The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1865-03-24
The Spring Freshet.
Immense Damage Done.

There was great freshet about the
country Friday and Saturday of last week.
At Springfield, Mass, the wafer rose to
IS feet above low wafer mark. The
freshet of 1865 is thus placed among the
great ones there is on record The figures
of previous trcshets will be Interesting in
comparison: May l, 1854, % feet, 1
inches (the greatest recorded; August II,
1856, IS feet, 9 inches; March 20, 1859,
20 feet, 6 inches; April 20. 1862, %
feet, inches, IIampdcn Park being flood
ed by the last mentioned
The Springfield Republican of Saturday
says: The ice above the Holyoke dam,
contrary to the precedent Of previous
years, was onl y a day behind that below
the dam in breaking up. The operation
began early yesterday morning, and about
Q clock huge cakes of ice were thrown
one by one upon the railroad track. by
the immense pressure Of the water This
continued for some time, until the ice lin
ed the track for Il distance of threc-quar-
tiers of a mile, and in one place was piled
up in great glittcring cakes to hight of
twenty feet. This and the beautiful spec
tacc Of the ice passing over the dam at
tracted large number of interested OBJ
servers. None of the ice reached this
city till half past in the afternoon. and
the river, which had been almost clear
before, was then quickly covered and
crowded with it. SMch an immense sea
of floating ice has rarely, if ever, been
seen here before. This great smashing.
chatting mass continued to rush down until
O'Clock, when the river began to grow
clear again. 1t was grand sight, and
many people went to See it.
The flood caused more than inconven-
fence III Berkshire county, the mountain
streams filling up and overlooking so sud
denly as to sweep away dams and do 9TH
er damage which it will take thousands of
dollars to repair Not for thirty years at
least has such freshet been known
Highways and railroads in many places
are flooded; dams and bridges which have
not already been taken off are endangered
and much excitement prevails.
At Hartford the river rose steadily all
day Saturday and Sunday. The entire
lower part of the city is flooded, but many
OF the inhabitants, who are OF the poorer
class, still live in their houses, going to
and from them in boats. The freight de-
pot of the Hartford and New Haven rail-
road being covered with water
Great damage was done to the New
York Central railroad, especially in the
vicinity of Fonda, where three or four
miles OF the track have been washed
away. The damages, however, extend
over about 100 miles of the road. There
are several brakes between Hornellesville
and Dunkirk. Telegraphing to points
west OF Fonda connot be resumed before
Monday or Tuesday morning No dam
age or detention is reported on the Harlem
OF Susquehama railroads.
The Central railroad bridge at Roch-
ester was swept away on Friday night,
AID it was reported that four men were
drowned thereby. The water was three
} feet deep in the Arcade building at Roch.
ester, preventing all ingress or egress, and
all the lower portion of Rochester was I'M
der water. The damage will be enormous.
There Is no communication from one part
Of the city to another. The papers were
unable to publish on Saturday, the water
having extinguished the fires nnder their
engines
AT Utica the water was three feet high
Ell than ever before. The gas works were
flooded, and an iron bridge over the river
was carried away
The damage done by the food in Penn
sylvania on the Susquehanna and Juniata
rivers and upon the Cumberland Valley
and Northern Central railroads has been
very great. The Susquehanna river a,
: Harrisburg has been - inches higher than
In the great flood of 1916, and the lower
part Of the city was completely inundated
railroad communication between Harris.
burg and Pittsburg and Philadelphia was
completely interrupted. The bridges all
along the Susquehanna river were swept
away together with dwelling houses, store
houses, barns, saw mills and thousands of
logs and millions of feet of lumber. A