Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1861-02-15
TcrrIbIe Inumda1Ion i'm holland,

A correspondent Of the London Daily
NeVS, writing from Rotterdam on the 18th
Of January, describes terrible inundation
which had occurred in Holland:
"Iu the beginning of January it was OBJ
served that the vast accumulations of snow
in this district was causing the rise OF the
river to dangerous extent. With anxiety
and dread the inhabitants watched the daily
increase Of the invading waters, now laden
with immense masses OF ice, and strenuous
ly exerted themselves to strengthen the re-
sistance offered by those artificial barriers,
by which alone Holland is preserved from
total submersion. But still the food rose,
and the ice-masses formed themselves, as it
were, into hugo batterng-rams, pressing
with .heir irresistible strength against the
dikes and dams. The sound of the church
bell, clear aud OMNIBUS in the frosty air,
kept telling the sad tale Of imminent dan
ger, and warning all who could labor to aid
in the good cause and those who could not
TO prepair for the worst. Higher and high
er rose the waters, and soon the surface of
the ponderous shifting emass stood within
half an inch of the dike-level. Good God
should it rise that halfinch higher, their
cottages, their cattle, their provisions, their
all would become n prey to the unsparing
havoc! Then rose to heaven many pray
er for hclp-for mercy! AT la,ta bulgiug
out in the dixie directed the anxious gaze
Of all TO one spot-for the waters were press
ing hard upon it. With the strength and
energy of despair they tried to stay the pro-
gress of tho flood as it sought egress from
its narrow channel into their fields and
dwellings. Xerxes as well tried to bind
the ocean in chains.
"Suddenly the dixie yielded, and the wa
ters poured through-tbe ice-masses and
the food rose above it, and swept on in their
terrific course, submerging fields, barns and
cottages, drowning the cattle, destroying ALL
The aged and the sick, the women and chill
dren, sought refuge in their altics, where
benumbed with cold, without bedding
clothes, fire or provisions, they had to pas,
days of inexpressibIe terror-of horrible
starvation. For long time it was impossi
ble to approach them, and it is feared ma
ny cottage has been swept away in the
| flood, and its inhabitants frozen to death or
the ice-masses. One family of seven per
sons was rescued from the attic in which
they had sought shelter, so thoroughly ex-
hausted by cold and hunger that they could
not even answer the questions Of their de
liverers. A poor mother with her infant, tc
which she had given premature birth, wa'
living in bed in the bleak attic of her home
ly dwelling, while her husband, from an ap,
erture in the roof, sought, by cries and sig
nails, to attract tho attention of few brave
men, at the imminent risk of thor lives
were endeavoring to make theirway between
the ice-hlocks in order to rescue some o
their perishing fellow creatures from des
truction. They went TO the poor-fellowi
help, descended into the attic through the
aperture in the roof, through which they re
turned, bringing with them the mother anC
her babe. 1t was time, for the waters haC
already risen to within two inches of he
bed.
Gas write, fresh intelligence arrives from
the inundated districts detailing additiona
scenes of wretcbedness-people dying from
hunger and cold; their houses cut away By
the ice, as corn is mown down by the hsr
vesters scythe; a church which has stooC
hundreds of years swept down, as puff O
wind sweeps down house of cards; and thu
prospect is even yet more fearful. HOLLAND
has often suffered much from inundatons
but never within the memory of living maj
has an inundation been accompanied witt
so much distress and destruction-with S
much heartrending grief and despair"