Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1891 — DELUGED IX A MINUTE. [ARTICLE]

DELUGED IX A MINUTE.

AWFUL EFFECT OF A MIGHTY CLOUDBURST. I Utica, Hl., the Fc*n« of Widespread De-vastation-Towns in the Illinois Valley Suffer Greatly—Stock Killed, Bridges Demolished, and Children Drowned, The village ot Utica, 111., was the scene of a c'oud-burst that Is almost without parallel. The darkness that attended the gathering storm was like that ofnight. The people were terrorstricken and looked at one another in speechless suspense. Suddenly the floodgates of the heavens were opened and at one awful burst a torrent poured itself upon the village, and almost instantly the streets were burled under water that rose over lawns, porches, and then into the houses, driving the people from their homes and their places of business to seek safety on the highest points available. Jhe excitement and anguish of tho fleeing panic-stricken villagers was terrible in the extreme. Many of them believed tboir last hour had come. Mothers hugged their children to their breasts and prayed for deliverance. Others, not entirely paralyzed with fear, devoted themselves to saving their property from ruin. Within a few moments of the cloudburst the water was mlly six feet deep in the streets. When it began receding the great damage to property could be discerned. Sidewalks, fences, and bridges were washed away; dwellings and places of business were part ally ruined, and household goods on tho lower floors were rendered worthless. The Bock Island’s new double-track iron railroad bridge over the Peguin Soggin creek was washed away, and four cars on a siding at the new cement works were carried down the stream. The canal bank broke in several places, which increased the volume of water, and lock No. 13, just west of Utica, was torn out. 'Large gangs of men were immediately at work removing the great beds of sand which washed upon the track from the Utica pits, while others were replacing the broken bridge. The loss is hard to approximate, but §150,000 is a conservative figure. The only fatality was in the Copperas Creek valley, just across the line in Fulton County. A family named Gray had a cabin in the val ey, and when the flood left the banks of Copperas Creek and rushed down the valley the inmates grew alarmed. The father took his three boys and started to the hills, while the mother refused to leave the house. When half-way across the valley a floating log struck Gray and stunned him. The rushing water drowned the boys (aged 12, 8, and 5), and he narrowly escaped by clinging to the log. His wife got on the roof of the house and was rescued.