Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1883 — A SUFFERING CITY. [ARTICLE]

A SUFFERING CITY.

London. Ont.. Damaged by Storrr wavin' and Flood to a Frightful Thirty Pwnwn«*Th*ow»ft<i and Numerout Houses and Bridges Wreaked.

(Telegram from London, Ontario.] A tornado, accompanied by heavy rains, broke over the western part of the city »hortly before daylight. The river was soon beyond its banka The flood swept over the whole of the lowlands In less than an hour the entire western suburbs were under water. Large buildings and mills were car tied away as though they were straws. The population ot the suburbs, some S,OCO in number, were driven from their homes in their iiight-ciothea. The villagers were sleeping when the storm burst upon them, and awoke only to find their dwellings floating away in the stream. Borne houses were overturned and their occupants drowned in their beds One building caught fire while going down stream, and lit up the awful scene, showing some persons running wildly about on the roofs of the floating houses, and others at the windows screaming. Parties went to the rescue of the occupants, but before they reached the building it was overturned and the inmates lost to sight. The scene was direful in the extreme. Mothers were wailing for lost children, and infante crying for mothers. Many of those In the floating houses would have been comparatively secure had they remained in doors Many of them in their terror rushed wildly out into the water and were swept away. One frame house floated down with lights burning. «nd a young lady inside, named Miss Wright, was rescued after a mile run on the crest of the wave, but with her reason lost The poor girl Jiai torn her hair'and raved piteously all day. A young married woman was rescued with anewborn infant in herrarms. A childof Mr. Orr, an elderly lady named Hopkins? and a boy floated over the dam and were ingulfed in the waters below. Some forty persons are missing. AU the bridges acrosi the river were destroyed, and communication with the west side is cut oft. Railways were also flooded and traffic stopped. The leas of life is between thirty ana forty. The property loss is estimated at •5,000,000. Early in the morning Mrs. Oliver, wife of the caretaker at Bpringbank reservoir, was horrified at seeing a little boy being swept down the current; toward the dam, screaming at the top of his voice and waving his arms as he disappeared over the brink. An effort was made to save him, but he was beyond human aid. Among the rescuedln London West was . an old colored man named Scott, who lived alone on Thames street Mr. W. X Mclntosh endeavored to reach the house in a boat, and, failing to force in the door, drove his« boat full' tilt through the window, taking the whole sash with him. When he got inside at first he failed to see anybody tiU he heard the words: “Bress de Lo d! I was jess prayin’ io’ de Lo’d to send His angel to deliber me.’ Mr. Mclntosh found the old man standing on the cook-stove, holding on to the stove-pipe, and the water almost up to bis chin. Scott when he appeared on the street had nothing but a shirt and a coat An infant and an aged widow woman named Garretty, now in her 70th year, lived alone in a small frame shanty on Thames street The neighbors from adjoining houses had all fled in alarm to high ground She had been warned, but, owing either to infirmity or the surrounding confusion, the became paralyzed with fear. Rescuers tried in vain to rouse the old lady by pounding on the door, bnt to no purpose. At length they hurst in a window and ran in a couple of planka They found Mrs. Garretty kneeling. on the bed, holding on to one of the posts, with the water up to her neck. Mrs. Ann Beeves performed a deed that any stout man might have been proud of. When the water rose in her little home she placed one child, a girl, under one arm and another girl under the other arm; a third, a boy, she instructed to sit astraddle on her neck, and the fourth, another boy, she got to hang on to her dress behind. In this state she started for the shore, the water being, as she assured the reporter, up to her shoulders. “How did you ever manage to get ashore with such a load*” was asked. “The Lord gave me strength,” was the reply. “I was sure of the three youngest, but I was afraid'of little Jackie, lest he should let go his hold behind, but he hung on bravely, although his head was half the time under water.”