Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1883 — HLOODED IN THEIR BEOS. [ARTICLE]

HLOODED IN THEIR BEOS.

Thirty Persons Drowned at London, Ontario. Property of the Estimated Value of $5)000,000 Washed Away. (Telegram from London, Ontario.! A tornado, accompanied by heavy rains, broke over the western part of the city shortly befpre 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 suburb < were under water. Large buildings and were carried away as though they were straws. The population of the suburbs, some 2,0C0 i» number, were driven from their homes ia their night-ciothes. The villagers were sleeping when the storm burst upon them, and awoke only tofind their dwellings floating awav in the stream. Borne houses were overturned and their occupants drowned jn 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 house?, and obhets at the windows Bcreaming. Parties went to the re-cue of the occupants, but before they reached the build ng it was overturned and the inmates lost to sight The scene was direful in the extreme. Mothers were wailing fcr lost children, and infants crying for mothers Many of those in the floating houses would have been comparatively secure had they remained m doors. Many of them in their terror rushed wildly out into the water iind were swept away. One frame house floated down with, lights burning, and a young lady inside, named Miss Wright, was rescued alter a mile run on the crest of the wave, but with her reason lost The 'poor girl hai torn her hair and raved piteously all day. A young married woman was rescued with a newborn infant In her arms. A child of Mr. Orr, an elderly lady named Hopkins, and a boy floated over the dam and were ingulfed ii» the waters below. Some forty persons are missing. All the bridges acros? the river were destroyed, and communication with the west side is cut off. Railways were also flooded and traffic stopped The loss of life Is between thirty and forty. The property loss is estimated at #5,000.000. Early in the morning Mrs. Oliver, wife of the caretaker at Springbank 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. Ah effort was made to save him, but he was beyond human aid .- 0 Among the rescued in London West was an old colored man named Scott, who lived alone on Thames street. Mr. W. J. Mclntosh endeavored to reach the house in a boat, and, failing to force jn the door, drove his boat full tilt through the window, taking the whole sash with him. When he got intide at first he failed to see anybody till he heard the words: “Brass deLo d! I was jess prayin’ ip’ de Lo’d to send His angel to dellber me” Mr. Molotosh 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 10th 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 contusion, she 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 turst in a window audran in a couple of planks They found Mrs. Garretty kneeling on the bed, holdiug on to one of th£ posts, with the water up to her neck. Mrs Ann Reeves performed a deed that any (tout man might have been proud of. When the water fose 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 bov, 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 reFly. “I was sure of the three youngest, but was afraid of little Jackie, lest he should let go his hold behind, but he hung on bravely, although bis head was half the time under water.?*