Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Iowa) 1861-1864, 1864-04-14
Gss yntelligenttr.


March IL, 1864.
AT little before midnight of Fri.
day last one of those terrific disasters
to which nearly all the great towns in
the north of England are more or less
exposed happened at Sheffield The
The great reservoir of the Sheffield
water company-a reservoir nearly
one hundred acres in extent, and which
had more than million cubic feet of
water, suddenly burst it's embark.
ment and swept with fury of another
Deluge down the narrow gorge form.
ed by the Loxley and Stannington hills
into Sheffield itself. Almost before
warning could be given the volumes
OF water began rushing headIong down
the valley, sweeping farms and hous.
es, forges and factories like chaff be-
fore 1t. Never, probably. before has
an accident of the same kind occurred
80 ruinous in its wholesale destruction
OF property, so lamentably fatal in the
loss OF human life. Whatever the
sudden and tremendous food could
reach 1T seemed to have DESTROYED.
1t Is estimated that the loss of life will
exceed $50, and that the value of the
property destroyed exceeds half a mil.
lion. From Bradfield where the res.
ervoir burst, down the course of the
river for twelve or fourteen miles the
country is laid waste. The embark
ment, which crossed the end of the
valley, was an enormous erection. with
an average height Of eighty.five feet
and forty feet in thickness. It was
three hundred yards long. Between
Matlock and HillsborougG, distance
OF tour miles, the greatest loss of life
has been caused. Within this tract
whole rows of houses have been swept
entirely away, in three of which alone
there were 25 lives lost. In the oppo-
site row the whole of the Inhabitants
were drowned, and scarcely any of
their bodies have been discovered. The
flood seems to have swept off every.
thing before it, from the confluence of
tue Loxley and the Revilla, to the
Don. Between Wardsend and Shelf
held, on the Don, the bodies were seen
lying in the mills and mud and ruins
There were fourteen in one place, ten
IN another, and thirteen in third. At
Neepsend 900 acres of gardens were
devastated, and whole families were
swept away. An official report just
received, states that one hundred and
fifty six dead bodies have been recov-
cred seventy have been identified :;
large numbers are not yet found.
Bodies have been discovered as far
down the river as Doncaster. Along
the banks OF the river, between that
town and Sheffield, the scene of the in
nndation was visited by vast crowds
on Sunday the police and strong
military guard acted for the maiute-
nance of order and the security of
property. A movement for gene ra
subscription was immediately com.
menced, and meeting will be held
Tomorrow. The inhabitants of the
submerged districts have lost every
thing, and an appeal for instant help
will be made hundreds have nothing
left OF their property but their night
dresses. The inquests were opened |
on Saturday night. aud then adjourn
ed for ten days. There were then
ninety bodies in the workhouse, and
the coroner said he had been informed
there had been nearly two hundred
found. He referred to a statement,
which is generally made and believed,
that, in consequence of the dangerous
state OF the reservoir, warning was
sent to the inhabitants of the valley
as far as Darnfask, and that only a
few lives were lost there, but that the
warning was not sent to the thickly
peopled districts below.