Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1858-07-01
IFrom the Evening POst.l
The Great Floods.

Our exchanges which for six or seven weeks
have been filled with accounts of deluging rains
from Kansas to the Atlantic, tornadoes here
and there, rivers oyerllowing their bankS little
streams swollen 10 great torrents, towns sub
erged, immense creyaSSes and great dCStruc-
ton of property in consequence, now announce
that the rains have for the most part ceased,
that the great rivers have reached their max
imum height, and as their head waters are
slowly falling, that the foods may at once be
expected to ahute The Mississippi river and
its tributary rivers. the Ohio and Missouri,
have risen to height unparalleled since the
foods of 1910, nut when it is considered over
hcw large Il portion OF the area winch thty
drain, these rain storms have extended 1t can
not be wondered at 1t has been calculated
that one third of the average rain fail of the
year has been brought within the compass Of
forty days, and that on this large portion OF
our territory fifteen inches depth Of rain has
been averaged. Of course the soil was soon
saturated, and the surplus water flowed off and
helped to swell the rivers and streams. The
tornadoeS aud flooding rains which were so irc-
qucnt in the western states during the month
of May, have been repeated in the east during
the present mouth, though with considerably
less violence
The destruction of property by these lorna
does and by the floods has been immense. In
some villages of Illinois, one or more members
of every family were hurt, by the overthrow of
wooden buildings or brick chimneyS the up
roofing Of trees or the whirWind violence Of
these tornad0cs The floods, where they do
not float away property, leave everything but
the earth and its products pretty much as they
were before but the effect Of them upon the
crops of the present year is rujnouS, though the
richness Of the alluvial deposits may help to
make up for it hereafter. The Ohio last week
at Cairo was forty-one feet above the point
established by the engineers Of the Cairo AMI
Illinois Central Companies as the line OF Ordln-
ary low water mark, and was within foot Of
the grade of the IcyccS The crcyasses of the
Mississippi have, in some instance, relieved the
flooded banks Of that immense river but the
flooding of the bottom lands has been more de-
trimental than the Submcrgence of Il few towns
along the banks. The total loss by the floods
is simply incaculablc.
1t is clear that these excessive quantities Of
rain and other atmospheric irregularities orig
mate in causes beyond the regions where they
occur, and even beyond the Continent itself
II hIlICI Ih INC IIidGEiVhlb -f"''H -t"t| t'HI
coniectures that the southern hemisphere or
the opposite half Of the northern hemisphere,
will be found to have suffered a deficiency of
rain corresponding to our excess, and that
the excessive heat reported as prevailing in
Australia, remotely, if not directly, Influenced
the supply of this part of the earth with an
excess of moisture eyaporated from the south
ern seas. Whether this conjecture is well
founded or not, experience enables US to assert
that such violent irregularities in atmospheric
conditions do not occur at more frequent inter
walls than once in twenty years, and it is not
entirely a matter Of conjecture that they cor.
respond in some sense to those violent changes
in the human system, which, though disagree
able at the time, nevertheless prevent the ac-
cess of some destructive disease, or work out
the conditions of some future good.