St. Charles Republican intelligencer. (St. Charles [Charles City], Iowa) 1856-1857, 1857-03-05
The Recent FrcShets.

Our exchanges are filled with accounts of the
recent floods in various sections of the coun-
try The railroads have suffered more or less
in every direction. In portions of Ohio, In
diana and Illinois great destruction was caus-
ed by the flooding of rivers and creeks. We
learn that, as u freight train was crossing the
bridge over the Dupagc river near Joliet, ILL.,,
the structure gave way, precpitating the To-
connective. tender and several cars into the wa
ter The engineer, fireman and conductor
leapcd into the water and were seen no more.
One of the cars was filled with horses, all of
which were drowned.
At Elgin, H., the freshet swept away
number of culverts destroyed the Fond du
Lac railroad bridge across Bureau river, and
carried away several other bridges. At Iasalle
| the Illinois river rose % feet. At Chicago
! they had the greatest storm food since 1919.
The city was completely inundated. The Mil
waukic railroad bridge was considerably dam
! aged, and there were no trains running across
the Galcna railroad bridge. On the Michigan
Central railroad three bridges were carried
| away.
The railroad from Rock Island to Chicago
sustained moro or less damage at every stream.
1t would require two or three weeks to repair
the road sufficiently for trains to resume their
regular trips The same was said to be true
of the Galcna road. The Burlington road is
in an equally bad condition, the bridge over
Fox river being gone and the long bridge in
Bureau county having been moved bodily
down the stream some eight feet The Dixon
Air Line road is also impossible, and it is pre-
sumed that the roads generally throughout
the West Jared no better.
There has been tremendous rise in the
Ohio river and it is supposed that by this
time the river is clear of ice. The st. Louis
papers of the 10th state that the Mississippi
had risen 90 feet The st. Louis Republican of
the 10th says:
"The water and ice in the Mississippi come
down with tremendous impctuosity. Every
thing is carried with it. Large lots of logs
from the Wisconsin pineries are likely to be
lost. We hear Of one lot which has been win
; tcring some miles above Alton, all of which
are lost. The RATS were broken to pieces and
the logs took their chances with the ice and
went rushing down the river
, There was Il terrible food at Albany, n. Y.
, February 9th. The waters of the Hudson
rose three feet higher than was ever known
before, flooding the whole of the lower por-
ton of the city us high up as Green street
Added to the CONSERVATION of the citizens on
+ account of the flood was that caused by the
! breaking out of several fires at the same time
, in different parts of the city, by which large
amount of property was destroyed and severa
"a lives lost The propeller Western World free
d and sunk at the wharf. Twelve canal boats
d three barges and two tugs were sunk. Foul
=, also many horses stabbed in the lower part o
the city. Three wrecked houses passed down
the river from above, and two men were OF
S the roof of one of them Tie Hudson Rive,
railroad and the Central railroad were boil
t submerged
n A despatch from Harrisburgh says there wa
2 a great flood in the Susquehanna The ic
l. broke up and gorged four miles below, ant
G was piled upon the railroad to hight of ten
/ or fifteen feet The scene along the river wa
! awful.
,. Here, in Northern Iowa, the frcshcts hav
5 been slight. True, the snow has settled con
i siderably, but the ice over the Cedar river a
n this place has not yet broken up, and team
l. cross upon it ms usual. Further south, how
4 ever, the ice is broken np, and at Moscow tn
D. railroad bridge over the Cedar has gone til
II way of all bridges The Iowa river has brc
II ken up, and the bride at Iowa City has take
its leave.