Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1901 — FLOOD AT CLEVELAND [ARTICLE]

FLOOD AT CLEVELAND

CITY SUFFERS $1,000,000 DAMAGE FROM FIERCE STORM. Etreeti Flooded, Houses Undermined, and the Panic-Strleken Occupants Hemmed In by Raging Torrent—The Corpies in Cemetery Are Washed Out. With the breaking of dawn Sunday morning the citizens of Cleveland awoke to look upon a scene of unparalleled devastation and destruction, caused by a raging flood. While the entire city was more or less affected, the great volume of raging water vented its anger over miles of the eastern portion of the city an I caused an amount of damage approximated at $1,000,000. The appalling overflow was caused by a terrific rain that com.jeneed to fall shortly after 2 o'clock, turned into a perfect cloudburst between the hours of 3 and 5 o'clock, and then continued with great force until nearly 10 o’clock. The storm, according to the weather officials, was the heaviest that ever swept over Cleveland since the establishment of the government bureau in that city over forty years ago. That no lives were lost is nothing short of a miracle, as stories of thrilling escapes from the water on several of the principal residence streets of the city are .told. The surging waters spread over an area in the east end nearly eight miles long and a mile and a linlf wide. This extended from Woodland Hills avenue to East Cleveland, and back to East Madison avenue. Torrents Rush Dowu Streets. Great volumes of water poured over from Doan and Giddings brooks down Quincy street, swamped Vienna street, rushed over Cedar avenue, back over on East Prospect street, rushed like a mill race down Lincoln avenue to Euclid avenue, and then on to Glen Park place, where houses were undermined as though built of straw, and almost incredible damage done to streets and property. Over a large share of this exclusive residence territory the water rushed with terrific force, varying in depth from one to six feet. Culverts, trestles and bridges were torn down, and for hours nothing seemed capable of stemming the tide of destruction. Rowboats plied back and forth assisting whole families from perilous positions, but these boats proved pitifully inadequate, and it was soon found necessary to go to the extraordinary precaution of calling on the life-saving crew from the river, a distance of seven miles. Rescued by Life-Saving Crew. The torrent surged with awful force for hours in Deering street from Fairmount to the boulevard, and over a dozen families were penned in like rats in a trap, with water five aud six feet deep surrounding their homes. At this point the life-aaving crew worked, and, assisted by squads of firemen ami policemen, finally succeeded in landing the terror-stricken people in places of safety. The fear was greatly enhanced by the momentary expectation that the great Shaker Heights dam would break loose and belch forth terrible destruction. Shortly before noon the torrent succeeded in undermining a score of graves in the St. Joseph cemetery, at the corner of East Madison and Woodland, ano the bodies were soon being tossed about in the waters. Fully a dozen of the corpses were washed into gutters. Every steam railroad entering the city and the street railways suffered great loss. But the vast amount of damage falls upon the householders within the Hooded district. The great sea of water reached a depth of one foot on the first floors of scores of the East End homes, boiling up from the sewers and pouring in from the streets, carrying everything that came in its path along with it. In many cases the fear-stricken residents buttered down cellar walls in order to give the torrent an outlet and prevent the swamping of their entire homes.