Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-03-31
TERRIBLE CALAmITYAT SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND.
Two Hundred and Fifty Lives Lost by
the Bursting of a Water-ReseryOir.
From tho London Times, March ISL

from tho London Times March 1871
At a little before midnight on Friday last
one ofthose terrific disasters to which near
! lyall the great towns in the north of Eng
land are more or less exposed happened at
Sheffield. The great reservoir of the Shelf
field Water COmpany-a reservoir nearly
100 acres in extent, and which held more
than million cubic feet of water, suddenly
burst its embankment and swept with the
fury of another Deluge down the narrow
gorge formed by the LoXley and Stunning
ton Hills into Sheffield itself. Almost be-
fore warning could be given the volume of
valley, sweeping farms and houses, forges
and factories, like chaff before it. Never,
probably, before has an accidentof the same
kind occurred SO ruinous in its wholesale
destruction of property, so lamentably f;l-
tai in the loss of human life. Whatever the
sudden and tremendous flood could reach
it seems to have destroyed, and, calculating
only by the number of houses swept away
and the persons missing who were known
to have been in them on that fatal night,
there Is every reason to fear that the lives
sacrificed by this awful calamity will not be
less than 200, If they do not unfortunately
exceed even that number. OF the damage
done to property it is impossible at this ear
ly date to form even a conjecture. The de-
vastaton is unparalleled. A large, popu-
lous and thriving district has been almost
obliterated from the earth, scarce more than
traces of the houses and factories that once
stood there now remaining. The Don, ow-
ing to late heavy rains, was unusually high,
and the additional water thrown into it has
laid hundreds of acres under water, and in
flicted incalculable injury to the growing
b. crops. OF the destructive character of the
: flood Ettere were abundant evidences on
every hand, Timber in large quantities,
bed-posts. tcather-beds, tables, clocks, and
various kinds of household furniture passed
down, and several carcasses of cattle also.
Large numbers of people have lined the
rivers banks all day, but it is now evident
that the greatest volume of water has pass
, ed by, and further damage here is not ap-
pretended. The water is very thickly i'm
pregnated with mud-a proof that it must
have swept with terrific violence over the
land adjoining the river. Fish, pike in par
ticular, have been left in large quantities on
land from which the water has subsidized.
LATER.-Every additional inquiry made
into the circumstances of this appalling
calamity, shows that it has been much more
disastrous than was at first anticipated. It
is now estimated that the loss Of life will
exceed two hundred and fifty. and that the
value of the property destroyed exceeds half
million. From Bradfeld, where the reser-
vOir burst, down the course of the rivers
for twelve or fourteen miles the country is
laid waste. The reservoir covered an area
q OF seventy-six acres, and would hold 114,-
100000 cubic feet of water. The embank-
ment which crossed the end of the valley,
was an enormous erection, with an aver
age height of eight-five feet, and forty feet
in thickness. 1t was three hundred yards
Rot op1 hnr ,ul
adistance of four miles, the greatest loss of
life has been caused. Within this tract
whole rows of houses have been swept en-
tirely away, in three of which alone there
were twenty-five lives lost. In the Op-
poste row the whole of the inhabitants
were drowned and scarcely any of their
bodies have been discovered. The flood
seems to have swept off everything before
1t, from the confluence of the Loxley and
the Revilin to the Don. Between Wardsend
and Sheffield on the Don, the bodies were
seen lying in the mills and the mud and
ruins. There were fourteen in one place,
ten in another, and thirteen in third. At
Neepsend 900 acres of gardens were devas-
tated, and whole families were swept away.
An official report just received states that
one hundred and fifty-six dead bodies have
been already recovered; 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 inundatiOn was
visited byvast crowdson Sunday; the police
and strong military guard acted for. the
maintenance of order and the security of
property. A movement for general sub
scription was Immediately commenced, and
meeting will be held tomorrow. The in
habitants of the submerged districts have
lost everything, and an appeal for instant
help will be made; hundreds have nothing
left of their property but their night dress
es. The inquests were opened on Saturday
night, and then adjourned for ten days
Therewere then ninety bodies in the work.
house, and the coroner said he had been in
formed there had been nearly 200 found
He referred to statement, which is gener-
ally 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 Darnflask, and that only
few lives were lost there, but that the warn
ing was not sent to the thickly peopled dis
trictS below W A - ~