITY
With the breaking of day came the proposition of feeding the refugees.
The city appropriated money to supply immediate needs and a relief fund
was started. Drinking water was at a premium, and water for bathing was
practically unattainable.
Schools were closed, and there was a general suspension of business. The
water in some of the streets north of Fall Creek, only fifteen miles
from the business district, swept everything before it. The street cars
remained standing in the streets where they were stopped when the power
house was flooded. All interurban lines were at a standstill and the
steam roads had poor success in getting trains out of the city.
Passenger trains were shut out of the city on the lines entering from
the West, and the passengers were forced to share the lot of the
homeless refugees.
By Thursday conditions in Indianapolis were such that Governor Ralston
was impelled to issue a proclamation asking for general relief. Five
hundred refugees from West Indianapolis were brought in small boats to
the Blaine Street wharf. Some of these had been clinging to trees for
hours. Others were taken from floating houses. Women with babies were
taken from the upper stories of houses. The refugees said that many had
been killed in Wolf Hall when the floors of that building gave way under
the strain of hundreds who had taken refuge there. Reports of death were
everywhere exaggerated, owing to the difficulty of accurate knowledge
and the shattered nerves of the sufferers.
SYSTEMATIC RESCUE WORK
Systematic rescue work was rendered more difficult by a storm of snow
and sleet. Tomlinson Hall, the great civic gathering place of the city,
was converted into a temporary hospital. The homeless men, women and
children from West Indianapolis, Broad Ripple and other suburbs
devastated by the White River were taken to the hall and were fed and
given medical attention. From Fort Benjamin Harrison 500 blankets and
500 mattresses and cots were obtained. Citizens' committees were in
charge of the work of distributing food and of raising money. It was
estimated that 10,000 persons in Indianapolis alone were in need of
immediate assistance.
The situation was rendered graver by the outbreak of contagious
diseases. Five women rescued and taken to Tomlinson Hall were suffering
from pneumonia, and cases of whooping cough and measles were discovered
among the refugees.
There were numerous cases of pneumonia. Measles and whooping cough
attacked the children. Nearly all of the doctors of the city volunteered
their services and asked for volunteer nurses.
Those suffering from contagious diseases were removed at once and
inspectors from the city board of health aided by a corps of nurses
detailed from various hospitals of the city set to work to prevent
exposure of the refugees to contagion and to take care of the other
sick.
THIEVES BENT ON PLUNDER
Thieves took advantage of the wrecking of lighting plants to plunder
deserted houses and even to rob survivors of the flood. In West
Indianapolis the vandals and robbers became so bold that Governor
Ralston placed that section of the city under martial law and sent a
company of militia to guard the streets. Orders were given to shoot on
sight any one caught at robbery.
PREDICAMENT OF WEST INDIANAPOLIS
The greed of provision dealers angered Governor Ralston to such an
extent that he started an investigation. Before the supply of bread
available on the West Side had been exhausted, loaves were selling at
twenty cents each. The supply of meat was entirely exhausted.
That section of Indianapolis lying west of the river, where martial law
was proclaimed, is the poorest in the city. The supply of meats, eggs,
milk, coffee, bread and butter was practically exhausted before noon.
Little except canned goods remained on the shelves of the grocers.
Relief trains loaded with provisions were unable to enter this district.
Members of the board of public safety and other city officials inspected
the entire flooded district from motor boats and directed efficient
organization of the relief workers, aiding the state troops and state
officials in every possible way.
THE RECEDING WATERS
By Friday the White River had begun to fall slowly, and the work of
caring for the suffering could be prosecuted vigorously. It was
estimated that the property loss in the city and environs would reach
$10,000,000. Part of this loss was in destroyed bridges. The Vandalia
Railroad bridge over the White River went down Friday, carrying with it
ten loaded cars.
By Monday, March 31st, White River waters had returned to almost normal
channel, and the areas that were covered were being searched to locate
the bodies of any who might have been drowned. The city board of health
prepared typhoid serum for 50,000 treatments to aid in warding off an
epidemic. State troops were withdrawn.
On Tuesday hundreds of homes were cleaned and, with furniture which
could be salvaged and that supplied by the Relief Committee, the owners
were able to resume housekeeping. Relief funds were still increasing
and all persons who lost homes or furniture in the flood were being
cared for.
Many persons in the West Indianapolis flood district were treated with
an anti-diphtheria vaccine, and Dr. T. V. Keene, in charge of the
medical relief work in the flooded districts, said he feared no
epidemic.
FLOOD VICTIMS HELPLESS
Hundreds of thousands of dollars were reported necessary to relieve
suffering among the flood refugees in Indianapolis, according to the
report of the General Relief Committee, made on Wednesday, April 2d, at
a meeting in Mayor Shank's office.
Plans for raising a vast sum of money, to be made available immediately
to the sufferers, were discussed and it was decided to start popular
subscriptions and designate places for contributions.
Joseph C. Schaf, one of the investigators for the committee, said:
"The flood victims are helpless. They need money and need it
immediately. The men are trying to hold their jobs and let the women
clean up the homes, and it is a disheartening task for which many are
not physically able. Give them money immediately so they can pile their
water-soaked mattresses and other furniture in the street and touch a
match to it. That will give them new heart."
Mr. Schaf increased his donation by $1,000, and several other members of
the committee did likewise.
CHAPTER XV
THE ROARING TORRENT OF THE WABASH
A BITTER TALE OF DESTRUCTION--MANY PEOPLE DRIVEN FROM HOMES--ALARMING
CONDITIONS--THE PLIGHT OF KOKOMO--THE HOMELESS IN WABASH--DISTRESS OF
LOGANSPORT--MILITARY CADETS AID IN RELIEF--NEW DISASTER AT
LAFAYETTE--A SECOND HORROR IN TERRE HAUTE--THE RECEDING WATERS.
Bitter was the tale of destruction in the valley of the Wabash River and
its tributaries. A traveler journeying over the Wabash Railroad on
Easter Sunday would have seen only the usual quiet little towns of the
Middle West; three days later, if he could have looked down over the
same territory he would have seen nothing but a raging torrent sweeping
through the region like some fiendish monster devouring and destroying
as it pursued its mad course. He would have found the entire Wabash
Valley, including Logansport, Wabash, Lafayette and Peru, a desolate
scene, its scores of prosperous cities absolutely paralyzed and cut off
from the outer world. Telephone and telegraph wires were down
everywhere; trains were not running and roads were obliterated.
MANY PEOPLE DRIVEN FROM HOMES
As early as Monday, March 24th, northern Indiana had suffered severe
loss, due to the heavy rains of the previous twenty-four hours, which
had carried away bridges, stopped railroad and interurban traffic,
flooded store basements, driven people from their homes along the river
banks, and washed away houses. At Hartford City there were seven feet of
water in the paper mills and the merchants had lost heavily from flooded
basements.
At Portland water was standing three feet deep in the center of the city
and the loss to merchants from damage to goods reached $100,000.
The wind, which followed heavy rain, cut a path several hundred feet
wide.
At Kokomo the light, heat, power, gas and water plants were out of
commission and the river was still rising. The city was without fire
protection; South Kokomo, with 6,000 inhabitants, was cut off from the
main city.
It was declared to be the worst flood known in Wabash since 1883; and
rain was still falling. Hundreds of residents of the lowlands abandoned
their homes. Interurban traffic was paralyzed.
ALARMING CONDITIONS
Reports on the following day were still more alarming. The worst
conditions prevailed in Kokomo, Wabash, Peru, Logansport, Lafayette and
Terra Haute. Thousands of people all along the Wabash were crying for
food and shelter. Wabash, Kokomo, Peru, Logansport and Lafayette were
entirely cut off from communication with the outside world. A big
snowstorm on the heels of a drop in temperature added to the suffering.
Rescue work was carried on by volunteers, police, firemen and the state
militia, and every place where there was a dry home was thrown open to
the flood refugees.
From many places frantic appeals for aid were received by the state
officials, but lack of all means of transportation and crippled
telephone and telegraph service forced the submerged towns to rely
entirely upon their own resources.
THE PLIGHT OF KOKOMO
At Kokomo the water in some of the streets was eight feet deep and
rushing like a mountain torrent. Schools and business were suspended and
state troops patrolled the town as far as they were able. The homes of a
thousand persons were submerged. No lives were lost, but there were many
narrow escapes. Several persons were rescued from second story windows
by the few boats available. Rafts could not be used because of the
swiftness of the current.
THE HOMELESS IN WABASH
Seven hundred and fifty persons in Wabash were rendered homeless as the
result of the high flood in the river. The city was without gas, water
or lighting facilities.
The mayor on Thursday, March 27th, issued a proclamation ordering that
all saloons and business houses close at six o'clock. He instructed the
police to keep people off the streets.
There was no loss of life, but the property loss was estimated at
$350,000.
There was no communication with the outside world from Monday until
Thursday afternoon.
DISTRESS OF LOGANSPORT
The business district and the south and west sides of Logansport were
under water on Tuesday. The bridge at the country club had been washed
away. Other bridges over the Wabash had been flooded. The moving vans
were unable to handle all the persons trying to move out of the danger
zone and the firemen of the city gave aid. The electric light and water
plants were endangered. There was great suffering among the poorer
people. Logansport was also cut off from telephone and telegraph
communication. Two deaths by drowning were reported (later corrected to
one) and ten houses were washed down stream.
MILITARY CADETS AID IN RELIEF
On Wednesday the flood waters of the Wabash were sixteen feet deep on
the floors of the Pennsylvania Railroad Station, and cadets from the
Culver Military Academy were rushed to the city to aid in the rescue and
relief of scores of people marooned in the business districts.
The Third Street bridge had been swept away. The bridge at Sixth Street
was being washed out. The people were fleeing to the hills, where they
were housed in school houses and churches.
By indirect telephone routes on Thursday, Governor Ralston received an
urgent call from Logansport for troops to aid in rescue work and to
patrol the city. The city had been cut off from reliable communication
with the outside world since Tuesday evening. The continuance of the
high waters added hourly to the heavy property losses, and the snowstorm
and bitter cold caused intense suffering.
NEW DISASTER AT LAFAYETTE
At 2 P. M. on Tuesday, March 25th, two spans of the bridge over the
Wabash River at Lafayette went out, carrying a number of people with it.
Boats below the bridge succeeded in rescuing all but one man.
At 3.15 P. M. West Lafayette, where Purdue University is located, was
cut off from Lafayette by the breaking of one of the levees and the
submerging of the other. The river was two miles wide and business
houses were preparing to move their wares, anticipating a three-foot
rise during the night. No interurban lines were being operated and steam
lines were making little effort to maintain train service.
The business district and the south and west sides of Logansport were
under water. The bridge at the Country Club had been washed away.
A SECOND HORROR IN TERRA HAUTE
All down the length of the Wabash the torrent raged. Hardly recovering
from the daze of the Easter tornado, treated in another chapter, Terra
Haute inside of forty-eight hours faced its second disaster, when the
waters of the Wabash left the banks, flooding part of the residence
section.
The river was then rising at the rate of five inches an hour. Railroad
traffic was suspended and interurban traction service had been
abandoned. Residents of Taylorville, Robertsville and West Terre Haute
deserted their homes, fleeing before the approaching waters. Five
hundred homes were under water and the coal mines near the city were
flooded.
For two days the situation seemed to grow hourly more desperate. On
Thursday the river had reached a stage of thirty-one feet six inches and
was steadily rising. Four thousand persons were homeless, and those
whose homes were on higher ground were without gas or electricity.
Traffic was at a standstill.
THE RECEDING WATERS
But slowly the waters receded and the work of reconstruction was begun.
On down the river the disaster-bringing torrent traveled. Throughout all
southern Indiana the river reached unprecedented stages and hundreds
were driven from their homes. Railroad lines were covered with water
through many counties, and on March 31st the river was reported forty
miles wide between Upton, Indiana, and Carmi, Illinois.
CHAPTER XVI
THE PLIGHT OF PERU: A STRICKEN CITY
LAST MESSAGE FROM PERU--AT ONCE TO THE RESCUE--THOUSANDS
MAROONED--TALES OF STRUGGLE--FAMINE AND DISEASE--GREED ABROAD IN
THE CITY--REFUGEES URGED TO LEAVE--SEARCH FOR THE DEAD--SHAKING OFF
DESPAIR.
Of all the cities devastated by flood in Indiana, Peru was the most
desolated. Situated on the Wabash River just below the entrance of the
Mississinewa, it suffered more than any of the stricken cities through
which the angry, swollen waters of the Wabash flowed.
"This probably will be the last message you will get from Peru," said
the man who telegraphed to Governor Ralston on March 25th, asking for
coffins, food and clothing. "Two hundred or more are drowned and the
remainder of the residents are waiting for daylight."
AT ONCE TO THE RESCUE
Governor Ralston immediately communicated with State Senator Fleming at
Fort Wayne and asked him to forward the coffins and other supplies as
requested.
When the messages of distress from Peru were sent forth South Bend and
other cities sprang nobly to the rescue. They found the people half
crazed from exposure, want and fear. One of the rescue party who made
the trip in the first boat that entered the city said:
"The cry to be saved from those who saw the first boat was heartrending.
Some of them threatened to jump into the water if we did not take them
aboard. But it was impossible with the scant boat supply to take all
away at once."
THOUSANDS MAROONED
Relief parties from South Bend were the first to arrive on the scene.
They found hundreds of people huddled together in the court house
square, which was three miles from the nearest dry land; hundreds more
were marooned in the upper stories of buildings already rendered unsafe
by the high water. There was no heat, no light, no water, and sanitary
conditions were horrible. The only motor boat had broken and it was too
dangerous to venture into the raging torrent in rowboats. This made it
impossible for the South Bend relief volunteers to get blankets and food
to the sufferers.
TALES OF STRUGGLE
Death faced hundreds of persons who were clinging to the roofs of
buildings, where they sought refuge. Currents of muddy water from ten to
twenty-five feet deep were running through the main streets at twenty
miles an hour.
Harry Lumley, a despatcher, lay on a table all Wednesday in the Peru
station of the Lake Erie and Western Railroad, which the water had
invaded, and kept open the line for relief trains.
Dr. W. A. Huff, a dentist, started to South Peru with an unknown man
Tuesday night. The boat capsized and Huff lodged in a tree, where he
remained until Wednesday morning. His condition was critical.
No effort was made to count the dead. "Our energies are being devoted
entirely to saving those still living," said Lieutenant-Governor
O'Neill. "It is impossible for us even to try to learn the whereabouts
of the bodies just now."
A VIGILANCE COMMITTEE
Citizens, finding lawlessness in every block of the city above water,
organized a vigilance committee with orders to shoot looters.
On Wednesday night several thousand persons were still marooned in the
court house, hospital, factory buildings and other structures because
the various relief parties sent from South Bend and other cities had not
sufficient boats to carry them to the nearest dry land. Snow was falling
heavily and the suffering was intense, because of the lack of heating
facilities. The city was in darkness, except for a scant supply of
lanterns.
FAMINE AND DISEASE
But the height of the flood had been reached. On Thursday the water was
receding three inches an hour. It had fallen four feet since the
previous morning, but the current was still so swift on Canton Street
and in South Peru, that it was impossible to investigate in rowboats the
district in which the heaviest loss of life was supposed to have
occurred.
There were three inches of snow on the ground and it was still falling.
Recovering from the flood, Peru organized to meet greater menaces,
famine and disease. At a meeting in the courtroom at the county
building, Lieutenant-Governor O'Neill was chosen head of the committee
on organization.
Hundreds of persons marooned in the second stories of their homes
appealed to passing boats for food, fuel and water. Fishermen seized
some of the boats and were taking the curious sightseeing. Persons who
appropriated boats and tied them up were arrested.
There were 500 persons at the Bears Hotel in Peru. Their only fire was a
grate in the lobby. Two meals a day were served. The water had receded
so that a Lake Erie and Western relief train was pulled up to the
canning factory in the northeast part of the town and took out 200
persons marooned three days. They were taken to towns along Lake Erie.
It was estimated that 2,000 persons had left the city and were being
cared for in towns and school houses to the north. The relief committee
discouraged the influx of people who came to Peru to see and eat, as
there were more mouths to feed than there were provisions.
Lieutenant-Governor O'Neill remained in Peru to insure whatever aid the
state could give the sufferers. He ordered the Indiana Board of Health
to send experts to make the city sanitary. These specialists had the
co-operation of city and county medical societies and a score of
physicians who came from other cities.
[Illustration: Copyright by George Grantham Bain.
Scores of strongly-built bridges like this throughout the flood
districts were carried away by the raging torrents]
[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
When the waters of the Hudson overflowed, hundreds of men, women and
children were trapped in their homes near the river bank and were
rescued with difficulty]
TWELVE BODIES IN ONE HOUSE
Twelve bodies were recovered in a single house in the southern part of
Peru on Friday. This was taken to indicate that the loss of life in that
section of the city was great, as it was there that dwellings were
completely submerged before the occupants could vacate.
"It is impossible to tell how many lives were lost at Peru," said one of
the rescuers.
Six survivors were suffocated in the overcrowded court house. The
weather had turned severely cold, adding to the misery of the
unsheltered, but the flood was falling rapidly.
Terrible conditions prevailed among the refugees, who were increasing in
numbers, as the waters receded. Sanitary conditions among the hundreds
sheltered in the court house became so bad that boats removed many of
them to other places.
GREED ABROAD IN THE CITY
The water was rushing back as fast as it came, leaving a coat of mud and
slime. It was from this that the great danger of disease existed. The
state board of health combined with the Peru board to help clean up.
Relief workers and city officials joined to investigate statements
concerning exorbitant prices for foodstuffs, and proposed to expose
every merchant attempting to make money through the misfortunes of
others.
Several looters were arrested and others shot. One robber was shot by a
citizen, who threw the body into the river.
The work of rescue was greatly impeded by the selfishness of residents.
An Indian of the Wallace circus secured a boat and charged people $200
before he would help them off. Instances were told of men who drew
revolvers on the men and boys working in the boats, threatening to shoot
if they did not take them in.
REFUGEES URGED TO LEAVE
Railroad officials and the relief committee urged refugees to accept the
hospitality of the municipalities north. They hoped to be relieved of
temporary care of 3,000 persons by sending them out of the city.
Two railroads were bringing plenty of provisions within a half mile of
the city, but the boats could not transport rapidly enough to the center
where the supplies were being distributed.
SEARCH FOR THE DEAD
Systematic search for the dead was made, and the appalling early reports
of hundreds of dead continued to shrink, although it was believed that
the search would probably reveal more. The diminution was due to the
discovery in the hills on the other side of the Wabash River of hundreds
of persons who had been given up as dead.
The streets were strewn with dead animals that had begun to decay in
some sections. An epidemic was feared. One of the greatest obstacles
which the people faced was that of ridding the city of the dead animals
and filth in the low sections around the edge of the city proper into
which disease-breeding filth had been washed.
Water still covered these low sections, and seemed likely to remain
there for a long time. There were few sections around the valley that
could be used for burning dead animals.
Citizens and officials who were becoming alarmed at the new danger
estimated that at least 500 dead animals were strewn about the city of
Peru alone. Most of them had to be fished out of the water wherever
found, and it seemed an impossible task.
SHAKING OFF DESPAIR
Slowly the city began to shake off despair and repair the damage done.
The property damage totaled $3,000,000. The Broadway bridge went down
when a large house lodged against it and in turn carried away the Union
Traction structure.
As Peru emerged from the flood it became apparent that the death list
probably would not run over twenty-five.
The indirect death list as a result of the flood, however, went much
higher, as scores of aged men and women, who for hours were forced to
undergo terrible exposure and later to endure unsanitary conditions,
perished soon after they were rescued.
CHAPTER XVII
THE DEATH-DEALING TORNADO AT OMAHA
THE BOLT OUT OF THE BLACKNESS--RESCUERS WORKING IN DARK--A CITY TO
THE RESCUE--PATH OF THE STORM--INTERRUPTED MERRYMAKERS--FAMILY MEET
DEATH TOGETHER--FREAK TRAGEDIES--BRAVE TELEPHONE GIRLS--VIVID TALE
OF THE STORM.
Easter Sunday did not dawn very brightly in Omaha, but in the afternoon
the sun came out warm and bright. The usual Easter promenaders thronged
the streets in holiday attire. Then, as the afternoon wore on, clouds
appeared in the sky. They gathered very quickly, came lower, and as they
approached the earth there was suddenly a fall in the temperature. In a
few minutes the sky turned black and then came the bolt of wind down out
of the blackness. Through more than three miles of the city it cut a
clean path of from three to seven blocks in width in which not a
building was left whole. Then the storm mounted the bluffs and sped away
to the northeast, carrying destruction with it.
Omaha's destruction was kept secret from the world for several hours by
the storm, for all wire communication was broken down in the wrecking
of the homes. Messengers with the news stories had to go to Lincoln, the
state capital, to give out first definite news of the disaster.
During the early hours of the night uninjured citizens worked
desperately to remove such persons as had been caught beneath razed
buildings. No great number was killed in any one place. The wind swept
along, taking its toll here and there.
No sooner had the great wind passed than a second violent gale swept
over much the same territory, but with lessened fury. The total number
of dead in Omaha and suburbs amounted to 154; the number of homeless to
3,179.
Fire started in the debris of many wrecked buildings in the Nebraska
metropolis, and these were menaces for some time, as the fire companies
were hindered by fallen walls and blockaded streets. A heavy rain
followed the wind, however, and whilst it drenched the hundreds of
homeless persons, it also put out the flames.
RESCUERS WORKING IN DARK
Rescue work started as soon as the people were able to hurry to the
stricken district, but the night's work was by the light of lanterns and
little was accomplished. The storm took down all the wires in its path
and the electric power was shut off immediately to prevent further loss
of life. All night the stricken section was patrolled by government
troops from Fort Omaha.
With the arrival of daylight, a train-load of militia from Lincoln and
the presence in the city of Governor Morehead, the work was
systematized.
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE PATH OF THE TORNADO]
The hospitals in Omaha Sunday night were full of injured, many of whom
had not been identified, apparently because their friends were either
dead or among the injured.
A CITY TO THE RESCUE
Immediately City Commissioners appropriated $25,000 for relief work;
citizens present at the meeting organized and donated $25,000 more. The
Citizens' Relief Committee was organized, composed of fifty citizens and
an executive committee of seven to work with the seven city councilmen.
Governor Morehead notified Mayor Dahlman that he would send a special
message to the Legislature asking for the appropriation of sufficient
funds to care for the homeless throughout the state.
Cots were placed in the Auditorium, and those without shelter were
housed here. The city purchasing agent arranged for enough beds to care
for all those who could sleep in the Auditorium. The Elks' rooms were
thrown open to the homeless and the Union Gospel Mission provided
seventy-five men with beds.
PATH OF THE STORM
The storm appeared to have started at Fifty-fourth and Center Streets.
From there it traveled north, veering slightly to the east, to
Leavenworth Street. Then it took a northeasterly course to Fortieth and
Farnam Streets, sweeping its way through everything. Still traveling a
little east of north, it covered a course from Fortieth Street east to
Thirty-fourth Street, six blocks.
Striking Bemis Park, where the homes of the wealthy Omaha residents were
located, the storm turned sharply to the east and passed along Parker
and Blonde Streets, to Twenty-fourth Street, where its path was six
blocks wide. In the latter section the damage was complete.
Finally, at Fourteenth and Spencer Streets, the storm swept over the
bluffs, high above the Missouri River, demolished the Missouri Pacific
roundhouse, leveled the big trestle of the Illinois Central Railroad
over Carter Lake, wrecked several buildings near the Rod and Gun Club, a
fashionable outing place, and disappeared to the northeast.
The Child Saving Institute was a veritable death house after the storm
had spent its fury. Every available room was pressed into service, and
one after another the dead and injured were brought into the house.
INTERRUPTED MERRYMAKERS
At the home of Patrick Hynes, a party in celebration of his eighty-first
birthday was in progress. The guests had just begun dinner and were
drinking a toast to the health of their host when the storm swept the
house away. All the party succeeded in getting out with minor injuries,
except a grandchild, who was internally injured.
"The party had just begun dinner," said Mr. Hynes. "The young people
were making merry and, old as I am, I had entered into the spirit.
Suddenly there was a roaring sound. The next minute the house was in
ruins. I wiggled around and out and aided the others in escaping."
FAMILY MEET DEATH TOGETHER
Cliff Daniels, his wife and their two children met death together. When
soldiers, digging about the ruins of their home, found the four bodies,
the two little girls were clasped in the arms of their mother, while the
body of the father was over them, as if he had tried to shield them with
his own body.
When C. Saber discovered the crushed and almost unrecognizable body of
his wife he fled down the street shrieking at the top of his voice.
E. H. Smith, a private of the Signal Corps from Fort Omaha, became
insane after helping carry several bodies, and collapsed. When he had
regained consciousness it was necessary to take him to the post
hospital, where he was placed under restraint.
A. L. Green was on his back porch watching the storm when it broke. He
said:
"It came like a rushing and roaring torrent of water and passed right by
us to the east. I went to my attic window immediately afterward and saw
fires bursting forth from houses along the path of the storm. I could
see five fires burning at once. The flames made a ghastly sight as they
illuminated acres of razed buildings nearby."
FREAK TRAGEDIES
Among the freak tragedies of the tornado none is more remarkable than
that at the Idlewild pool hall, Twenty-fourth and Lake Streets.
Twenty-five negroes were killed. The story is told by the single
survivor, John Brown, who was dug from the wreckage twelve hours after
the demolition of the building.
"Eight men were playing pool at one table," Brown says. "The rest of us
were standing about watching. Without a moment's warning a terrific roar
swept down through the room. The roof suddenly was lifted from above.
The pool table shot straight upward, many feet into the air.
"All of us still were unhurt."
Insane with fear, but wondering, the negroes rushed beneath the open
roof and gazed upward. Then the heavy pool table and pieces of the roof
shot down. All were caught. Brown was dug from the wreckage twelve hours
later, uninjured.
HOUSE SPLIT ASUNDER
Huddled with his family in the basement of his home at 3229 Cuming
Street, Prof. E. W. Hunt saw the house split asunder. When he recovered
consciousness beneath the wreckage he discovered that a last summer
straw hat was cocked on the back of his head. It had been hanging in a
bedroom closet three stories above before the tornado struck the house.
The body of a girl about four was dropped into the arms of a pedestrian,
Charles Allen, at Forty-fifth and Center Streets. Efforts to identify
the child failed.
In a field half a mile from their home were found the bodies of Mrs.
Mary Rathkey and her two grown sons, Frank and James. All three were
dead but no bruises were found. The wind had cut their clothing
completely away.
Mrs. F. Bryant, ninety-two, lived with her son, Dr. D. C. Bryant, at
3006 Sherman Avenue. She was in bed on the third floor of the house when
the tornado struck. The three floors beneath her were shifted out and
her bed fell to the basement. Except for the shock she was uninjured.
Dr. Bryant and his wife were dropped to the basement from the ground
floor. They, too, miraculously escaped injury.
VIVID TALES OF THE STORM
Perhaps the most vivid single description of the tornado's havoc was
given by John Porter:
"I stood on the rear porch of my home when the great cloud of the storm
began its race across the city," he said. "Before it rushed the
traditional 'ball of fire,' which was in reality a yellow cloud,
spherical in shape.
"My wife was visiting at the moment in the home of her father. I saw the
house caught in the vortex of the cloud. It rose straight up into the
air, its walls shattered and broken, but holding partially together. I
am sure that I could not have moved an eyelash, if my life had depended
upon the exertion.
"From the risen house I saw a myriad of black specks falling to the
earth. Then I watched that home soar upward. It hurtled five blocks
through the murky twilight, sustained at a height of one hundred and
fifty feet.
"The Sacred Heart Convent was the target at which it was hurled. It
struck the fifth story. The convent was demolished. The home of my
father-in-law became splinters.
"Then I recovered my senses partially, and ran to the site of the
structure. God himself must have directed that storm, for my wife, her
father and her mother had been dropped behind, only bruised."
CHAPTER XVIII
STRUGGLES OF STRICKEN OMAHA
A BLIZZARD-LIKE STORM--COUNTING THE COST--"THE GREATEST CONCEIVABLE
BLOW"--SEARCHING FOR THE DEAD--A DAY OF FUNERALS--MORE CASES OF
DESTITUTION--PLANS FOR REBUILDING.
As if the storm of Easter Sunday were not enough calamity, a
blizzard-like storm descended upon the city of Omaha on Tuesday, adding
to the grief and horror. The storm, which began shortly after midnight,
and continued with gathering force, seriously hampered the work of
rescue. More than three inches of snow covered the debris in the section
of the city struck by the cyclone. It rendered uninhabitable the houses
of many who had prepared to retain temporary homes in partly demolished
structures.
Women tugging at heavy beams, hoping against hope to find dear ones
beneath the wreckage, men gruffly cheering their sorrowful mates,
sniveling children wrapped about with shawls and blankets were the
scenes which the sunrise this morning disclosed to the federal soldiers
as they patrolled the afflicted district.
Later, city officials gathered within the lines drawn around the
district by the soldiers and distributed clothing and other necessities
among the sufferers who had been rendered homeless by the tornado.
COUNTING THE COST
For the first time the people began to count the cost in lives and
dollars. When a resumé was made it was apparently more appalling than
those who had studied the result were willing to admit.
One hundred and fifty-four lives were snuffed out within the city
proper. Nearly five hundred were injured and eight of these died in
local hospitals during the day.
All Omaha rallied to the assistance of the desolate victims of the
tornado. Hundreds of citizens responded promptly by offering their homes
and money to aid in caring for the stricken.
The City Commissioners appropriated $75,000 for relief work, and
citizens at once subscribed to an equal amount. Governor Morehead sent a
special message to the Legislature asking for an appropriation to care
for the homeless throughout the state.
"THE GREATEST CONCEIVABLE BLOW"
After making an inspection of the devastated district, the Governor
said:
"This is my conception of hell. It is horrible, and it has presented a
most complex situation. The loss of life and damage to property is the
greatest conceivable blow, not only to Omaha, but to the entire state of
Nebraska. I will call upon the state of Nebraska to render every
assistance and I am sure the state will respond.
"My horror and grief are beyond my powers of expression."
SEARCHING FOR THE DEAD
Groups of men, aided and encouraged by women and children, labored
incessantly all day Tuesday among the ruins of homes and other
buildings. Only portions of the ruins of some buildings within which
persons were known to have been killed were removed. As quickly as
bodies were found they were taken to temporary morgues. Relatives
claimed most of the bodies, but some remained unidentified. Funerals and
burials were held from all churches and homes. Cemeteries were thronged
with grieving friends and relatives.
MILITARY LAW
Military law was strictly enforced throughout the storm area. Upon the
soldiers rested the responsibility for looting and fires. The city
Health Department made every effort to place the district in a sanitary
condition as rapidly as possible. Garbage wagons and trash carts were
the only vehicles admitted within the patrolled section. The water
supply fortunately remained unimpaired.
A DAY OF FUNERALS
Another period of unseasonable cold followed Tuesday's snowstorm and
increased the already long list of sufferers from the storm.
Paying last rites occupied the time of thousands of persons on
Wednesday. Fifty-two funerals silently wending their way to cemeteries
brought home with greater force to the people of Omaha the full
realization of the extent of Sunday's tornado. All day long, as fast as
hearses could deposit the bodies at graves, a continual death procession
was kept up.
Many of the bodies recovered from Sunday's storm were cared for at
undertaking establishments, and a great number of the funerals were held
from those places. Whenever possible friends of stricken families took
care of bodies and had them prepared for burial. In many instances
churches were demolished in the districts covered by the storm and
others were so badly wrecked as to prevent their being used for burial
services.
LITTLE CEREMONY
There was little ceremony. As quickly as one funeral was over another
began. Undertakers co-operated in arranging burials. In several
instances where entire families were killed or where more than one
member of a family awaited burial one funeral service was held. The
funerals were a constant procession.
One of the most pitiful of the funerals was that of Mrs. Mary Rathkey
and two small children. Surviving Mrs. Rathkey is the husband and
father, who is nearly demented over the disaster. Mrs. Rathkey and her
children were killed in their home.
MORE CASES OF DESTITUTION
Many cases of destitution were reported on Wednesday. It took much time
to prepare card indexes of sufferers' wants and to make requisitions on
the central relief station at the Auditorium for supplies. While these
formalities were being carried out want stalked through disconsolate
homes from one corner of the city to the other. The task of caring for
those needing food, clothing, supplies and money seemed to be too large
for the relief forces.
PLANS FOR REBUILDING
As early as Tuesday plans for rebuilding the city were under way. The
business men formed a corporation to conduct the undertaking in a
systematic way, and to assist the unfortunates who lost their homes and
personal effects.
The Real Estate Exchange immediately took steps to prevent the raising
of rents. Cases of alleged attempted extortion, however, were reported,
some of them by members of the Exchange itself. Executives of that body
decided to deal harshly with any owners found taking advantage of those
forced to secure new homes on account of the tornado.
A public appeal sent out by the Commercial Club stated that 642 homes
were totally wrecked, 1,669 were damaged and 3,179 persons made
homeless. There was need of reconstruction, indeed!
[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros.
This scene shows the desolation caused by the tornado wrecking a whole
street of houses at Omaha, Nebraska]
[Illustration: Copyright by George Grantham Bain.
A view showing the destructive force of the tornado at Omaha, where
happy homes stood a few hours before. Many residents were caught as in a
trap and instantly killed or fatally maimed]
CHAPTER XIX
OMAHA: "THE GATE CITY OF THE WEST"
LARGEST CITY IN NEBRASKA--GATE TO THE WEST--GROWTH OF
INDUSTRIES--SPLENDID INSTITUTIONS--A PROSPEROUS CITY--REMARKABLE
ACTIVITY.
Omaha, "the Gate City," largest in Nebraska, is a typical plains town,
proud of its industry and its climb on the census list. It stands eighty
feet above the Missouri on the west bank of that river opposite Council
Bluffs, Iowa. For twenty-four square miles stretch its many churches,
educational institutions and large manufacturing plants, with the
pleasant residential section lying above.
On the site of the present city Lewis and Clark in 1804 held council
with the Indians. There were a trading station and stockade at the place
in 1825 presided over by pioneer J. B. Royce. The first permanent
settlement was made there in 1854. A tribe of Dakota Indians that lived
in the region gave the city its name.
When the Union Pacific Railroad was stretching steel hands westward in
1864 Omaha was the most northerly outfitting point for overland wagon
trains to the far West. At that time it took its name of "Gate City"
and then its sudden growth began. In 1910 the population was 124,000.
GROWTH OF INDUSTRIES
Because of its location it soon began to draw industries. Packing is one
of its leading industries today. So extensive is this business that
Omaha ranks third among cities of the United States in packing. Silver
smelting, distilling and brewing are some of the other pursuits that
keep its citizens busy.
SPLENDID INSTITUTIONS
Among the more important buildings are the Federal Building, Court
House, a city hall, two high schools, one of which is among the finest
in the country, a convention hall, the Auditorium and the Public
Library. Omaha is the see of Roman Catholic and Protestant Episcopal
bishoprics. Among the educational institutions are a state school for
the deaf; the medical department and orthopedic branch of the University
of Nebraska; a Presbyterian Theological Seminary; and Creighton
University under Jesuit control. The principal newspapers are the _Omaha
Bee_, _World-Herald_ and the _News_. The _Omaha Bee_ was established in
1871 by Edward Rosewater, who made it one of the most influential
Republican journals in the West. The _World-Herald_, founded in 1865 by
George L. Miller, was edited by William Jennings Bryan from 1894 to
1896.
Omaha is the headquarters of the United States military department of
the Missouri, and there are military posts at Fort Omaha, immediately
north, and Fort Crook, ten miles south of the city.
REMARKABLE ACTIVITY
Prairie freighting and Missouri river navigation, were of importance
before the construction of the Union Pacific railway, and the activity
of the city in securing the freighting interest gave her an initial
start over the other cities of the state. Council Bluffs was the legal,
but Omaha the practical, eastern terminus of that great undertaking,
work on which began at Omaha in December, 1863. The city was already
connected as early as 1863 by telegraph with Chicago, St. Louis, and
since 1861 with San Francisco. Lines of the present great Rock Island,
Burlington and Northwestern railway systems all entered the city in the
years 1867-1868. Meat-packing began as early as 1871, but its first
great advance followed the removal of the Union stock-yards south of the
city in 1884. South Omaha was rapidly built up around them. A
Trans-Mississippi Exposition illustrating the progress and resources of
the states west of the Mississippi was held at Omaha in 1898. It
represented an investment of $2,000,000, and in spite of financial
depression and wartime, ninety per cent of their subscriptions were
returned in dividends to the stockholders.
The original town site occupied an elongated and elevated river terrace,
now given over wholly to business; behind this are hills and bluffs over
which the residential districts have extended.
CHAPTER XX
OTHER DAMAGE FROM THE NEBRASKA TORNADO
GREAT HAVOC IN NEBRASKA TOWNS--DESCRIPTION OF THE TORNADO--YUTAN A
SUFFERER--THE TUMBLING HOUSES OF BENSON--CURIOUS TRAGEDIES--HOUSES
TUMBLING ABOUT.
The storm which lashed its way through Omaha on Easter Sunday had
already carried havoc into other Nebraska towns. William Coon, president
of an automobile company of Lincoln, Nebraska, gave a stirring
description of the tornado as he saw it from the platform of an
observation car on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad:
DESCRIPTION OF THE TORNADO
"For miles," he said, "it seemed as if the train were being pursued by
the storm. We were approaching Ralston, Neb., when I first noticed the
strange cloud mounting the sky. Before that it had been clear."
Mr. Coon, from his observation car seat, saw the storm strike Ralston.
"The passengers sat as if glued to their seats when the cloud struck,"
he said.
"The engineer brought the engine to a stop and the passengers ran over
to the wreckage of the houses. We could hear the groans of dying men and
the wails and shrieks of injured women and children. I entered a house,
or rather what had been a house, and beneath me lay a woman. I looked
and I knew that she was dead. We got all of the injured out of the ruins
and brought them to the train.
"We were about to leave when our attention was called to a little house
some distance from the others. It had been wrecked and moved from its
foundation, but we found a mother and her little baby lying upon a bed
uninjured.
"The cloud wheeled and made towards South Omaha. We were not far behind,
but our way was blocked by the debris the tornado had thrown on the
tracks. Then, too, we stopped frequently to pick up the injured. There
were some with their limbs torn off and all were cut and bleeding."
A Chicagoan, who withheld his name, told of the scenes at Omaha when the
train stopped there. He said:
"I was just recovering from what I had seen on the train when we pulled
into Omaha with the injured. It was night then, but such a night. The
sky was lighted with a red glare, and the streets were filled with
people who acted as though they were mad. Frequently the cries of the
wounded, unloaded at the station, were drowned by terrific peals of
thunder."
It is difficult for any one who has not lived through a tornado to have
any conception of what such a storm can do. Tornadic force means
anything more than one hundred miles an hour. There have been instances
where tornadoes have shaved off the stone sides of buildings as if they
had been sliced away by a stonecutter. Forecaster Scarr, of New York,
said that the tornado that wrought destruction in Nebraska may have been
of the resistless kind that simply ground stone and brick to dust and
carried up its electrified funnel the remnants of every building it
struck. The tornado finally became almost like a mass of whirling steel,
revolving faster than the blades of the swiftest planer and cutting
everything to pieces in its course.
YUTAN A SUFFERER
The tornado first struck the little village of Yutan, southwest of
Omaha. Yutan was practically wiped off the map and its population of
four hundred left desolate. After the buildings had been razed the
wreckage caught fire. "The town is burning! We'll all be killed!" some
kept crying, and this added to the fears of the others. Many persons
were killed and many injured. Waterloo, a village of about equal size to
the northeast across the Platte River, suffered like damage. Wires were
snapped off in all directions, and it took many hours to gather and
circulate news of the disaster.
Leaving desolation behind it the tornado swept at a rate of possibly one
hundred and fifty miles an hour into Berlin. This little village had a
population of about two hundred. The storm killed seven and injured
thirty. The habitations were virtually wiped out. A church, an elevator
and part of the residence of State Senator Buck were all that remained
standing of what was a prosperous town.
THE TUMBLING HOUSES OF BENSON
On its way to Omaha the tornado struck Benson and Yutan. Benson is a
thriving town of over three thousand. Here property damage was great and
many persons were injured. As the houses began to tumble a little girl
dressed in white started from one of the houses and ran down the street
with her hands above her head. Just then the side of a house came
soaring through the air, and shooting suddenly downward it struck the
child and buried her beneath it. When the storm had passed, the injured
were lying all about the streets.
At Ralston, a suburb of Omaha, many were killed and much injury and
destruction left in the path of the tornado. Late in the afternoon a
copper-colored cloud was seen mounting toward the sky. The cloud grew
rapidly and was traveling at tremendous speed. It assumed the form of a
funnel and the air was filled with a curious, piercing noise. It swished
across the railroad track and swept on its way toward the little town.
Then the storm struck the town. Houses collapsed as though they were of
paper. The roofs went sailing away and the sides fell in. Passengers in
a passing train watched the destruction, and a cry of horror went up
from every one. It was an awful sight.
A farmer was standing on the doorstep when he noticed the funnel-shaped
cloud. He called his wife and four children, and they all sought refuge
in a cyclone cellar. Five minutes later their house went sailing away.
CURIOUS TRAGEDIES
Edward Mote, his wife and three children were sitting in their home
chatting when the tornado suddenly carried them and their home to Paio
Creek, one hundred yards away, and dropped them into the water. Mrs.
Mote was drowned.
Postmaster D. L. Ham, his daughter, Mrs. Kimball, and his grandchildren
were standing in the doorway of their home when the wind struck. Mrs.
Kimball and her two-year-old daughter Frances stepped outside the door,
which slammed shut. Their bodies were found among the debris. H. E. Said
and wife, bride and bridegroom of a month, were in the Ham house. Warned
of approaching death by Mr. Ham, they sought solace in each other's
arms. Thus they were found dead. Mr. Ham was slightly injured.
HOUSES TUMBLING ABOUT
There was a big threshing machine standing near one of the houses, and
when the cloud struck it shot straight up into the air and was carried
about forty rods. Houses were rolling and tumbling along the ground. A
box car was carried along by the terrific air current for a quarter of a
mile. When it split open six or seven men, who turned out to be part of
a repair gang, dropped out. Some lay very still, while others feebly
crawled about.
A dozen other towns in the section of Nebraska surrounding Omaha were
hard hit and many farming communities were destroyed.
CHAPTER XXI
THE TORNADO IN IOWA AND ILLINOIS
MONSTER TORNADO SWEEPS ACROSS RIVER--DESTRUCTION IN IOWA--THE
STORM-CLOUD OVER ILLINOIS--GALE AND FIRE IN CHICAGO.
The monster tornado that wrought such havoc in Omaha leaped across the
Missouri River and swished its wicked tail through Council Bluffs. Then
it sped northeasterly, wrecking several villages before it finally
disappeared.
DESTRUCTION IN IOWA
Reports from Mills County stated that it caused loss of life in every
town in the county reached by telephone. Many deaths occurred at
Glenwood and at Council Bluffs. Scattering towns all through the
district reported one to two deaths.
Eastern Council Bluffs suffered heavily, the storm breaking in the
valley just east of the town proper and following the lines of the
Milwaukee, Rock Island and Great Western railroads for a distance of a
mile.
The storm, which was accompanied by hail, rain, sleet, lightning and a
gale which blew seventy miles an hour for a time, was felt most
severely in the northwestern section of the city, where houses were
overturned, windows broken, trees uprooted and electric light and
trolley poles blown to the ground. Nearly fifty small fires resulted and
hundreds of men, women and children fled from their homes in terror.
Considerable damage was done to Des Plaines, Park Ridge and other
suburbs. The property damage in the city and suburbs was estimated at
more than $500,000.
THE STORM-CLOUD OVER ILLINOIS
Illinois also suffered severely from a tornado on the night of Easter,
March 23d, and the following morning. The storm was less severe than
that which struck Omaha, but the wind was blowing at a rate of seventy
miles an hour for a time, and in Chicago alone thirty-two structures
were damaged and a number of persons killed. Out in the state the
heaviest suffering was at Rockford, Elgin, Wheaton, Bloomington,
Galesburg, Peoria, Erie and Des Plaines. The aggregate loss in other
communities was great.
The storm covered all of Illinois north of Peoria. In Galesburg many
buildings were moved from their foundations. Half a dozen residences in
Peoria were demolished. All streams rose high and costly floods occurred
along the Kankakee, Illinois and other rivers.
GALE AND FIRE IN CHICAGO
In Chicago all the elements seemed to meet Sunday night. The wind blew a
violent gale; snow flew before it in some places; hail crashed windows
in other parts of the city. Every available fire apparatus in the north
and west sides of the city was called out to extinguish fires which
broke out in business blocks and dwellings partly wrecked by the storm.
A number of lives throughout the state were lost by this storm and the
property loss was estimated at $2,500,000.
A second storm on Monday caused great destruction in Mahanda. Thirty
cars of a southbound Illinois Central freight train were blown from the
track a mile north of the town. Two firemen were injured.
CHAPTER XXII
THE TORNADO IN KANSAS AND ARKANSAS
THE "BLOWOUT" IN KANSAS--DAMAGE TO CROPS AND SOIL--DUST STORM COMES
SUDDENLY--TORNADO IN ARKANSAS.
Following a heavy downpour of rain on Easter Sunday night the atmosphere
at Topeka, Kansas, was filled with dust until it had the appearance of a
heavy fog. The dust came from the western part of the state where severe
dust storms prevailed.
In western Kansas the "blowout" has been as great a source of damage to
the wheat fields as the drought or chinch bugs or hot winds. In the
event of a drought there is always some hope of rain; with the hot winds
there is hope of a cool spell; while the ravages of the chinch bugs may
be checked in two or three ways.
With the "blowout" there absolutely is no hope left, and not only is the
wheat crop gone for good, but the ground sometimes is left in bad
condition. The "blowout" is little understood by any one except the
person who has witnessed a dust storm. Several years ago the "blowout"
was much more common than now, although there is some damage in western
counties every year from this source.
DAMAGE TO CROPS AND SOIL
The damage comes not only to the fields that have been blown out, but
the adjoining fields, on to which the "drifting soil" has blown in great
clouds and settled, have suffered likewise, and whole pastures have been
known to be destroyed by the same means. For several years the farmers
have been working night and day to devise some method to prevent the
damage from "drifting soil," or "blowouts," as they are more commonly
known.
Senator Malone has introduced in the Kansas Legislature a bill providing
that the county commissioners of any county where a "blowout" has
commenced may call in agricultural experts and devise ways of stopping
the drifting. The farmers of Thomas County held a meeting in Colby
recently to discuss the situation and if possible arrive at some means
by which the drifting of soil might be stopped from destroying the
crops.
These farmers reported that a strip of land between Colby and Rexford,
about fifteen miles long and five miles wide, was blown out last season
and in that territory not a single root of vegetation remained, and the
top of the ground was as hard as the pavement on any street in Kansas
City. The ground as far down as the plough went was completely blown
away. When these fields were blown out the wheat was several inches high
and before the wind came up the prospects were bright for a good crop.
It took but a few hours for the wind to complete its work of
destruction. The little town of Gem sits in about the center of the
devastated land.
DUST STORM COMES SUDDENLY
A dust storm is not only unfortunate, but it is unpleasant in the
extreme. It comes up sometimes very suddenly. The sun may be shining and
not a cloud in sight. In less than five minutes the sun will be obscured
from view and the air filled with dust, sand, gravel, sticks and other
debris.
Besides suffering from a dust storm, Kansas was stricken by floods due
to heavy rain in some parts of the state. Hail and lightning accompanied
the rain and did much damage.
TORNADO IN ARKANSAS
A tornado on Monday night, March 24th, eight miles southwest of Leslie,
Arkansas, killed Mrs. John Couders and seriously injured John Couders
and his son William, and James Trieste, his wife and three children.
A tornado that passed over Clarksville, Arkansas, on Tuesday, killed
Miss Ida Brazell and blew down many houses. At Rumeley five were killed
and several injured. Couriers immediately sought aid, carrying news of
great suffering in the mountains.
Their tales were heart-moving. Lack of insurance, lack of funds and lack
of knowledge of what to do when overtaken by calamity made the situation
in small towns and in out-of-the-way places more pathetic than that of
the unhappy homeless in some of the large cities affected by the tornado
or the flood. To the latter relief was immediately sent--from
neighboring places, from the whole country. The others, suffering no
less, did not always even succeed in being heard.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE TORNADO IN INDIANA
THE BRUNT OF THE STORM--MANY BURIED UNDER WRECKAGE--SLEEPERS HURLED
FROM BEDS--FREAKS OF THE STORM--INJURED CARRIED TO HOSPITALS--ACUTE
SUFFERING--RESCUE WORK--NATIONAL GUARD ON DUTY--TOWN OF PERTH LAID
WASTE.
The record of disaster by tornado was greater in Terre Haute than in any
other place except Omaha. For two weeks before Easter a dense atmosphere
hung over the city, which occasional heavy rainfalls did not clear. Then
suddenly on Sunday night, about ten o'clock, the lightning flashed and
loud peals of thunder followed.
The tornado seemed to spring out of the southwestern part of the city as
if it came from the swollen waters of the Wabash River. It first smashed
into Gardentown, a suburb of the city, where a great many working people
live, and every building in its path crumpled down before it. The
lightning sped over building after building, setting many of them on
fire. Parts of the Root Glass Company's plant were flattened. The end of
the foundry room of the Gartland Factory, a solid brick wall eight
inches thick, was caved in. Brick and stone structures suffered alike.
MANY BURIED UNDER WRECKAGE
In the streets were tangled masses of twisted electric wires spluttering
out warnings of death for those who, careless of the first alarm, had
rushed in to rescue those who had been buried under roofs and walls.
Policemen, firemen and a host of volunteers struggled through the
debris, sidestepping the live wires that had been torn from their
fastenings.
The heavy downpour of rain extinguished many fires, and the city of
Terre Haute was thereby saved from destruction by fire. The large
Greenwood public school was shattered and torn. The tornado, like a huge
auger, bored into the roof and tore the shingles and rafters away and
every window was hurled from its casing. This building was later
converted into a hospital and morgue.
SLEEPERS HURLED FROM BEDS
In many instances death came to those who were asleep in their beds when
their homes collapsed about them. In other cases the bodies were picked
up as if by giant hands and hurled either to death or to terrible
injury. Some were thrown more than a hundred feet.
Above the roar of the wind and the rattle of the rain could be heard the
screams of frantic women and children. The scenes were pitiful. Men and
women were looking for loved ones, and when a torn and mangled form was
taken from the debris, a woman's shriek would tell the story of a lost
one found.
[Illustration: Copyright by George Grantham Bain.
Hundreds of buildings were demolished by the tornado at Terre Haute,
Indiana, and many lives were lost]
[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros.
Scenes such as this could be duplicated hundreds of times to illustrate
the demoniacal power of the tornado that laid waste the cities and towns
through which it passed]
[Illustration: THE REAPER]
Charles Chadwick, a six-year-old boy, owed his escape to the fact that
he left home, in the absence of his parents, to go to a moving-picture
show. He was found walking along South Fifth Street after the storm, but
his home could not be found as it had been blown away.
Seven houses owned by Fred Housman, including the one he lived in, on
the Lockport road, were swept away completely. Five wrecked autos were
found on that road.
Between Hulman and Voorhees Streets, in South Eighth, there was complete
devastation. Twenty-five houses were leveled to the ground in this
stretch.
On the Lockport road, south of Idaho, at least sixteen houses were
destroyed, but there were no fatalities and few were injured in this
immediate neighborhood.
MOTHER AND CHILD SWEPT AWAY
Mrs. Flora Wood was hurled seven feet from her home, her small baby
clasped in her arms. They were cared for at the Third United Brethren
Church.
The day-old baby of Mrs. Leonard Sloan was found in one corner of the
bedroom of their home, while the mother lay in another corner. The
entire top of the house had been blown away.
William Rogers, Superintendent of the United Brethren Sunday-school, was
buried beneath the walls of his home. He died while being carried to the
school house.
A large stone boarding house conducted by Mrs. Catherine Louden was
wrecked and the aged woman and her son, Ralph Louden, were badly
injured.
Many houses were wrecked between Third and Fifth Streets in Voorhees
Street.
FREIGHT CAR USED AS HOSPITAL
A freight car was pressed into service as a temporary medical quarter,
when the fire wagons with the police and fire departments arrived on
the scene. The live wires and burning debris made it impossible for the
ambulances to get within two blocks of the scene, and the bodies had to
be carried to safety by the rescuers.
Six fires broke out in different parts of the devastated district, while
the rescue work was being carried on. The strong winds still blowing
fanned the flames and drove the rescuers from their work.
FAMILY BURIED UNDER HOUSE
Fred King, a glass blower at 2146 Dilman Street, was found with his wife
and baby covered by the heavy timbers of their home that had collapsed
when the storm struck it. King had been hurled from his bed a distance
of ten feet. Two heavy timbers had almost crushed the life out of him.
His wife was terribly injured. A few feet away the baby was picked up
dead. The mother in her death struggles probably tried to save the baby
by throwing it away from her.
Near the Greenwood school several more were killed and many were
injured. Mrs. E. J. Edwards, wife of a druggist, was knocked down by a
heavy timber that broke her leg and pinned her to the ground. When she
was found the woman was screaming for her child, and later the little
fellow, eight years old, was picked up dead and carried to the Greenwood
school building.
Remarkable escapes were made in the twenty-four hundred block on South
Third Street, some of the residents of the square being seriously
injured. Mr. and Mrs. George Carmichael escaped from their home as it
was blown away by the wind.
Many families were separated in the excitement and for two hours after
the storm had passed anxious husbands, mothers and children were
searching the debris for absent members of their families. Many could
not find the wrecked remains of their homes, so hopelessly tangled was
the wreckage in the streets and on the sidewalks, and in several cases
it was difficult even to find the place where the home had stood.
INJURED CARRIED TO HOSPITALS
Ambulances and moving vans were used to carry the injured to hospitals
and as these were soon filled stables and homes were converted into
temporary hospitals. More than two hundred persons were placed under the
care of doctors, but many were only slightly hurt and in some cases
women were found to be suffering merely from fright. These were soon
dismissed to make room for those actually suffering.
The scenes at the hospitals were pitiful. The agony of the sufferers was
increased by the uncertainty as to the fate and condition of their
families and friends.
Little children, lying in bandages about the hospital, cried out in pain
and fright. One little fellow with a big gash over his eye cried out for
his mother as he was being taken to the operating room. His father sat
near him and tried to lend what comfort was possible. A little girl in
one of the large rooms of the hospital played and laughed on her bed
while three anxious physicians worked with her sister, who had sustained
a compound fracture of the leg and a dislocated shoulder.
VICTIMS' FRIENDS CROWD TO FIND THEM
Friends and relatives of people living in the storm devastated region
soon crowded the halls of the hospitals, anxiously inquiring if those
dear to them were among the victims. Many learned of the whereabouts of
relatives or friends in the rooms of the hospital and crowded in to see
them when this was possible, expressing joy that they had escaped from
death beneath the falling walls and timbers of their homes. One man,
when lifted on the operating table, was found to be dead.
RESCUE WORK
The rescue work was carried on rapidly, and Monday night all the
homeless were cared for by charitable institutions and citizens, while
the more seriously injured were carried to places where they could
receive medical attention. In many cases private homes were turned into
temporary hospitals.
The scenes in the wrecked sections in Terre Haute brought tears to the
eyes of the rescuers, whose attention often was called to the dying,
trapped in the debris of their homes, by agonizing screams for aid. Some
died before they could be freed from wreckage and others who were
removed died afterward.
NATIONAL GUARD ON DUTY
A company of the Indiana National Guard was placed on duty in the
devastated district early Monday morning while the work of searching the
ruins for dead was still in progress. Over the entire area were
scattered all kinds of household furniture, wearing apparel, beds and
bedding.
Looting began within a few moments and the police were at first too busy
caring for the injured and removing the dead from the debris to protect
property, but the members of the National Guard soon established an
efficient patrol and the looters were not in evidence afterward.
TOWN OF PERTH LAID WASTE
The tornado which visited Terre Haute also struck Perth, in the northern
part of Clay County, about ten o'clock and then vanished in the air. No
lives were lost there and only one person was injured.
Nearly every building in the little town of 400 population was wrecked
or damaged. A brick store building, five two-story houses and seven
cottages, the Congregational church, a school house, a three-story
structure, barns and outhouses were completely demolished.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE TORNADO IN PENNSYLVANIA
STORMS THROUGHOUT THE STATE--ALARM IN ALTOONA--FURIOUS WIND IN
WILLIAMSPORT--HEAVY STORM IN SHAMOKIN--COLUMBIA IN DARKNESS--A
VERITABLE TORNADO IN SCRANTON.
The disturbances in the atmosphere which wrought such havoc in Nebraska,
Iowa, Illinois and Indiana were also at work in Pennsylvania. Altoona,
Williamsport, Marietta, Columbia and Scranton were among the towns
suffering the greatest damage. The flood situation throughout the
Keystone State will be treated in a later chapter.
ALARM IN ALTOONA
The storm struck Altoona on Tuesday, March 25th. With a crash that
alarmed the entire neighborhood, eighty feet of the 162-foot steel stack
at the Pennsylvania Central Light and Power Company's plant was blown
down. The wind tore madly through the city and the rain fell in
torrents. Many houses were unroofed and a number of smaller buildings
were entirely demolished. No one was injured, but damage to the extent
of at least $2,000 was reported.
FURIOUS WINDS IN WILLIAMSPORT
A heavy wind and rainstorm swept through Williamsport on the same
afternoon, following a few hours of clear weather that came in the wake
of twenty-four hours' rain. It unroofed a number of houses in the west
end of the city, blew away the roofs of several cars in the Newberry
Junction railroad yards, partially demolished a car inspector's office,
sent twenty men in a panic from the second story of the New York Central
offices, which they feared would be blown to pieces; blew in the front
of a store on Grove Street and scattered canned goods for a block down
the street and swept a path through a grove in the same section,
prostrating a dozen giant oaks.
Train service through Williamsport was seriously deranged all day
Tuesday. A landslide that covered both tracks of the Pennsylvania
Railroad for sixty feet, with a mass of mud five feet deep, three miles
east of Renovo, completely upset the train schedule on the Susquehanna
Division.
The slide occurred about seven o'clock in the morning, and it was not
until eleven o'clock that the eastbound track was opened and passenger
trains were let through. The westbound track was not cleared until the
morning. While the blockade existed special trains were run from
Williamsport.
HEAVY STORM IN SHAMOKIN
A terrific wind storm from the northwest swept through Shamokin Valley
and Shamokin, followed by rain, which fell in torrents. This storm also
occurred on Tuesday. Crops in country districts were torn up and badly
damaged, while lowlands were flooded. Roofs on a number of barns and
out-dwellings were blown away, and telephone and telegraph wires were
put out of commission.
COLUMBIA IN DARKNESS
Columbia was struck by a severe electric storm accompanied by a downpour
of rain on Tuesday evening. Lightning struck the local electric plant,
doing considerable damage and putting the town in total darkness for the
night. Many residents and storekeepers were compelled to resort to
candles to help them out during the evening.
A VERITABLE TORNADO IN SCRANTON
In Scranton the storm of March 25th amounted to a veritable tornado. The
Round Woods section of the city suffered most. The Clemons Silk Mill,
owned by D. G. Derry, of Catasauqua, was unroofed and a 150-foot section
of the roof was deposited on the adjacent engine room, partially
demolishing the structure. The two sixty-foot smokestacks in the rear
yard fell on top of the engine house. The roof of the warping department
also fell on the engine house. The back walls of the warping department
fell into the yard, while the upper part of the front walls fell in. The
machines were six feet from the walls. The girls crouched under their
machines and escaped serious injury. Several fainted and were carried
out by foremen.
Amelia Davis, a warper, was hit on the head by a brick as she hurried
from the second floor. Tessie Carey, of Minooka, sustained a black eye
and lacerations of the left side of the face by falling bricks. Gus
Minnick, a repairer, working in the engine room, had just set his dinner
pail where one of the stacks fell. There were altogether one hundred and
fifty girls at work, but outside of bruises and scratches they were
uninjured. The property damage was about $20,000. Much silk on the looms
was ruined.
A large tower was blown off a school. Three houses in the neighborhood
were also badly damaged by the wind. The storm caused destruction in all
parts of the city and adjoining places.
Trees and fences were blown down in all parts of the city and in the
adjoining country.
The storm came from the west and its approach was preceded by an inky
black sky which, coupled with thoughts of the havoc of Sunday's storm in
Nebraska, caused a general consternation. A heavy downpour accompanied
by thunder and lightning followed the tornado.
CHAPTER XXV
THE FREAK TORNADO IN ALABAMA
FREAKS OF THE WIND--PITIABLE CHAOS--THE HERO OF LOWER
PEACHTREE--EXTENT OF DAMAGE.
Weird tales of horror and misery attended the tornado which swept over
the little town of Lower Peachtree, Alabama, on Friday, March 21st,
wrecking the entire village.
After the tornado had passed, corpses with hair stripped from heads and
divested of every thread of clothing were picked up. Naked men and women
ran screaming in the semi-darkness.
Chickens and hogs stripped of feathers and hair wandered in bewilderment
among the ruins. Nailed unerringly into trees cleaned of their bark were
pickets from fences that had been swept away. Where once had stood a big
steamboat warehouse near the river was left the floor of the building
standing upon which were the entire contents of the warehouse untouched
by the terrific whirls of the wind.
In the backyard of the Bryant home, buried in debris, was a chicken
coop, not a splinter awry. Within it was a goose sitting meekly upon a
dozen eggs which she had not left.
The blast wrenched an iron bed from a house and wrapped it around a tree
trunk as no human hand could have done.
Crossing the river from the town it had desolated it bore away half of a
soapstone bluff many feet in height and left the other half standing
unmarred.
Miss Mary Watson, a visitor in the Stabler home, was crossing a hallway
when the tornado struck. She was swept through the hallway and to the
rear of the house, where she was blown against a tree and her back
broken.
PITIABLE CHAOS
In the business neighborhood everything was swept away except two
grocery stores. They were thrown open as dispensaries of free
provisions.
No semblance of order could be brought from the pitiable chaos of the
wrecked town until Sunday afternoon, when cool heads prevailed and the
survivors and visitors who offered assistance were regularly organized
into committees to attend to the needs of the sufferers.
Troops from Fort Oglethorpe, with hospital corps and supplies for the
relief of the sufferers arrived Sunday night and administered to the
needs of the injured and homeless.
THE HERO OF LOWER PEACHTREE
Tributes to the bravery of Professor Griffin, a survivor of the tornado,
were paid by many who visited the scene. Professor Griffin, after having
been blown hundreds of feet from his home, returned bruised and bleeding
to the center of the town and worked unceasingly to relieve the injured
and to quiet survivors, insane with grief and excitement. Peter
Milledge, whose wife and two children perished when their home was
destroyed, went mad.
EXTENT OF DAMAGE
The Red Cross agent who investigated the situation at Lower Peachtree on
Wednesday, March 26th, reported that sixty-eight were injured in the
tornado which swept that section and that two hundred were destitute.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE FLOOD IN NEW YORK
HUNDREDS OF HOMES IN BUFFALO FLOODED--THE PLIGHT OF
ROCHESTER--VALLEY OF THE GENESEE PARALYZED--DRIVEN FROM HOMES AT
OLEAN--WORST FLOOD IN HISTORY OF HORNELL--LAKE COUNTRY PARALYZED
WITH FEAR--WATER COVERS PART OF BINGHAMTON--GLENS FALLS BRIDGE
DOWN--DISTRESS IN FORT EDWARD--BIG PAPER COMPANY IN TROUBLE--HOMES
ABANDONED IN SCHENECTADY--HIGH WATERS IN TROY--WATERVLIET
FLOODED--ALBANY IN THE GRIP OF THE FLOOD.
A tremendous downfall of rain, March 24th and 25th, developed some of
the worst floods known in fifty years. Vast areas of New York were under
water and hundreds of homes were swept away.
On the night of March 25th the entire area of South Buffalo was under
water, street car traffic was suspended and rowboats were plying the
streets.
The Buffalo River and Cazenovia Creek had both overflowed their banks
with a rush at ten o'clock in the morning, and the dwellers in the South
Park section of the city had no chance to escape.
Hundreds of homes were soon flooded. Firemen were sent out in boats to
rescue those who desired to leave. Hundreds of workers were marooned in
distant parts of the city, unable to reach their homes.
Within the city limits of Buffalo big manufacturing plants suffered
$150,000 of damage. Many big oil tanks were overturned and crashed
against buildings. Train service throughout the city was practically at
a standstill, and miles of track east and south of the city were washed
away. The main line of the Erie Railroad, between Buffalo and New York
City, was washed out in many places.
THE PLIGHT OF ROCHESTER
Not since 1865, when Rochester, then a city of 50,000, suffered immense
damage by floods, has the city faced such a serious situation as it did
on the night of Friday, March 28th. Half the business section was under
water, which in some sections was five feet deep.
Water commenced to pour into Front, Mill and Andrew Streets early
Thursday evening, and all through the night merchants worked to get
their goods to higher ground. The big warehouse of the Graves Furniture
Company in Mill Street was flooded so quickly that thousands of dollars
damage was done to the goods. The following morning it was impossible to
get through these streets except in boats and rafts, and the work of
salvage was continued in this way.
The newspaper offices of the _Post Express and Democrat_ and the
_Chronicle_ had their basements flooded and the presses put out of
commission. The Pennsylvania line into Rochester, which uses the bed of
the old Genesee Canal, was put out of commission. The Erie and Lehigh
Valley lines to villages to the south were blocked by the floods for
several days.
The only fatality of the flood occurred at six o'clock Sunday evening,
when a boy who was paddling over the flooded meadow of the Genesee
Valley Park was carried out into the river. The canoe was swept over the
dam at Court Street.
VALLEY OF THE GENESEE PARALYZED
The whole valley of the Genesee was more or less paralyzed. As early as
Wednesday the villages of Mount Morris and Dansville, in the Genesee
River Valley, were under several feet of water, and the terrified folk
who lived in the lowlands were hurrying to places of safety, abandoning
their homes.
Commerce was soon at a standstill, and conditions continued to grow more
serious. They were in some localities worse than at any time since 1865.
The washing out of bridges and the flooding of roads practically cut the
villages off from the outside world.
DRIVEN FROM HOMES AT OLEAN
One thousand persons were driven from their homes at Olean by the high
waters of the Canisteo and Hornell. John Cook was drowned while
attempting to rescue others.
Four oil tanks were floating about the city of Olean, and the coating of
oil on the water made the danger from fire serious. The water was from
three to ten feet deep.
[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
Showing what was once the town of Lower Peachtree. The six X's denote
the places where houses stood before the tornado, in the heart of the
main residential streets]
[Illustration: Copyright by International News Service.
One of the victims of the tornado at Omaha was picked up by the tornado
and his corpse left suspended in the broken and twisted limbs of a
tree]
WORST FLOOD IN HISTORY OF HORNELL
Following thirty hours of continued rain, Hornell, a small city in
Steuben County, suffered the worst flood in its history. It swept down
the Canisteo Valley, completely inundating the greater portion of the
city of Hornell and half a dozen villages within a radius of ten miles.
A thousand homes were flooded.
The Canisteo Valley for a distance of forty miles was under water, and
the situation was appalling. Roads were washed out, bridges gone and
much property destroyed. The fire in every furnace in the flood district
was out, and suffering was acute.
LAKE COUNTRY PARALYZED WITH FEAR
The lake region in the central western part of the state suffered
heavily from floods. The villages of Marcellus, Camillus and Marietta,
west of Syracuse, were threatened with extinction. The earthen bank,
which adjoins the huge dam of Otisco Lake, weakened and, it was feared
that if the flood conditions did not improve the bank would give way.
Auburn was seriously threatened by the rising of Owasco Lake. The dam
furnishing power to the Dunn and McCarthy shoe shops broke in the center
and it was feared the rest of the structure would go down. Pumps were at
work continuously in the Auburn water works at Owasco Lake to keep the
engine and boiler pits free of water.
The Lehigh Valley Railroad along Cayuga Lake, between Auburn and Ithaca,
was under water for a distance of nine miles south of Kings Ferry. No
trains were running on that branch. A small bridge at Farley's Point,
near the lower end of Cayuga Lake, was washed away. An avalanche of mud
and stones buried the railroad tracks near Kings Ferry.
The incessant rains of two days raised the little creeks in the vicinity
of Interlaken to torrents. Many bridges were washed out.
Canandaigua Lake reached its highest level in sixteen years. Streets in
Canandaigua were flooded.
Floods due to breaks and overflows in the Erie Canal at Waterloo, Seneca
Falls, Port Bryon and elsewhere, caused thousands of dollars loss. The
Seneca River was over its banks.
WATER COVERS PART OF BINGHAMTON
At Binghamton, on the Susquehanna River, water covered the entire
northwestern residence section of the city. All the manufacturing
establishments along the river banks were closed.
Boats were forced into use in the residence districts and the Fire
Department, with three steamers, endeavored to keep down the water in
the basements in the business section.
GLENS FALLS BRIDGE DOWN
But more serious than the conditions anywhere else in New York were
those along the Hudson River Valley. Damage estimated at not less than
$300,000 was caused by high water near Glens Falls, resulting from heavy
rains, which fell for nearly a week.
The steel suspension bridge, two hundred feet in length, across the
Hudson between the city and South Glens Falls was destroyed. All records
for high water were broken, the bridge being carried out after the steel
supports underneath had been constantly pounded for hours by logs dashed
against them by the raging waters.
At Hadley, one of the plants of the Union Bag and Paper Company was
completely flooded, and water was pouring from every window. It was
feared that the structure might be destroyed. All paper mills in the
section were closed down.
DISTRESS IN FORT EDWARD
At Fort Edward village $50,000 damage was done. About one hundred
families were driven from their homes to seek shelter in higher parts of
the village. Many parts of the village were submerged and in the main
business section five feet of water filled the cellars on the river side
of the street. The water had reached the windows of the first stories of
many houses in the lower sections. Trains of loaded coal cars were used
to hold down the monster railroad bridge of the Delaware and Hudson
Company at this village while big jams of logs threatened to carry it
out.
BIG PAPER COMPANY IN TROUBLE
At least 150 feet of the big dam of the International Paper Company at
Corinth was carried out and the mill partly flooded. A small part of the
same company's dam at Fort Edward was also carried out. The
International was one of the heaviest losers.
HOMES ABANDONED IN SCHENECTADY
At Schenectady, just west of the Hudson on the Mohawk, houses on
twenty-five streets were abandoned by their occupants. The entire lower
section of the city was submerged.
The whole Mohawk Valley was swept by the worst flood in its history.
The Groff dam near Herkimer broke and several houses were carried away.
A dam at Canajoharie threatened to go out. Three great canal gates at
Fort Plain were swept away. The Amsterdam reservoir, which covers 680
acres, was weakened and a patrol was stationed there.
HIGH WATERS IN TROY
So great was the flood in Troy, on the Hudson below the entrance of the
Mohawk, that martial law was practically declared. Members of two
military companies patrolled the streets, relieving the tired firemen
and police, many of whom had been on continuous duty for forty-eight
hours. Mayor Burns did not sleep for two nights, taking charge in person
of the Public Safety Department.
Fires added to the seriousness of the flood situation and firemen were
kept busy all day answering alarms in the flooded district. Damage
estimated at thousands of dollars was done by the fire.
For the first time in the history of Troy the newspapers, with one
exception, were unable to go to press. One publication printed a
four-page pamphlet on a hand press. Another was printed in Albany.
Hundreds of families were rendered homeless, and relief stations in
various parts of the city were filled with refugees. The city faced an
epidemic of typhoid, and every effort was made to guard against it.
WATERVLIET FLOODED
In Watervliet the water in many places measured ten feet deep and the
police station and post-office were flooded. One-third of Green Island
was submerged. In Rensselaer, across the river from Albany, much damage
and suffering were caused.
The losses of logs in the regions to the north amounted to many
thousands of dollars and the damage in the lumber district of Albany was
heavy.
ALBANY IN THE GRIP OF THE FLOOD
On March 27th the river at Albany was seventeen feet above normal and
was still rising. The power plants were put out of commission, street
car traffic practically suspended and schools and factories closed. The
city's filtration plant was threatened. The south end of the city was
under water.
Railroad service was crippled, mails delayed and telegraph and telephone
service hampered. There was much damage to property, but no loss of
life.
The damage in Albany was estimated at $1,000,000. Governor Sulzer was
informed that about $3,500,000 will be necessary to repair the
embankments along the old and the new barge canal locks and dams.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE FLOOD IN PENNSYLVANIA
TRAINS IN NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA TIED UP--MEADVILLE
SUBMERGED--SHENANGO VALLEY IN DISTRESS--PANIC IN NEW CASTLE--BEAVER
RIVER AT FLOOD--THE RISING ALLEGHENY AT WARREN--FEARS OF OIL
CITY--GRAVE SITUATION OF PITTSBURGH.
Many dead, hundreds ill, thousands homeless, and many millions of
dollars' worth of property destroyed--such was the record of the flood
in the Keystone State.
By Tuesday, March 25th, railroad travel in northwestern Pennsylvania was
seriously tied up on account of washouts, due to recent rains. Corry
became the western terminal of the Erie Railroad, trains west of Corry
being abandoned. Between Corry and Titusville were four washouts, tying
up the Pennsylvania Railroad.
MEADVILLE SUBMERGED
In Meadville the situation was even worse. Once again Mill Run and
Neason's Run, combined with the floods of French and Cussewago Creeks,
overflowed the city.
With the exception of a few of the high sections, the entire city was
under water, which in some sections reached to the second story of
homes. Business places on lower Chestnut, Water, Market and South Main
Streets and Park Avenue were submerged, water running through the main
rooms of the hotels and other business places. The waters had a clear
sweep of nearly half of the city, and never before had the four streams
combined for such a gambol.
SHENANGO VALLEY IN DISTRESS
Throughout the Shenango Valley hundreds of families were imprisoned in
their homes and frantic efforts were made to rescue the marooned persons
from their dangerous positions. At Sharon the greatest flood in the
history of the city was experienced. Thousands of persons were thrown
out of employment and the property loss was enormous. The entire town
was inundated and a dozen or more bridges were wrecked. The loss of the
United States Steel Corporation at Farrel, a suburb, was estimated at
$200,000.
The torrent swept swiftly upon Sharon. The crest reached a height of
fifty feet. The released wall of water, gathering buildings, stacks of
lumber, hundreds of logs and a mass of debris in its van as a giant
battering ram, rolled like a giant hoop into the center of the thriving
milling town. It followed the course of the Shenango, which bisects the
city.
After the flood unsuccessfully rammed the double line of steel buildings
the torrent passed further to the center of the city. One pier of a
concrete bridge, erected two years before, which spans Silver and
Porter Streets, cracked off like a matchstick. The impact carried the
block of concrete, weighing several tons, for a distance of a quarter of
a mile.
Fire added to the terror of the flood when Wishart's planing mill, on
Railroad Street, was discovered to be in flames Tuesday afternoon. The
steamers of the fire companies could not be taken close enough to pump
water from the swollen Shenango. There was only one recourse--to take
the supply of drinking water in the city's reservoir or permit the fire
to burn and possibly jeopardize all the wooden buildings within a radius
of a mile. Sharonites actually cheered the firemen as they saw their
drinking water vanish.
PANIC IN NEW CASTLE
The flood waters of the Shenango caused great distress in New Castle and
near-by places. The water put the lighting plants and the city water
station out of commission. Fifteen hundred homes were submerged.
Thousands had to flee.
BEAVER RIVER AT FLOOD
The Beaver River rose high and the entire valley from the Ohio River
north was flooded. The towns of New Brighton, Fallston and Beaver Falls
suffered most, and there was some damage at Rochester. Traffic on the
railroads was suspended at daybreak, and not a trolley car was running
in the valley.
THE RISING ALLEGHENY AT WARREN
At Warren and points all down the length of the Allegheny River to
Pittsburgh, flood conditions were still more serious.
For Warren itself the worst was feared. Hourly the flood situation grew
worse. On Wednesday the water was rising at the rate of four inches an
hour. The river threatened to cut a new channel through the south side
of the city and scores of men were piling up sandbags to prevent this.
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS IN
WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA THAT WERE FLOODED]
Captain U. G. Lyons assumed charge of the situation, and under his
direction a life raft composed of barrels was made and launched in the
Allegheny River. Thanks to the raft, not one life was lost from among
the many who floated down the stream on debris.
FEARS OF OIL CITY
Oil City, on Oil Creek near its entrance to the Allegheny River, was in
a serious plight. Oil Creek overflowed its banks and covered the portion
of town that was devastated by the great fire and flood of 1892.
The town was in a condition bordering on panic and business was
suspended. More than seventy-five persons were removed from their homes
in wagons, the water being from five to six feet deep. Railroads
suffered heavily.
Newspapers and industrial plants at Oil City were shut down because of
flooded power rooms. Fires were prohibited and railroad locomotives were
ordered to extinguish their fires to avoid any danger of igniting the
oil.
GIRL DROWNED AT FRANKLIN
One death and extensive property damage were caused in the vicinity of
Franklin by the flooded condition of the Allegheny River and French
Creek.
Every one in the flooded district was ordered to extinguish all fires,
as benzine from the Titusville refineries was floating on the rising
waters.
GRAVE SITUATION OF PITTSBURGH
In Pittsburgh the flood situation became serious by the evening of March
26th, and continued to grow rapidly worse. The gauge at Point Bridge
shewed twenty-six feet at eight o'clock, four feet above the danger
point, and the rivers were rising steadily. Rain was falling throughout
the western watershed, and every stream in western Pennsylvania assumed
the proportions of a raging torrent.
In the Pittsburgh district 100,000 were idle, the workmen having been
driven from the manufacturing plants by high waters. Ten miles of
streets were converted into canals. In parts of the North Side the
streets were under twelve feet of water. The policeboats patrolled the
flooded district, carrying coal and food to families marooned in the
upper floors of their homes.
Pittsburgh's suburbs down the Ohio were all partly inundated. Ambridge,
Woodlawn, Sewickley, Coraopolis and McKees Rocks residents were forced
to desert their homes or take to the upper floors.
Downtown the pumps were working in most of the hotels, theatres and
office buildings. Business was nearly at a standstill. Hundreds of
thousands of dollars worth of store goods was ruined. The Exposition
Music Hall was holding four feet of water.
No trains were running to the flooded regions. At least a score of
railroad bridges had been destroyed, and miles of tracks carried away.
The railroad damage contributed largely to the estimated total damage of
$50,000,000.
TOLL OF THE FLOOD AT SHAMOKIN
In Central Pennsylvania, especially along the Susquehanna, the flood
gripped many towns. At Shamokin mountain streams overflowed their banks,
and in some instances water flowed down mine breaches and found its way
to the lower levels of collieries. Mine pumps were run to their
greatest capacity to prevent inundations. The Shamokin Creek, in
Shamokin Valley, overflowed its banks in the lowlands and spread over
acres of ground on either side of the creek channel.
COLUMBIA AND MARIETTA FLOODED
More than three inches of water fell at Columbia in a period of
twenty-four hours. All the streams overflowed and much damage was done.
Trains on the Columbia branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad ran through
eighteen inches of water. The storm was accompanied by high winds, which
unroofed scores of buildings.
At Marietta, after a storm reported as the worst in many years, the
flood situation was grave. The river rose high, fields were flooded and
residents on Front Street were obliged to move to second stories. Two
men upset in a boat along the York County shore while after ducks were
drowned.
DESTRUCTION AND DAMAGE IN MINING TOWNS
Many of the mining towns in Pennsylvania were distressed by
unprecedented floods. At Scranton the Lackawanna River overflowed its
banks in various places. Richmond No. 1 and No. 2 collieries and the
Delaware and Hudson "slope" colliery in North Scranton were compelled to
shut down by reason of the water flooding the engine rooms. The Ontario
and Western tracks at Providence and the Delaware and Hudson tracks at
Dickson City were washed out. Water surrounded the Frisbie and the Bliss
silk mills in Dickson City and the girls were marooned for the night.
Six hundred people living on "Hungarian Flats," in the northern end of
the city, became panic-stricken when water broke through the streets,
and, taking their cattle and household goods, they fled to the hills at
Throop.
At Wilkes-Barre the Susquehanna reached the flood stage. The water went
over the lowlands on the west side and Wilkes-Barre was cut off from
many of its suburban towns, all traffic being stopped. The towns of
Edwardsville, Kingston, Westmoor and West Nanticoke were partly under
water. Five hundred families were driven from their homes and forced to
seek safety. The water rose so rapidly that it was necessary to rescue
women and children in rowboats. Considerable damage was done to
property, but there was no loss of life.
In Westmoor, Edwardsville and West Nanticoke the water reached the first
floors of the buildings. Families were compelled to depart and leave
their furnishings to be damaged by the water.
As a result of heavy rains the water rose high in many of the mines of
the Hazleton region. Railroad men were warned to be on guard for
washouts.
The Beaver Brook and Hazle Mountain mines closed on account of high
water. The mules were removed from the Ebervale, Harleigh and Beaver
Brook workings.
At Shenandoah the storm that raged for two days did untold damage to the
mines. At Kehley Run Colliery the water main that supplies the boilers
with water was washed away and the colliery was compelled to shut down.
The fires were hurriedly drawn, thereby preventing an explosion. At
Bast Colliery, near Girardville, the water rushed into a mine breach and
flooded the workers. It was with difficulty the miners escaped.
Electric-light, telephone and telegraph wires were down in Shenandoah,
and many homes in the lowlands were flooded. The trolley and steam roads
were hampered by the heavy rains, and in many places tracks were washed
out.
Heavy floods caused the entombment of six men at the Buck Run Colliery,
at Mount Pleasant, and a rescuing party worked up to their necks in
water to get the men out alive. The softness of the earth caused the
sagging of a breast, which was followed by a sudden rush of water,
cutting off the escape of the entombed men.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE FLOOD IN THE OHIO VALLEY
PERIL IN THE OHIO VALLEY--DISTRESS AT WHEELING--PARKERSBURG UNDER
WATER--KENTUCKY TOWNS SUBMERGED--IMPERILED TOWNS IN
INDIANA--SHAWNEETOWN SUBMERGED--CAIRO FACING CRISIS--SITUATION
HOURLY WORSE.
While Dayton, Columbus and other cities of the Middle West were passing
through the worst floods in their history, the Ohio River was preparing
new perils. All along its course it carried destruction.
DISTRESS AT WHEELING
At Wheeling, as early as March 26th, several persons were drowned and
many narrowly escaped death when a freshet swept down Wheeling Creek
through Barton, Ohio.
Two days later, with the crest of the flood past, Wheeling turned to
take up in earnest the task of caring for her thousands of destitute and
homeless.
Although the loss in money ran into millions, few of those able to aid
seemed to think of anything but the alleviation of want and suffering.
Before noon Mayor Kirk had raised more than $6,000 for the relief fund,
and most of the wealthy men and women of Wheeling had contributed.
Churches, schools, clubs, auditorium, public halls and hundreds of
private residences were thrown open to those driven from the lower
quarters.
PARKERSBURG UNDER WATER
More than half the business district of Parkersburg and part of the
residence section were under water on March 28th, with the Ohio River
still rising. The gas, electric and water plants went out of commission
soon after noon, and street cars stopped operations. All the newspaper
plants were flooded out except that of the Parkersburg _Sentinel_, whose
editorial force was taken to the building in boats, and worked on the
second story while water was flowing through the rooms below them. A
single page, printed on a proof press and containing the flood news of
the Associated Press report, was delivered to newsboys in boats, who
sold each copy at a fancy price, as the printing of the edition was
limited to two a minute.
KENTUCKY TOWNS SUBMERGED
The crest of the Ohio river flood reached Louisville April 1st, with a
stage of about forty-five feet.
The railroad situation in Louisville became acute. The Louisville,
Henderson and St. Louis suspended traffic entirely. The Louisville and
Nashville from Cincinnati could reach the city only by detouring through
Jeffersonville, Indiana, crossing the swollen Ohio on the Big Four
bridge and returning via the Pennsylvania bridge to reach the Louisville
and Nashville station, which was used also by the Pennsylvania trains.
[Illustration: Copyright by American Press Association.
Scene showing a section of Omaha entirely wrecked. On the left is all
that remains of Idlewild Hall. At this spot a large number of people
were killed]
[Illustration: Copyright by the International News Service.
A typical scene at one of the relief stations. Here men, who a few hours
before had been millionaires, stood in line with their fellow citizens,
quite as much dependent on these relief stations for sustenance as
paupers. Orville Wright, the famous aviator, was one of the men in the
bread line]
Western Kentucky points continued to report rising water. Owensboro,
Henderson and Wickliffe were centers of refuge for inhabitants of the
lowlands, who fled before the flood. There were more than four thousand
refugees at Wickliffe.
At Paducah on April 3d the flood situation was rendered doubly grave by
the fact that smallpox had broken out in the camp of colored refugees on
Gregory Heights. Five hundred on the hill had been quarantined.
IMPERILED TOWNS IN INDIANA
The government relief boat "Scioto," in command of Lieutenant Hight, U.
S. A., towed a barge load of provisions into Lawrenceburg, Indiana, on
March 31st, to find but forty of the five thousand homes there not under
water. When the boat proceeded to Aurora conditions were found almost as
bad, with but five hundred homes free from the reach of the
all-engulfing waters.
The south levee at Lawrenceburg broke at 2.50 P. M. on March 29th. A
wall of water poured through the opening and went raging through the
center of the town, tearing up all before it. Houses were crushed like
eggshells and the wreckage was carried four miles along the Miami to the
fill on the main line of the Big Four. The break came when it was least
expected, but the residents were warned to leave town, and no lives were
lost. Water stood six feet deep in the streets.
JEFFERSONVILLE AND EVANSVILLE FLOODED
At Jeffersonville two hundred convicts from the Indiana Reformatory
worked for nearly two days on the levee during the flood week, and
through their work it was possible to save the town from the Ohio River.
A committee of citizens of Jeffersonville perfected arrangements for a
banquet to be given in honor of the gray-garbed men who saved their
homes. The entertainment was planned for April 13th, at a cost of
$1,000.
Evansville citizens were alarmed at the continued rise of the Ohio, and
all movables were carried to places of certain safety. On April 1st, the
Government took charge of the flood situation. Captain W. K. Naylor
hastened to commandeer steamboats and patrol the river to pick up flood
sufferers. Mayor Charles Heilman left for Mount Vernon to take charge of
rescue work in that section.
Thirty thousand persons within a radius of ninety miles around Mount
Vernon were calling for help on April 4th.
The Howell levee, protecting two hundred families in Ingleside, between
Evansville and Howell, gave way and the Ingleside district was inundated
with depths of from six to ten feet. Minutemen had been posted all long
the dangerous dike, and when the water began to pour over the top an
alarm was sounded and all escaped.
SHAWNEETOWN SUBMERGED
Shawneetown, Illinois, was entirely cut off from the outside world. On
the night of April 1st, the water in the streets was twelve feet deep.
After another twenty-four hours, all that was left of Shawneetown were
the few substantial brick and stone buildings behind the main levee, and
they were considered unsafe. Less than one hundred persons remained in
the former town of three thousand, and they were perched in the second
and third stories of Main Street buildings, structures on the highest
street in the town. A strong wind completed the destruction begun by the
opening of the levee.
CAIRO FACING CRISIS
As usual, Cairo feared the worst from the on-sweeping flood of the Ohio
River. The Cairo executive flood committee late on March 30th sent an
appeal to President Wilson asking for aid for Cairo and towns nearby:
"The worst flood ever known in the Ohio Valley and the Mississippi is
now expected. All previous records at Cairo and south may be broken in a
few days. We are making every effort in our power to take care of local
situation, but the river communities near us should have assistance.
Boats, sacks, food and other supplies are needed. May we not have the
help of your great office for this district?"
The Big Four levee, which protected the "drainage district," went out on
April 1st. It was about five miles north of the city. Accordingly, as
workmen were able to battle no longer with the levee situation in the
drainage district, they were brought into Cairo and set to work along
the river front. The state troops were sent in squads of five, each
accompanied by a policeman, to visit the rendezvous of men who were
unwilling to or had refused to work.
All places of business which did not handle goods needed for the comfort
and necessities of the people were closed in order to give opportunity
to get out the strongest working force possible. Employees of closed
concerns responded willingly for duty and reinforced to a great extent
the work along the river front.
The Rev. M. M. Love, of the Methodist Church, who has had charge of
relief work in former years, was again at the head of the relief
committee. He was given about twenty assistants and a temporary
hospital, which was arranged on a large wharf boat in the river.
The Seventh Regiment, which had headquarters in St. Mary's Park, moved
its equipment into another large wharf boat. This placed all the
quarters of troops on boats. About one half of the population had left
the city. They were chiefly women and children.
SITUATION HOURLY WORSE
On the evening of April 2d, the city was in a state of anxiety never
before experienced. The river gauge at 6.30 o'clock stood at 54.4, a
stage three-tenths of an inch higher than any previous record.
The inundation of the drainage district north of Cairo was complete. The
flood waters were on a level with those in the Ohio River, and were
prevented from flooding into the Mississippi only by the Mobile and Ohio
levee. There were from 7,000 to 9,000 acres from seven to twenty feet
under water. The greater number of industrial plants in the section were
submerged up to the second-story windows, and many houses were
completely under water. For more than a mile beyond the Illinois Central
tracks and for several miles to the north from the big levee surrounding
the district from Cairo there was nothing which was not touched by the
vast field of water.
Offers of relief, which were made by the Chicago Association of Commerce
and the city of Peoria to Cairo, on April 5th, were accepted. The
Chicago organization offered eight boats and sixty men to man them. From
Peoria came word that a steamboat equipped for life-saving purposes was
waiting for a call to Cairo.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE FLOOD IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
FLOOD OF THE MISSISSIPPI INEVITABLE--SOUTHEASTERN MISSOURI
THREATENED--BAD BREAK IN LEVEE AT HICKMAN--STRENGTHENING THE
LEVEES--MEMPHIS IN PERIL--DANGER ALL ALONG THE LINE--RIVER AT RECORD
STAGE--RISING HOPE--A NATIONAL PROBLEM.
On March 30th the Mississippi Valley was facing one of the worst floods
in its history, and the steady advance of the river threatened a large
section of country. The breaking of the levees along the Mississippi
itself, an inevitable result of the great floods in tributary streams,
had already begun. The district below St. Louis was a foot or more above
the flood stage, although the big rise had not arrived. Preparations
were being made to withstand a flood equal to that of 1912. Although the
levees had been made higher in some places, it was not to be expected
that they would be strong enough all along the river from St. Louis to
the sea. In the lower sections of the Mississippi Valley it was feared
there might be a repetition of the recent disasters in Ohio.
At Charleston, Missouri, on March 30th, the flood conditions were
growing more acute every hour. The city was filled with refugees from
all directions. Belmont and Crosno, on the Mississippi River, south of
Charleston, were submerged, and the residents fleeing to places of
safety.
East Prairie, Anniston and Wyatt, on the Cotton Belt Railroad, were shut
off from the world and obliged to receive mail through the Charleston
post-office.
SOUTHEASTERN MISSOURI THREATENED
The St. Louis and San Francisco embankment between Kilbourne and
Kewanee, in the extreme southeastern part of Missouri, was cut early on
April 5th at the direction of the railway officials to prevent the
flooding of a large section of the track if the levee should break at a
weak spot. The gap permitted the drainage of a large volume of overflow.
One of the most thrilling of the stories was brought by Captain S. A.
Martin and Captain H. A. Jamieson, of the Sixth Missouri National Guard.
They were rescued in a launch from a section of levee which broke away
at Bird Point, Missouri.
Thirty-six of their men, they said, were on the levee section, which was
two hundred yards long and ten feet wide, and was floating down the
Mississippi.
Commander McMunn, of the Naval Reserves, at once arranged for a steam
launch and started out to rescue the Missouri soldiers. There was a
swift current in the river, and the safety of the men caused their
commanding officer much anxiety.
BAD BREAK IN LEVEE AT HICKMAN
The levee at Hickman, Kentucky, broke shortly after midday on April 4th,
after a night of continuous rain, followed by a driving up-stream wind,
flooding the factory district but causing no loss of life.
The break, however, did not relieve the river situation at other points,
because the water running through the break there was turned back to the
main stream by the Government or Reelfoot levee, two miles below the
town. The section flooded was occupied by several factories and the
homes of hundreds of workmen.
STRENGTHENING THE LEVEES
All along the Mississippi men were at work strengthening the levees. The
Government on March 29th prepared to rush 20,000 empty sacks to Modoc
and other weak points in the St. Francis levee district. They were
loaded on barges belonging to the Tennessee Construction Company of
Memphis. The boats, which were from one hundred and forty to one hundred
and sixty feet in length, were used to house Arkansas convicts sent from
Little Rock to do levee work.
This trouble was felt in many places when the rising tide threatened
life and property. Industrial anarchy and chaos reigned, and
overwhelming, paralyzing fear seized the people.
MEMPHIS IN PERIL
On April 5th the protection levee along Bayou Gayoso gave way, flooding
a small residence section in the northern portion of Memphis.
The break occurred at a point just west of the St. Joseph Hospital, and
within an hour several blocks of houses in the poorer section of the
city had been flooded.
Before night a section of the city three blocks wide and six to nine
blocks long was covered with from three to six feet of water.
DANGER ALL ALONG THE LINE
The banks at Hopefield Point early began to cave in. More than an acre
slid into the water just south of the point. The main shore line began
to crumble, indicating that the oncoming high water would wash more than
half the old point away.
Gangs of men were busy working the north levee in Helena, Arkansas.
Major T. C. Dabney, of the upper Mississippi levee district, sent out
crews to raise the lowest places. Major Dabney did not anticipate great
trouble, but said he believes in being prepared.
A break in the levee in Holly Bush and Mounds, Arkansas, in April, 1912,
put all the west bank lines out of commission for ten days. Miles of
track were washed away. Fearing a repetition of this, the railroads and
shippers agreed to operate a daily boat between Memphis and Helena.
The first break in the main Mississippi River levee occurred on April
8th on the Arkansas side, just south of Memphis. Three counties were
flooded by water which poured through a big cut in the wall. No loss of
life was reported, the inhabitants having been warned in time that the
levee was weakening.
RIVER AT RECORD STAGE
It was predicted that the Mississippi River from Vicksburg, Mississippi,
to the Gulf would go two feet higher than the highest stage reported in
1912, according to a flood warning issued by Captain C. O. Sherrill,
United States Army Engineer, on April 2d.
In 1912 the maximum of the river gauge at New Orleans showed nearly
twenty-two feet. At that height, and even with the tide reduced by
several immense crevasses, waters came over the New Orleans levees at a
number of places, despite the fact that they were topped with several
rows of sandbags.
Captain Sherrill ascribed the unprecedented flood entirely to the rains
in the river bed caused by last year's crevasses. He issued orders to
have the levees from Vicksburg to Fort Jackson on both sides raised
above the flood stage of 1912, and men and material were sent to all
points along the river to combat the expected high water in the lower
Mississippi.
Colonel Townsend, head of the Mississippi River Commission, ten days
previously predicted a stage as high as that of 1912, and sent out
warnings to all engineers in the valley. It was acting upon his advice
that Captain Sherrill began to assemble barges, quarter boats, bags,
material and tools to be sent to points between Vicksburg and New
Orleans for possible emergencies.
In explaining why the river from Vicksburg to the mouth of the river
would be higher than last year, Captain Sherrill pointed to the fact
that crevasses both below and above the stretch in 1912 lowered the
river there, whereas upon the present rise, with levees expected to
confine the water, the crest naturally would be higher. Because of this
fact the brunt of the high water was expected to strike that stretch,
and any possible trouble to be looked for could be expected there,
although the levees between Old River and Baton Rouge might also be in
danger.
RISING HOPE
The hopes of the people began to rise as they learned that the entire
Mississippi levee system was to be made two feet higher than the record
of the flood last year. It was expected the work would be completed
before the crest of the Ohio River flood reached the lower Mississippi
Valley.
On receipt of reports that two hundred families had been driven from
their homes in the lowlands of the Atchafalaya River, near Breaux
Bridge, Louisiana, owing to high water, and were in a destitute
condition, local relief committees from New Orleans rushed a large
quantity of supplies to that section.
The appeal said if immediate aid was not received it was feared many
would die of starvation. Inhabitants of the district were principally
foreigners, who had reclaimed a part of their truck farms, which were
destroyed by last year's flood. Their newly planted crops were
abandoned.
A NATIONAL PROBLEM
It is a curious fact that the Mississippi has done as much to kill the
old doctrine of states' rights as any other influence. For instance,
Louisiana, after spending thirty millions of dollars on river problems,
was quite willing to concede that the Mississippi was a national affair
and that Federal aid was altogether desirable. But it is plain that the
resources of the individual states as well as of the nation must be
utilized for the prevention of floods. This is a task so vast that a
united effort is required.
CHAPTER XXX
DAMAGE TO TRANSPORTATION, MAIL AND TELEGRAPH FACILITIES
GREAT DAMAGE AND WASHOUTS--TICKETS SOLD SUBJECT TO DELAY--REPORTS OF
TRACKS GONE--PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD A HEAVY SUFFERER--HEAVY LOSS ON
BALTIMORE AND OHIO--ESTIMATED DAMAGE--FLOOD PLAYED HAVOC WITH
MAILS--GENERAL PROSTRATION OF TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE WIRES.
Only one railroad was working between New York and Chicago on the night
of Wednesday, March 26th. That was the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern.
Over the line were speeding the trains of the New York Central and
allied lines, the Pennsylvania, the Baltimore and Ohio, and the Erie,
passenger and freight service combined. Many trains were derailed in
flooded territories.
The following bulletin was given out at the office of W. C. Brown,
president of the New York Central Railroad:
"The main line of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway to
Chicago is not affected to any extent by the heavy rains, and trains are
departing practically on schedule between New York and Chicago.
"The situation south of the Lake Shore line, however, is serious and no
trains are being started out of Cleveland for Indianapolis, St. Louis,
Dayton, Cincinnati and intermediate points. Through passengers for
Columbus are being transferred at New London, Ohio, and handled through
to destination."
TICKETS SOLD SUBJECT TO DELAY
Trains went out of the Grand Central Station of New York just the same,
but no through western ticket was sold unless the purchaser was informed
that it must be accepted subject to delay. When the Southwestern Limited
left at four o'clock its ordinary Cincinnati sleeper had been renamed
the Columbus sleeper and the Cincinnati man had to take a chance. When
its other western expresses went forth the other Ohio, St. Louis and
southern sleepers were all running on conditions.
REPORTS OF TRACKS GONE
The Erie Railroad west of Olean, the main line, was out of commission.
According to reports received, there were at least one hundred and
twenty washouts along that line farther west, with many bridges gone.
Some of the washouts were a mile in length and with the tracks had gone
the roadbed. Twenty trains bound west were stalled at various points,
but all were in big towns, so the passengers did not suffer.
PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD A HEAVY SUFFERER
The Pennsylvania Railroad suffered more damage than any other. The
service west of Pittsburgh was badly crippled. All through trains from
the East to points on the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis
Railway west of Pittsburgh were temporarily discontinued.
[Illustration: RAILROAD MAP OF THE FLOODED DISTRICT IN INDIANA, OHIO AND
WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA]
On the lines East, in the vicinity of Pittsburgh, Oil City, Erie and
Buffalo, serious washouts developed, aggregating in length on the
Allegheny Division, about two thousand five hundred feet of main track.
Benjamin McKeen, general manager of the Pennsylvania Railroad's lines,
west of Pittsburgh, informed Broad Street Station, Philadelphia, on
Thursday, that all lines were blocked on both passenger and freight
service, except between Pittsburgh and Cleveland by way of Alliance.
"We are gradually getting our lines of communication established so that
our information seems a little more definite, although the lines are
working very unsatisfactorily yet at many points.
"We have now gotten the Fort Wayne road open from Chicago to Mansfield
with single track over the points where the breaks were, and we are
actively at work, both east and west, for a distance of about seventy
miles between Canton and Mansfield, where there are four bridges gone
and quite a number of washouts, and the best figures we have now are
that we will probably get the Fort Wayne line open by Monday morning.
"We have found out definitely that our bridge at Piqua is still
standing, although there are vast washouts at each side of it. We also
know definitely that our bridge at Dayton is gone; also the four-span
bridge over the Muskingum River at Zanesville is gone and there is some
question as to whether our bridge over the Scioto River at Circleville
is gone or not, as we have no definite information on this.
"We have men and material all assembled and starting actively at work
here and there wherever the water has receded sufficiently to permit
us."
On the Pennsylvania Railroad alone the loss amounted to millions of
dollars. There was not only the tremendous loss due to the loss of
tracks, roadbed and bridges, but also the loss of passenger and freight
revenues. Everywhere it was conceded that the tie-up was the most
serious and extensive in the history of the road.
[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros.
Hundreds of substantial buildings were lifted from their foundations and
piled up like broken cigar boxes simply by the awful sweep of the wind]
[Illustration: Photograph by Underwood & Underwood.
Some of the most prominent society women and girls in Dayton shouldered
hoes and shovels in the work of cleaning up the city]
HEAVY LOSS ON BALTIMORE AND OHIO
The financial loss to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad aggregated
millions of dollars in the destruction of property alone.
President Willard was asked on Thursday for an estimate of the damage
wrought by the floods. His reply was:
"I cannot tell. I haven't an idea. I wish I could say that it would be
$2,000,000, but I cannot.
"I know that half a dozen bridges on the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton
have been destroyed and bridges on the Baltimore and Ohio have been
washed away. We have lost one of our largest bridges on the main road to
Chicago, at Zanesville, Ohio, and it will probably be six months before
we will have another completed bridge there, although we will have some
bridge there soon. We hope to have our main line to Chicago open in
twenty-four hours, and our main line to Cincinnati open in the same
time. We cannot tell when we will have our line to St. Louis open."
ESTIMATED DAMAGE
Conservative estimates of the damage to railroad property in the flooded
Middle West, plus the loss entailed by the suspension of traffic, ranged
from $10,000,000 to $15,000,000.
The entire railway system of Ohio and Indiana was practically put out of
business for five days by the floods in the Middle West. To repair and
replace the railways affected by this disaster, railway officials
stated, would practically wipe out the surplus earnings of many
railroads. In other cases dividends were threatened. The reason was,
they said, that all such damage must be retrieved out of current
earnings and could not be charged to capital.
As an illustration of how the railroads spend money in such an
emergency, it may be said that the Pennsylvania sent one hundred and
fifty expert bridge builders out West from New York in one day soon
after the flood. These men received record wages; they traveled in
sleepers, with special dining cars. The company was sending
steam-shovels and pile-drivers on limited trains and a first-class
laborer could get a private compartment quicker than could a financier.
"There will be improvements in railroading through all the districts
every day from now on, but there will not be anything like a restoration
of former conditions for months," said one railroad official. "It takes
time to rebuild steel bridges, especially as the big steel plants have
been experiencing a little trouble of their own."
FLOOD PLAYED HAVOC WITH MAILS
Storm, flood and fire in the Middle West played havoc with the United
States mails. Postmaster-General Burleson announced on March 26th that
the destruction wrought by the floods in Ohio and Indiana was so serious
that it would be ten or twelve days before a regular mail service could
be resumed with the remote districts.
Reports showed that never before in the history of the service had there
been such a serious interruption to the mails on account of floods.
There was practically no local service on the railroads in the
territory bounded by Cleveland, Toledo, Columbus, Cincinnati,
Indianapolis, Terre Haute and the Ohio River.
Mails to New York from points in Kentucky and Tennessee, from Pittsburgh
and Cincinnati, Ohio, and all points south of the Ohio River came by way
of Washington and were from five to seven hours late. The Arkansas and
Oklahoma mails traveled by way of Chattanooga and Memphis.
The representatives in the field were directed to be in constant
communication with the department at Washington and to make every effort
to supply the people in the flood districts with mail as rapidly as
arrangements could be completed. Mails for distant points which
regularly passed through the flooded sections were detoured north and
south, resulting in unavoidable delay.
GENERAL PROSTRATION OF TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE WIRES
Never before in the history of the United States was there such a
general prostration of telegraph and telephone wires as during the great
flood. Chicago was "lost" to the East for part of a day, and it was
found impossible to reach that city via the South. Throughout eastern
Ohio service was paralyzed, and such few wires as could be obtained were
flickering and often going down.
The Western Union and Postal Telegraph Companies in New York announced
on March 26th that they did not have a wire working in the thousands of
square miles roughly marked by Indianapolis on the west, Pittsburgh on
the east, Cleveland on the north and the Ohio River on the south. The
Postal had but two wires working between New York and Chicago and these
were routed by way of Buffalo. None of its wires south of Washington was
working.
An army of 10,000 men was sent into the region to repair the wires, but
their work was almost impossible because of the inability of the
railroads to transport their equipment.
The American Telephone and Telegraph Company had the only facilities in
the stricken sections and turned them over without reserve to the press
associations, believing that in this manner the public could best be
served.
At the offices of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and the
Union Telegraph Company in New York, on March 28th, joint announcement
was made as follows:
"In the use of the necessarily limited wire facilities reaching the
flooded districts of Ohio and neighboring states due importance is being
given to messages to and from public officials, relief associations, the
press and to such urgent messages as have to do with measures of relief,
believing that thus the public will be best served until full service
can be restored.
"There has been no time during the past week when the combined
facilities of the two companies have not afforded communication with the
larger cities and towns, but local conditions render it impossible in
many cases to deliver telegrams or to make local connections by
telephone."
CHAPTER XXXI
THE WORK OF RELIEF
PRESIDENT WILSON PROMPTLY IN DIRECTION--WASHINGTON ASTIR AS IN TIME OF
WAR--BACKING OF CONGRESS PLEDGED--AMERICAN RED CROSS TO THE
RESCUE--RAILROADS BRAVELY HELPING--RELIEF FROM STATES AND
INDIVIDUALS--AN ARMY OF PEACE.
The sympathetic response of the American people never fails to measure
up to the summons of any calamity. Relief is plentiful and prompt. The
awful story of the flood and tornado was no sooner told than the
machinery of government, the organized forces of the Red Cross and
individual efforts in every city within reach were co-operating to
provide succor and supplies to the sufferers. Tents for shelter, cots,
food by the trainload, hospital and medical supplies, were almost
immediately on their way to the stricken district.
WASHINGTON ASTIR AS IN TIME OF WAR
The Federal Government was alive to the needs of the flooded districts
of the Middle West with activity that almost surpassed the hustle and
bustle of war times. Every department from the White House down,
directed its energies toward the relief of distress and suffering in
Ohio and Indiana. As the result of appeals from Governor Cox, the
American Red Cross and others, President Wilson issued an appeal to the
nation at large to help the sufferers.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
President Wilson's Messages
For the Relief of the Stricken States
To Mayor Dahlman, of Omaha:
"I am deeply distressed at the news received from Nebraska. Can we
help you in any way?
"WOODROW WILSON."
To Governor Ralston, of Indiana,
and Governor Cox, of Ohio:
"I deeply sympathize with the people of your state in the terrible
disaster that has come upon them. Can the Federal Government assist
in any way?
"WOODROW WILSON."
To the Nation:
"The terrible floods in Ohio and Indiana have assumed the
proportions of a national calamity. The loss of life and the
infinite suffering involved prompt me to issue an earnest appeal to
all who are able in however small a way to assist the labors of the
American Red Cross to send contributions at once to the Red Cross
at Washington or to the local treasurers of the society.
"We should make this a common cause. The needs of those upon whom
this sudden and overwhelming disaster has come should quicken
everyone capable of sympathy and compassion to give immediate aid
to those who are laboring to rescue and relieve.
"WOODROW WILSON."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Indicating the gravity of the situation in Ohio, a telegram from
Governor Cox was received by Secretary of War Garrison asking for food
and medical supplies and tents for the sufferers.
Secretary Garrison promptly took steps to meet the emergency, and the
supplies requested were sent by express to Columbus. The two experienced
officers who handled the Mississippi flood situation, Majors Normoyle
and Logan, were also ordered to proceed to Columbus to aid Governor Cox.
All troops in Western New York and all available troops in the Central
Department were ordered to hold themselves in readiness to proceed to
relief work in Ohio and Indiana, if needed.
President Wilson issued his appeal for funds for the Red Cross following
a conference with Miss Mabel Boardman, chairman of the relief board of
the organization.
The Secretary of the Treasury enlisted promptly in the relief movement,
and the public health service and the life-saving service and marine
hospital surgeons available were placed at the command of the state
authorities. The public health hospitals at Detroit, Cleveland,
Louisville, Cairo, Evansville and St. Louis were thrown open for the
care of the flood victims. Surgeons P. W. Wille, of the Marine Hospital
at Cleveland, was instructed to go to Columbus to co-operate with the
state board of health. Dr. J. O. Cobb, of the Chicago Marine Hospital,
was ordered to Indianapolis.
BACKING OF CONGRESS PLEDGED
The President was in his office all day Wednesday, March 26th, in close
touch with the situation. He apprised the chairmen of the Senate and
House appropriations committees that the government was going ahead with
emergency expenditures on the assumption that Congress would back up the
administration later. Both promised hearty support, and orders went out
on every side for a gigantic work of relief.
Major P. C. Fauntleroy was sent to Columbus to handle the medical
supplies. Nine medical officers and fifty-four hospital corps men went
from the Department of the East carrying a big supply of surgical
dressings, anti-typhoid prophylactics and the complete "reserve medical
supply" comprising hundreds of drugs sufficient to treat 20,000 patients
for one month. Precautions against the spread of disease were to be
handled by sanitation experts.
Life-saving crews were ordered from Louisville to Dayton and from
Lorain, Ohio, to Delaware, Ohio, and the public health service
distributed its agents over the afflicted districts.
SUPPLIES ON THE WAY
By Friday more than double the apparently necessary medical supplies for
the flood sufferers were on their way to Ohio and Indiana, a full quota
of supplies having been started from the army supply warehouses at St.
Louis and a second consignment from Washington.
From the naval stores a huge consignment of wearing apparel and bedding
for the sufferers was sent to Columbus. These supplies were started from
the naval stores at New York. Paymaster-General Cowie made the
arrangements under orders from Secretary of the Navy Daniels. The
shipment included 12,000 blankets, 7,000 watch caps, 50,000 pairs of
light weight drawers, 80,000 light weight undershirts, 30,000 heavy
weight drawers, 30,000 heavy weight shirts, 4,200 navy jerseys, 15,000
khaki jumpers, 24,000 pairs of dungaree trousers, 8,000 overcoats,
24,000 pairs of shoes and 15,000 pairs of woolen socks.
In addition to the clothing supply the Navy sent also 300,000 rations on
the way to Columbus and Dayton. Paymaster Nesbit and Paymaster's Clerk
Conell were in charge of the distribution. Assistant Secretary Roosevelt
supplied them with $25,000 in currency with full authority to expend it
for such supplies and services as they might find necessary.
For a time President Wilson considered going himself to the flood
districts; but reports from Secretary Garrison and others were so
encouraging that he decided it was unnecessary.
"Refreshed by the tears of the American people, Ohio stands ready from
today to meet the crisis alone," wrote Governor Cox of Ohio on March
31st.
After seeing the situation well in hand in Dayton, Secretary Garrison
returned to Cincinnati and then proceeded to Columbus. By April 2d he
was able to return to Washington.
AMERICAN RED CROSS TO THE RESCUE
From the first day when Miss Mabel T. Boardman conferred with President
Wilson, the American Red Cross and the government worked hand in hand.
At headquarters of the National Red Cross funds from all quarters of the
Union rained in on the officials. Friday night the Red Cross
headquarters had received more than $190,000 in cash and drafts, and
basing their estimates on telegraphic advices from other points, they
were assured that their total already exceeded $350,000. Boston sent in
$32,000, Cleveland $33,000 subject to call. Baltimore notified Miss
Boardman to draw on the local chapter of the order for $7,000. New York
reported $75,000 in hand and the District of Columbia chapter had more
than $25,000 ready for instant use. Henry C. Frick sent a check for
$10,000 and John D. Rockefeller $5,000, with the suggestion that more
was ready when needed.
With Miss Boardman at the head of the party the Red Cross relief train
left Washington Friday over the Chesapeake and Ohio, bound for Columbus.
The train comprised six express coaches, two of which were loaded with
steel cots for use of the homeless. Two others were loaded with bedding
and clothing supplies and two with foodstuffs of all sorts.
Hurrying to Omaha to assist in relief work in that city, Ernest P.
Bicknell, of the American National Red Cross, halted in Chicago.
Informed of the serious situation in Indiana and Ohio, he telegraphed to
Omaha and received word that the relief work was well in hand. He then
decided to go to the flood-stricken districts in Indiana and Ohio.
Reaching Columbus, Mr. Bicknell had soon established Red Cross
headquarters and the corps under his direction was working in closest
harmony with the state flood relief committee, the Governor of Ohio and
the United States army and navy relief officials.
The disaster in the Middle West was the greatest the Red Cross Society
was ever called upon to deal with. The amount of suffering entailed by
the flood far exceeded that of the San Francisco earthquake and fire.
RAILROADS BRAVELY HELPING
Bravely the railroads worked their way into the stricken territory.
While a blizzard raged in Ohio from Cleveland to Cincinnati, with the
temperature down to twenty-eight degrees above zero, the
railroads--which means all the railroads in every section, the New York
Central, the Pennsylvania, the Erie, the Baltimore and Ohio, and their
allied lines--threw into the battle thousands upon thousands of men,
trainload after trainload of machinery, and money rewards as a stimulus
for the repair of miles of washed-out tracks and shattered bridges.
Every division superintendent of every line in the district, his
assistants, usually with some high executive officer of the system in
control; every man and boy able to handle a pick or shovel or crowbar,
to carry his end of a girder or drag a coil of rope, was out on the job.
It was not for any selfish purpose that the roads threw this immense
power into the work. Their object was to open up rail communication
with the desolated cities, towns and villages and send relief trains
with bread, with blankets, with medicines, doctors and nurses. It was
not a race for money.
"We will carry every pound of supplies for the devastated district free
over any lines" announced the Pennsylvania, and it added free passage
for doctors, nurses and every other good Samaritan.
"No charge," was the echo of the New York Central, and that order went
to every freight and passenger agent of the big system everywhere. The
Baltimore and Ohio, the Erie, and every other line followed in an
instant. The railroads helped all they could.
RELIEF FROM STATES AND INDIVIDUALS
If the nation was generous and prompt in its relief, neighboring states
and individuals were not less so. Governors in many states and mayors of
many cities, following the noble example of the President, issued
appeals for help. Mayor Dahlman of Omaha and Governor Morehead of
Nebraska bravely declined the help offered by President Wilson and
others for sufferers from the tornado; but the flood-stricken districts,
for whom recovery was far less easy, in many cases were obliged to
appeal for aid. From towns throughout Ohio and Indiana came desperate
cries for help, and to all of them a sympathetic nation listened and
responded.
AN ARMY OF PEACE
If the great calamity stirred the hearts of the nation with pity, so did
the prompt and splendid relief inspire enthusiasm. Even though the
despatch of United States troops to the scene of devastation in the West
lacked legal sanction the whole country unanimously approved the
movement which thus itself becomes a signal to all nations, and a
corroboration of the truth that the American is not hidebound by
fantastic traditions when some serious achievement is to be done. Our
soldiers in this case for the nonce became missionaries. Under the
leadership of the Secretary of War, the troops carried clothes, food,
medicaments, tents, blankets, and in short all the paraphernalia
necessary to succor the distressed, assuage the pangs of suffering and
restore normal conditions within the wide areas battered by the
destructive elements.
This peaceful use of our fighting men brings into realization the vision
so strongly cherished by John Ruskin--the vision of the time when
soldiership should develop into a form of modern knight-errantry, and
the "passion to bless and save" should inspire those who were formerly
drilled only in the exercises of conquest and slaughter. Americans may
well be proud to reflect that this era, which a few decades ago seemed
but the chimerical dream of a doctrinaire, has found its pledge and
promise in the generous endeavors of our standing army.
"Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war."
In narrowing the dimension of suffering, and lending a strong hand to
those overwhelmed by calamity, our soldiers raised up the defeated from
the sore battle of life.
CHAPTER XXXII
PREVIOUS GREAT FLOODS AND TORNADOES
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR--THE GALVESTON TRAGEDY--THE MISSISSIPPI ON A
RAMPAGE--DESTRUCTION IN LOUISVILLE--THE ST. LOUIS TORNADO.
Floods are not usually so dramatic and awe-inspiring as tornadoes, but
they are even more destructive of life. The Johnstown flood of 1889,
however, was dramatic and even spectacular--so swiftly did it come and
so certainly could it have been avoided. It destroyed 2,235 lives, swept
away ten millions of dollars worth of property, and carried unutterable
grief into countless happy homes.
Lying in a narrow valley were eight villages, aggregating 50,000 to
80,000 inhabitants, the largest of the eight being situated at the lower
end, with about 25,000 inhabitants.
Far up in the mountain, 300 feet above the chief village of the valley,
hung a huge body of water. As nature had designed it, this had been a
small lake with natural outlets, which prevented it from being a menace
to the valley below. But the hand of man sought to improve the work of
nature. An immense dam, 110 feet in height, held back the water till the
lake was more than quadrupled in size.
THE SWOLLEN WATERS
These were the conditions on May 31, 1889. There had been heavy rains
for several days. The artificially enlarged lake was really a receiving
reservoir of the water-shed of the Alleghany Mountains. Every little
stream running into it was swollen to a torrent. The lake, which in
ordinary times was three and a half miles long, with an average width of
over a mile, and a depth in some portions of 100 feet, was swollen into
a volume of water of enormous proportions. Between it and the valley
below there was a dam nearly 1,000 feet wide, 100 feet high, ninety feet
thick at the base and twenty at the top. This barrier gave way and the
water rushed into the valley in a solid wave with a perpendicular front
of forty feet.
It swept away the seven smaller villages like straw, hurled them,
together with uncounted thousands of their inhabitants, upon the larger
village, and then, with the accumulated ruin of the whole eight, dashed
upon the stone bridge at the bottom of the valley. The bridge withstood
the shock, and a new dam, as fateful with horror as the first had been,
was formed. It held back the water so that the whole valley was a lake
from twenty to forty feet in depth, with the remains of its villages
beneath its surface. The wreckage of the ruined villages, piled from
forty to sixty feet high, against the bridge, spread over a vast area,
with countless bodies of the living and the dead crushed within it and
struggling for life upon it, caught fire, and burned to the water's
edge.
When the flood came--a terrific punishment for the carelessness of the
past--the doubters saw their homes washed away, their dear ones
drowned; in some cases they did not even live to see the extent of the
havoc wrought. Whole families were drowned like rats; houses were
shattered to pieces or floated about on the water like wrecked ships.
Intolerable was the suffering that followed--grief for the loss of dear
ones, actual physical hurt, hunger and want. The problem for many in the
eight towns was to begin life all over--and that without hope. Immediate
suffering was in some measure prevented by the speedy help rendered by
neighboring towns, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the entire nation.
But nothing could undo the fearful damage of the past.
THE GALVESTON TRAGEDY
Great as was the Johnstown flood, it shrinks into insignificance before
the appalling hurricane-brought flood of Galveston, which devastated the
city and swept thousands of its inhabitants to their death. There is
little in the new city which arose to remind one of the awful
tragedy--unless it be the strong sea-walls constructed to keep out
future floods.
The storm came over the bay from the gulf before daylight Saturday
morning, September 8, 1900. At 10 A. M. the inundation from the bay
began, but even then no alarm was felt. The wind took on new strength
and the waters were carried four blocks through the business section
into Market Street. Ocean freighters dragged anchors in the channel and
were soon crashing against the wharves. The wind reached the hurricane
stage, blowing at something like one hundred and twenty miles an hour,
and buildings began to crumble. By this time the bay water had reached
a high point on Tremont Street. The gulf, however, was quiet.
Then a remarkable thing happened. The wind suddenly shifted from the
north to the southeast, the hurricane increased in fury, and, picking up
the waters of the gulf, hurled them with crushing force against the four
miles of residences stretched along the beach. There was nothing in the
way of protection, and houses were knocked over like so many toy
structures.
By three o'clock the gulf had spread over the city and mingled in the
streets with the waters of the bay. The violence of the wind continued.
Higher and higher rose the water. Buildings began to collapse. Shrieks
of agony were heard. One family of five took refuge in four different
houses, abandoning each in turn just in time to save themselves.
Hundreds, struck by the flying wreckage, fell unconscious in the water.
SCENES OF HORROR
When night settled down over the city the whole bay side was in process
of destruction. Wreckage was thrown with the force of a catapult against
houses which still offered resistance. Electric light and gas plants
were flooded and the city was in darkness.
In the cemeteries the dead of years were washed from their graves and
carried across to the mainland. A tramp steamer was carried over to
Virginia Point, then sent like a shot through three bridges. The
steamers "Alamo" and "Red Cross" were dropped upon Pelican Flats, and
when the waves retreated were left high and dry upon the sand. Yachts
and sailboats were driven over the mainland and could be seen in the
grass far beyond Texas City. Railroad cars loaded and empty were carried
into the bay, and miles of track torn up and washed away.
THE RECEDING WATERS
Between ten and eleven the wind fell and the water began to recede,
almost as rapidly as it had come. Before daylight the streets were clear
of water, but covered with slime and choked with wreckage. It was not
necessary to go to the beach to find the dead. They lay thick along the
streets.
A Committee of Public Safety was organized, and all men, white and
black, were asked to assist in the removal of the dead. The
superstitious negroes refused, but were finally compelled at the muzzle
of guns to gather in the bodies. It was suggested that the burials be
made at sea. Society men, clubmen, millionaires, longshoremen and
negroes took up the work, loading the bodies on drays and conveying them
to barges. The dreadful procession lasted all of Sunday and Monday.
Three barge loads of dead were taken out to sea and given back to the
waves. The weights, however, were not properly attached, and soon the
corpses were back in the surf, washing on the beach.
After the storm the weather turned milder. By Monday the city reeked
with the smell of a charnel house and pestilence was in the air. The
bodies of dead animals lay in the streets; the waters of the bay and
gulf were thick with the dead. All the disinfectants in the city were
quickly consumed. An earnest appeal for more was sent to Houston and
other places. Tuesday a general cremation of the dead began. Trenches
were dug and lined with wood. The corpses were tossed in, covered with
more wood, saturated with oil, and set on fire. Later, bodies were
collected and placed in piles of wreckage, and the whole then given to
the flames. Men engaged in this horrible task frequently found relatives
and friends among the dead. The men wore camphor bags under their noses,
but frequently became so nauseated that they were forced to stop work.
The fire purified the air, however, and disinfectants began to come in
in answer to the appeal. The streets were covered with a solution of
lime, and carbolic acid was showered everywhere.
GALVESTON NOT THE ONLY SUFFERER
And not only Galveston was a sufferer in this storm. For fifty miles
along the coast, on both sides of the city, the storm found victims. The
waters of the sea were carried inland ten miles all along the coast. The
total loss of life in Galveston and near-by places amounted to 9,000;
the property damage to $30,000,000.
THE MISSISSIPPI ON A RAMPAGE
"The Mississippi River in flood," says a recent writer, "takes
everything with it. To watch the endless procession which the swift
current carries by is to see all the properties of tragedies. The
Mississippi in flood is the despoiler of homes. Houses come floating
down the stream, outbuildings, furniture and myriads of smaller things,
tossed by waves in the 'runs' or sailing on serenely in the broader
stretches. Great trees go by. They are evidence that the Mississippi has
asserted its majesty somewhere and has cut a new channel to please
itself, eating away bank, growth, and all. Carcasses of cows and horses
and dogs float down the stream, carrying a pair of buzzards, those
scavengers who have so much work to do after the floods have receded. It
is a terrible and a melancholy sight."
THE FLOOD OF 1912
In April and May, 1912, the Mississippi reached a height never before
equaled, and the great river went tearing through levee after levee on
its resolute course to the sea. The river reached a maximum width of
sixty miles, killed 1,000 persons, rendered 30,000 homeless, and caused
damage to the amount of $50,000,000.
By April 2d, Columbus, Missouri, was buried under fifteen feet of water,
and in some parts of the town residences were wholly submerged. New
Madrid was not much better off, and Hickman, Kentucky, looked like a
small city of Venice. President Taft sent a hurry call to Congress for
half a million dollars, and within fifteen minutes after his message was
read, the lower house had passed an appropriation bill and sent it to
the Senate, which laid everything else aside to give it right of way. By
April 5th, the Reelfoot Lake district, covering 150 square miles of
Kentucky farm land, was an inland lake and the river at Cairo, Illinois,
had risen to nearly fifty-four feet, the average depth from St. Louis to
New Orleans being ordinarily but nine feet. Cairo was for days
surrounded by the torrents from the Ohio and the Mississippi beating at
the levees, while to the north of the city factory buildings were
immersed to their roofs or even entirely covered. By April 7th, the
levee in Arkansas, seven miles south of Memphis, had a gap a mile long
and Lake County, Tennessee, had no ground above water but a strip six
miles long by four wide. By the middle of the month, the levees at
Panther Forest, Arkansas; Alsatia, Louisiana; and Roosevelt, Louisiana,
had succumbed, and a thousand square miles of fertile plantations were
from five to seven feet under water.
FARMS AND PLANTATIONS SUBMERGED
Rain-storm after rain-storm caused the stream to swell, undermined
dikes, and broke new crevasses all the way from Vicksburg to New
Orleans. Hundred of farmers and their families, a majority of them
negroes, were cut off and overwhelmed by the flood. For several weeks
the people of New Orleans were under the fear that a large part of the
city might be submerged and ruined. Near by vast sugar plantations were
under water, while the prosperous town of Moreauville was inundated.
Refugees' camps were established and relief work began. Many vessels
assisted the army. Pitiful stories of famished and suffering victims of
the flood were told, and the miles and miles of desolated country struck
horror to the heart. They have a pregnant saying down there: "Come hell
and high water." Some day, it is to be hoped, we are going to take the
force out of that expression.
DESTRUCTION IN LOUISVILLE
Disaster by tornado is not so easy to avoid as disaster by flood. One of
the most destructive storms of recent years was that which swept over
Louisville, Kentucky, in the evening of March 27, 1890, killing 113
persons, injuring 200, and destroying property to the amount of
$2,500,000. The storm came from the southwest and cut a path through the
heart of the city three miles long and nearly a half mile wide. Nearly
every building in its course was leveled to the ground or otherwise
damaged. Outlying towns were also devastated by the storm, and flood
calamities occurred simultaneously along the Mississippi.
About eight o'clock the storm was raging with tremendous force. The rain
fell in sheets, the lightning was constant and vivid, the wind blew
ominously. The streets were soon miniature rivers, and telegraph and
telephone poles began to snap. By 8.30 there was alarm all over the
city, but before any measure of safety could be adopted the body of the
mighty tempest dashed itself on the houses along Fifteenth Street and
tore itself diagonally across the city, leaping the river at Front
Street to Jeffersonville.
The passage across the city was not continuous and in uniform direction,
but the storm lifted itself up, fell with furious force on a block, then
rolled over into adjacent blocks, when it rested a moment, then dashed
furiously up and forward again, launching to the right and left with
demoniacal whimsicality.
Everything it touched suffered. Church steeples fell, crushing beneath
their weight the buildings over which they had stood guard. Wrenching
warehouses to fragments the tornado passed to the river front, leaving a
broad swath of wreckage and dead bodies. The belt of destruction
extended from the west side of Seventh Street as far as Ninth and Main
Streets, and an equal width across to the point where the city was first
touched. Along this path were demolished homes and wrecked business
houses--the annihilated work of years. On the river the storm found full
sway. The tawny water of the swollen Ohio became a lake of seething
foam. Steamboat after steamboat was driven from its moorings and tossed
like a drop of spray in the boiling stream.
CITIZENS MADDENED WITH GRIEF
Almost immediately after the storm had passed thousands crowded into the
distressed district; maddened men and women fought and struggled through
the debris trying to find some loved relative or friend. From every side
arose the groans of the wounded and dying. About the Falls City Hotel
groups thronged waiting for news.
Fires burning in several places added to the horror, though no great
damage was done by these. Crushed and blackened ruins marked the spot of
the Union Depot, which collapsed during the storm, crushing a train
which was just ready to depart. Every building, tree and telegraph pole
in the district struck was leveled, and almost all the railroads
entering the city were obliged to suspend all passenger and freight
traffic.
RESCUE, RELIEF AND RECONSTRUCTION
The work of rescuing the mangled dead was bravely carried on the
following day and before many hours the American genius for
organization, order and action had met the demands of the overwhelming
disaster. While the dead were still lying awaiting burial, plans were
made to rebuild and resume again the work of life.
The local police and militia kept order. The city authorities and board
of trade organized relief corps. The brave spirit of self-reliance
triumphed over the appalling calamity. Money for relief was sent to the
city from many sources, and it is interesting to note that the citizens
of Johnstown, who had suffered from the great catastrophe of the
previous year, were among the first to offer help. They knew what
desolation meant.
THE ST. LOUIS TORNADO
A far more terrible story of death and destruction is that of the St.
Louis tornado of May 27, 1896, which lasted but half an hour, killed 306
persons and destroyed property to the amount of $12,000,000.
The same tornado visited many places in Missouri and Illinois, causing
an additional property loss of $1,000,000.
The sky grew black at 4 P. M., the sun was eclipsed in the whirl of
driving dust and dirt, mingled with the branches and leaves of trees,
the boards of buildings and other loose material torn off by the wind.
At times the wind blew eighty miles an hour. In that mad half hour,
while property was crumbling and hundreds of human lives being snuffed
out, thousands of maimed and bleeding persons were added to the awful
harvest of devastation.
FREAK DESTRUCTION
Over in East St. Louis, where the houses were all frail structures, the
destruction was greatest. The great Eads Bridge was twisted all out of
shape, and freight cars were tossed to and fro, tumbled into ditches and
driven sometimes into the fields many yards from where they had stood.
The great Vandalia freight house fell in a heap of utter ruin, burying
beneath it thirty-five men who had there sought refuge.
The swath cut was three blocks wide and four miles long. The top of the
bridge was knocked off as well as the big abutment. The Martell House
was blown into the Cokokia Creek and many were buried in the ruins.
To add to the horrors of the night the electric-light plants were
rendered incapable of service, and the gas lamps were also shut off,
leaving the city in utter darkness. Fire broke out in several portions
of the city, and the fire department was unable to make an effective
fight because of the choked condition of the streets and the large
number of firemen who were engaged in the imperative work of rescuing
the dead and wounded.
ANNIHILATION
The City Hospital, which fortunately survived the storm, was filled to
overflowing with the injured. In addition to those who were killed in
their houses and in the streets, scores of dead were carried away by the
waters of the Mississippi River. Many steamers on the levee went down
in the storm. From the "Great Republic," one of the largest steamers on
the lower river, not a man escaped. The word "annihilation" is perhaps
the only one that can adequately describe the awful work of the tornado.
The rising of the sun in the morning revealed a scene of indescribable
horror. The work of carrying out the maimed and dead immediately began,
but it was a task of big proportions, as many bodies were totally buried
under the debris. Hundreds of families were rendered homeless, and the
business portion of the community was almost in absolute ruin.
Lack of food added to the misery. Bread sold for fifteen cents a loaf. A
large number of military tents were shipped into the city and many
families found shelter in freight yards. The Ohio and Mississippi
railroad companies issued permits for the use of their empty cars.
Contributions to aid in the work of rebuilding and relief were received
and the city council voted $100,000.
It was several weeks before the city began to resume a normal existence.
The presence of armed men and endless piles of debris, the suspension of
traffic, the grief for departed dear ones, and the sight of the many
injured, all contributed to a condition of solemnity and sorrow. "The
memory of the strange and awful scenes that have been presented by East
St. Louis for the past three days," said one clergyman of the city,
"will live in the minds of its inhabitants for years. But our people are
too courageous and energetic to be deterred from repairing the physical
havoc wrought."
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PREVIOUS GREAT DISASTERS
FLOODS
Johnstown, Pa., breaking of the Conemaugh dam, May 31, 1889; 2,235
killed.
Galveston, Tex., tidal wave, September 8, 1900; 9,000 killed.
Mississippi Valley, May, 1912; 1,000 killed.
WIND STORMS
Adams County, Miss., May 7, 1840; 317 killed. Same county, June, 1842;
500 killed.
Louisville, Ky., March 27, 1890; 113 killed, 200 injured; property loss,
$2,500,000.
Cherokee, Buena Vista and Pocahontas Counties, Iowa, July 6, 1893, 89
killed; property loss, $250,000.
Little Rock, Ark., October 2, 1894; 4 killed; property loss, $500,000.
Denton and Grayson Counties, Tex., May 15, 1896; 78 killed and 150
injured; property loss, $165,000.
St. Louis and East St. Louis, Mo., May 27, 1896; 306 identified killed;
property loss, $12,000,000. Same tornado visited many places in Missouri
and Illinois, causing an additional property loss of $1,000,000.
West India hurricane, September 29 and 30, 1896, covering Florida,
Georgia, South and North Carolina, Virginia, District of Columbia,
Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York; 114 killed; property loss,
$7,000,000.
Eastern Michigan, May 25, 1897; 47 killed, 100 injured; property loss,
$400,000.
Galveston hurricane, September 8, 1900; 9,000 killed; property loss,
$30,000,000; estimated wind velocity, 120 miles an hour.
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CHAPTER XXXIII
LESSONS OF THE CATACLYSM AND PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES
NOT A VISITATION OF PUNISHMENT--THE HELPLESSNESS OF MAN BEFORE
NATURE--THE KINSHIP OF HUMANITY--INCENTIVE TO ENTERPRISE--THE GREATEST
LESSON--MEASURES AGAINST REPETITION OF DISASTER--UTILIZING NATURAL
RESERVOIRS--PROMOTION OF FORESTRY--CONSTRUCTION OF DAMS--SECRETARY
LANE'S PLAN--A PROBLEM FOR THE PANAMA ENGINEERS.
With each succeeding dispatch from the districts stricken by flood and
tornado it became clearer that the first impressions of the disaster,
shocking as they were, fell not far beneath the dreadful reality.
Hundreds overwhelmed in the rushing floods, hundreds of thousands spared
from sudden death only to suffer hunger and thirst and hardship and the
perils of fire, cities submerged, villages swept away, countless homes
and vast industries destroyed, miles upon miles of populous land drowned
under turbulent waters, and over all the grim shadows of starvation and
disease--this catastrophe defies picture and parallel to express its
desolating horror.
The widespread calamity, which smote with its cruelest force the
beautiful city of Dayton, is one of those for which no personal
responsibility can be placed. Like the tidal flood which devastated
Galveston and the earth upheaval which laid San Francisco in ruins, it
is a convulsion which could not have been foreseen or stayed.
NOT A VISITATION OF PUNISHMENT
In the presence of such a fearful disaster there are few persons who
will say, but there are some who will think, that this is in some manner
a visitation decreed upon the communities which suffer. The very
magnitude and superhuman force of it will suggest to many minds the
thought of an ordered punishment and warning for offenses against a
higher power.
Such a concept, happily more rarely held than in earlier times, is, of
course, revolting to sober judgment and to the instincts of religious
reverence. For it would imply that multitudes of the innocent should
suffer indescribable cruelty; it would attempt the impossible feat of
justifying the smiting of Dayton, where the inhabitants lived lives of
peaceful, helpful industry, and the sparing of communities where men
serve the gods of dishonest wealth and vicious idleness.
This was no vengeance decreed for human shortcomings. It was superhuman,
but not supernatural. It was but a manifestation of the unchangeable,
irresistible forces of nature, governed by physical laws which are
inexorable. Nature knows neither revenge nor pity. She does not select
her victims, nor does she turn aside to save the good who may be in her
path. As her concern is not with individuals, but with the race, so she
is moved not by mercy, but by law.
To the limited vision of man, with his brief life, nature seems
incredibly cruel and wasteful. Her teachings must be learned at fearful
cost. Men will ask themselves what lessons are taught by this
overwhelming sacrifice.
THE HELPLESSNESS OF MAN BEFORE NATURE
There is made plain, first, the utter powerlessness of man when he pits
his strength against the full demonstration of the laws of nature. It is
revealed, again, that there are forces which before all the might of
human intellect remain unconquerable. The same grim lesson confronts the
scientist whose babe is snatched from him by death; it confronts the
millionaire who feels the chill of age creeping upon the frame that has
upheld the finances of a nation and has made and unmade panics with the
crooking of a finger.
THE KINSHIP OF HUMANITY
But there flows from such a catastrophe a brighter and better influence
than this. With all its horror and shock, there comes inevitably a great
joining of minds and hearts. The whole world feels the thrill of kinship
and a common humanity. For the time being all conceptions of social
caste and class distinction, the most unworthy thoughts of beings
fashioned all in the image of their Maker, are leveled and forgotten.
Indifference and selfishness disappear. Throughout the nation,
throughout the world, there thrills the uplifting current of
brotherhood, the consciousness that "we be of one blood."
Wherever civilization has exercised its beneficent influence upon the
minds of men there is felt, for a little time at least, the sense that
all humanity is one; that the strife of man against man and nation
against nation is but a pitiful thing, and that we may better concern
ourselves with trying to make the common lot brighter and so soften the
rigors of the existence we all must face.
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF WEALTH
Specifically does not such an appalling event serve to awaken
responsibility among the wealthy and powerful toward the poor and the
weak? When all goes well, when there are no thunderous warnings such as
this of the helplessness of man against the forces arrayed against him,
the fortunate do not realize that for millions mere existence is a
poignant struggle; that hunger and cold and disease prevail even when
there are no ghastly floods to make them vivid and picturesque. We do
not doubt that there are many who will be stirred by the shock of this
dreadful story to a deeper and more sympathetic understanding with the
conditions that surround them on every side.
INCENTIVE TO ENTERPRISE
If any further good can come from a catastrophe so cruel, it may be in
the stimulating pride of race which it engenders. Such experiences have
a unique effect upon the American nature. The greater the calamity which
falls upon a community the greater seems to be the rebound. Destruction
and hardship seem to open great reservoirs of latent energy,
inventiveness and enterprise.
Galveston, suddenly overwhelmed by a convulsion of nature, apparently
was doomed to molder away in forgotten ruins; but her people cleared the
wreck and built a greater city than before. Before the ashes of the old
San Francisco had cooled the vision of a better community rose before
her inhabitants, and they made it real.
Calamity sets free such a flow of creative power that destruction itself
makes for progress. These disasters concentrate upon constructive
enterprise stories of emotional energy that in other times are expended
in the fierce struggle of competitive existence.
THE GREATEST LESSON
But the great hidden teaching of disaster is that the laws of nature are
eternal and inexorable; that they move with unerring precision and
resistless force. And this truth applies not only to the tremendous
powers of the hurricane, the flood and the earthquake, but to economic
principles, which are simply a translation into human terms of the laws
manifested in inanimate nature.
The woman whose health is wrecked by overwork, the child whose body and
mind are stunted by early labor, the tenement dweller who falls victim
to disease because of unwholesome conditions of living--these are
sacrifices to natural laws as much as are the thousands swept away in
the floods. But, while the flood deaths are due to an outburst of the
elements which man cannot control, these others are the result of his
defiance of the laws of nature.
There is another difference: The victims of economic wrongs due to
cupidity and indifference outnumber a thousand to one the victims of
natural causes beyond control. All the deaths in these fearful floods
are less than those caused every year in a single large city by
conditions that might be remedied.
Nature decrees that those who do not have certain amounts of fresh air
and food and rest shall die; the law is inexorable. But it is
civilization which defies it and brings down the penalty.
THE AWAKENING TO OTHER LAWS OF NATURE
A stranger thought is that many whose hearts are melted by this disaster
and whose checkbooks open to the suffering survivors are habitually
indifferent to the more deadly conditions existing on all sides of their
homes. Men contribute generously to the relief funds who, if asked to
surrender a fractional part of their dividends in order to make work
safer and more healthful and more humane for employees, would berate the
suggestion as anarchistic.
This is not due to hardness of heart; it is due to faults of vision. Men
display such sympathy in one case and such ruthlessness in another
simply because civilization has not yet advanced far enough to create
generally the sense of responsibility which is called social
consciousness.
There are those who believe that the good impulses aroused by such
events as now appeal to us tend to awaken this consciousness; on the
other hand, a $5,000 contribution to a flood relief fund may, by salving
the conscience of the giver, close his mind to the need for changing
industrial conditions or expending some of his tenement rents for decent
sanitation.
Our own belief is that each calamity brings the minds of the nation into
closer sympathy and hastens the day when all men will understand that
the society they have builded is guilty of causing miseries just as
great as those we are now witnessing, the defying the laws of nature
because of indifference and greed.
THE NEED FOR ACTION
This country has suffered from many great floods in past years, but none
so awful in its scope and terrible consequences. The present calamity
must bring the country to its sober senses and make us see the positive
necessity--the inevitable MUST--of taking immediate and adequate
measures to guard against the repetition of such a disaster. "Strike
while the iron is hot," has been the battle-cry of men of action
throughout the world! And today, while the iron of adversity is hot in
the bosom of the Republic, is the time to strike upon the ideas that are
to make the heroic surgery of healing.
What is the remedy for these mighty floods that are sweeping and ruining
the interior country? Beyond the supreme consideration of the loss of
life they are the financial tragedies of the century. They occur at rare
intervals in Ohio and Indiana and in New York. But in the valley of the
Mississippi and in the Ohio Valley they are almost an annual or
bi-annual scourge of waters, terrific in suffering and appalling in
cost.
NOT A QUESTION OF COST
No expenditure of public money is too great that will strengthen the
defenses of the people against the giant forces of destruction in the
Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. No cost in national expenditure for
permanent defense against such catastrophes would approximate the cost
in a single decade to the pockets of the people, not to speak of the
uncountable value of human life. Governor Cox, of Ohio, estimated that
the damage in Ohio alone by the recent floods was more than
$300,000,000--nearly as much as the cost of the Panama Canal. The total
cost of the recent flood is vastly greater than that of the Panama
Canal!
The American Government can no longer stop to consider money in dealing
with the problems of internal economy and of elemental humanity. The
floods create an emergency as definite and imperative as war. It is time
now to start some movement for the preservation of life and property
against such occurrences.
MEASURES AGAINST REPETITION OF DISASTER
It is not the mission of this book to prescribe plans for meeting the
situation. That must be the work of a corps of trained engineers who
shall study the whole problem comprehensively and in detail. Rather it
is our purpose here to bring home the overwhelming need for prompt
action. We may be permitted, however, to point in a general way, and on
high authority, the general lines that the necessary remedies must take.
The river problems in the great central valleys present certain
difficulties which engineers have been unable to overcome. If levees are
constructed, it is found that the bed of the stream rises also, so that
the situation is not materially changed. If channels are deepened, the
fury of the floods is increased. If the construction of reservoirs is
proposed, there are very important questions of location and danger.
UTILIZING NATURAL RESERVOIRS
In many places the Mississippi River, closely diked, flows high above
the lands adjacent. Even at New Orleans, 107 miles from the Gulf, it is
during high water ten to fifteen feet above the level of the city.
Obviously the levee system, while useful everywhere and in some
localities adequate, is not a universal remedy. Reservoirs properly
constructed should be of service in storing the waters of many such
rivers as those that have caused the havoc in Ohio and Indiana, but to
meet the requirements they would have to be of enormous size, very
numerous and costly, as Professor Willis S. Moore, chief of the Weather
Bureau, points out.
Nature itself has provided in lowlands throughout all of these valleys
receptacles which, before men came, took up the surplus waters. We have
reclaimed millions of acres of these lands on the theory that we could
confine the rivers which once overflowed them, but thus far we have
failed to establish the theory.
It is probable that any successful national work for the control of
rivers will have to start with the idea of utilizing some of these
natural reservoirs. The lands would not be habitable of course, but for
agriculture they would be enriched instead of, as now, devastated. To
depopulate some such tracts would not be as costly or as terrible as to
leave them to the sweep of irresistible torrents, repeated year after
year.
PROMOTION OF FORESTRY
Despite Professor Moore's very positive denial of the value of
reforestation as a preventive of floods, it is claimed by many
authorities that much of the destruction is due to the fact that the
states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois have been almost denuded of such
forests as originally stood there. No impediment is offered to the flow
of water and disastrous results follow. But in any event there would
have been great floods because of the location of the rainstorms as
noted.
CONSTRUCTION OF DAMS
The topography of the country must be taken into account. Both valleys,
the Miami particularly, are veined with streams tributary to the rivers,
and in times of flood the water rises with amazing rapidity and spreads
far and wide over the valley floor. The level character of the region in
which Dayton itself lies and the fact that there is not enough pitch to
the land below to carry off the water accounts for the depth and extent
of the floods. Dayton has had many of them. What Congress can do to
prevent or minimize them in future by putting the army engineers at work
to construct dams for the collection and restraint of waters in the
valleys north of the threatened cities must be done, whatever the cost.
SECRETARY LANE'S PLAN
Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, has outlined a plan for
preventing such floods as devastated Ohio and Indiana. The plan hinges
on the deepening and widening of the channels of all streams that are
liable to flood conditions. Mr. Lane hopes to see the idea carried out
through the cooperation of the Federal Government, with the aid of the
states immediately endangered.
Aside from the perpetual protection against flood, which he believes his
plan would give to settlers in low regions, there are widespread
districts along the Mississippi and many other rivers that would be
thrown open to settlement. The land thus reclaimed from the swamps might
go a long way, in Mr. Lane's opinion, to reimburse the states for the
appropriations they would be called upon to make. Mr. Lane says:
"The rainstorm, I know, was phenomenal, and even with the system I have
suggested would have doubtless resulted in material damage and the loss
of some lives. But flood conditions reappear every spring in some
noticeable way, and my plan would obviate most of the resulting damage.
"It will not do for Ohio or Indiana or even the two states together to
spend their money generously in clearing the beds of the streams within
their boundaries. That would merely carry the flood more swiftly to the
state lines to the south, and the water would back more angrily than
ever into what would quickly be great lakes. The thing is too large for
the states alone. A harmonious, scientific system must be worked out by
the federal authorities, and the states must then make their
contributions in the way that will do the most good to the whole valley
affected."
SENATOR NEWLAND'S PLAN
Senator Francis G. Newlands, of Nevada, who has made a long study of the
whole subject of reclamation and conservation, and who speaks with
authority on the subject says:
"The appalling disasters in Ohio and Indiana bring home more forcibly
than ever the conviction that our present method of dredging, levees and
bank revetment in limited districts is fundamentally inadequate. These
things will not protect dwellers on the lower reaches of our rivers so
long as there is no control of the headwaters.
"We must adopt an adequate system for the control of the run-off at the
headwaters of the tributaries of the Mississippi. The people of
Pittsburgh and Dayton are entitled to this, no less than the people of
lower Mississippi are entitled to levees. I trust these floods will
rouse the American conscience in these matters."
Senator Newlands has urged that $50,000,000 a year be used for the next
ten years to develop a comprehensive scheme of storing the excess flood
waters at the heads of rivers.
The Democratic platform contained a plank which promised the support of
the party to a national scheme of river control. This has already been
brought to the attention of President Wilson. With the horrible scenes
of the inundated towns of Ohio and Indiana before them, this pledge is
likely to become a living promise to the party in power.
A PROBLEM FOR THE PANAMA ENGINEERS
There is one thing to remember. Our stupendous enterprise of the Panama
Canal will soon be completed. Its vast equipment of the world's newest
and best machinery for digging and filling will be unemployed. The
world's greatest engineer, Colonel Goethals, will also be at leisure.
Why not then provide for the transfer of all the wonderful machinery at
Panama, under personal charge and direction of Colonel Goethals, to the
supreme necessities of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys? The whole
American people would applaud and approve this disposition of our great
engineer and his great equipment.
This new national necessity is as vital and even more pressing than the
Panama Canal. It is worthy of the great Republic and of the great
engineer--an achievement if successful which would twin with Panama and
make Colonel Goethals immortal and our country's beneficence and
enterprise famous through all time.
We have no force and no leader in this tragic emergency more potent for
the defense of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys than Colonel Goethals
and his Panama machinery. Let us send cheer to the flood-ravaged regions
of our country by the assurance that this great man and this
incomparable equipment will soon be consecrated to their relief.
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[Transcriber's Note: The following statement was a footnote against the
page number, page 352, on this, the last page. The page number on the
preceeding page was 319, requiring the following edxplanation.]
The 32 pages of illustrations contained in this book are not included
in the paging. Adding these 32 pages to the 320 pages of text makes a
total of 352 pages.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The True Story of Our National Calamity of Flood, Fire and Tornado" ***
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