Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 58, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1907 — HAVOC IN FOUR STATES. [ARTICLE]

HAVOC IN FOUR STATES.

Flood in Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia. With an estimated property damage of the' enforced Idleness of over H)0,000 persons, almost the complete suspension of Pittsburg's world famous manufacturing plants,"the sacrtflee of two score lives, which probably will be increased; train service annulled, trolley service otit of commission. telegraph and telephone lines crippled. between 20,000 and 30,000 persons homeless? hundreds of homes undermined and ready to collapse, theaters, dosed, guests marooned in hotels, families living in tile second' stories of their homes and nearly all the downtown section of Pittsburg under water, is the record established by a sudden rise in the Monongahela, Allegheny, Ohio, Youghiogheny, Kiskhninetas and. Clarion rivers, which were swollen abnormally by the combination of warm weather, melting snows and general rain throuhout western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The record of the greatest flood in the history of Pittsburg, which was in IS.">2. was passed, with the . rivers still rapidly rising at. a foot an hour. All predictions, prophecies and guesses have already been shattered and every stream in western Pennsylvania and West Virginia is on the rampage. Tp mid to the confusion in Pittsburg numerous small fires occurred in the IllJotied territory, and_tbe fl remen ha d great difficulty in reaching them. In addition to this, most of the fire engines are engaged in different sections of the city assisting in keeping electric qflants free from water in order- that lights may not fail. The town of Majorsville, W. Va., a community of sixty houses, was entireswept away by the waters of Big wheeling Creek, all the houses were destroyed, but the people had sufficient time to flee to higher ground. Viola was partly destroyed, twenty homes being carried off by tire flood, but the people escaped to the hills. • In Wheeling and the -surrounding towns of Benwood, Martin’s Ferry, Bridgeport, Bellaire, McMechen and Moundsville it is estimated that the flood has wholly or partially submerged fully 3,000 houses, and that nearly 15,000 people have been driven from their homes or to upper floors.

Almost similar conditions are reported throughout western Pennsylvania. The losses in the Connellsville coke region, where mines are flooded and all industries suspended, are estimated at $2,000,000. Johnstowji is reiwrtefl to be practically 0 ke, with the stage of water aF eighteen feet, a foot higher than any known record. Many points’in Ohio are experiencing the most disastrous floods in several years. The Miami and Muskingum valleys so far are the worst sufferers from the flood. At Zanesville three persons were drowned. In Springfield and vicinity more than SIOO,OOO damage has resulted to property and 200 families have been made homeless by tire sudden rise of Mad River and its tributaries. At Findlay flood conditions have been serious. Lima, Hamilton, Dayton and Middleton also report great damage. Seven business houses at Gloucester were swept away and carried down tire river with their contents. All mines in that vicinity are flooded.