The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-10-09
The Floods.

lhe long drought was broken on Sunday
last by a general flood along the Atlantic
slope from Maine to Virginia, and great
damage has been caused by the sudden
| overflow of the water courses. Numbers
of bridges have been carried away and rail
road travel much impeded. In Maine the
| lumbermen have lost millions of feet of logs.
Reports from New England state that the
storm was unparalleled in severity. In
| Concord every street was badly washed
and quilted. Nearly 100 feet of the bed OF
the Claremont Railroad is washed out, the
rails i'll some places sinking 10 feet. The
Contoocook Valley Railroad is washed out
| in five places. The Montreal road is also
reported in bad condition. Not bridge is
left in the town of Manchester, Connecti-
| cut. The loss to mills ct cetra, is esti-
mated at $500, 900; to roads and bridges,
| $50, 600. At norwich the streams were
higher than for many years at this season
and several railroad and highway bridges
have been carried away. The damage by
the flood in New Hampshire is estimated at
81, 100000 An cmbankment at Wilbra-
ham, on the Boston and Albany Railroad,
200 feet long and 20 feet high, with a stone
arch bridge, has been swept away, and the
Boston trains running west of Worcester
were stopped three days. The bridge over
the Piscataqua at Gotfstown, N. H., was
carried away, and John Leach, a resident
of that place, was drowned.
| From the State of New York the reports
Of damage by the food are fearful, bridges,
| mills and crops adjacent to streams are
| swept away. The Hudson River was IL
| feet above low-water mark. The loss OF
the West Troy lumbermen will reach 800,
| 600, and three persons are reported drown
cd at that city.
| The flood in the Schuylkill appears to
| have exceeded any previous freshet in that
river. The news from Moltown, Berks
county, report tremendous flood in Maiden
| Greek, one of the tributaries of the Schnyl-
| kill river, which destroyed stracked corn.
| fences, and movable property of every des-
cription. The freshet was higher by three
and half feet than was ever before known
i'll this section. The entire low country
bordering on the creek was submerged ten
feet. The Lehigh at Bethlehem rose 20
feet above low-water mark The beautiful
iron bridge opposite the Mansion House at
| Mauch Chunk was swept down the stream.
| The booms at White Haven were all washed
away, and great RATS oftimber tloated down.
| The loss to lumbermen at White Haven is
very heavy. The Lehigh Valley Railroad at
| CataSaqua is washed away. The Lehigh
and Susquehanna Railroad sustains the
heaviest damages, the track being washed
away at many points between White Haven
and Bethlehem. The canal is washed away
east of the town and the loss is great
Many of the collieries are drowned out
| The destruction on the Schuylkill at Phila-
| delphia in mills and other property bas been
immense. Between Philadelphia and Bal
| timoremOre there was very serious inter-
ruption of the railroad at a point about one
1 L. 3 I
| between the Bell road and the Lazaretto
station. On Monday after the II o'clock
train from Philadelphia, for Wilmington,
had passed down, at II. Is the water flooded
| the track. BY IL. Is when the noon train for
| Bait. and Washington reached Gray s Ferry
| its course was arrested by the report that the
| track was overlooked to Il dangerous ex-
tent. The engineer sent forward to exam
inc the road reported three feet of water
| above the rails, and as there are culvertS in
| this locality it was deemed unsafe to run
locomotive over them. After the water re-
coded it was found that the embankment
had been washed from beneath the rails,
but to what cntcnt we have not been able
| to ascertain, but we learn it will require
several days to repair the road. Since the
damage trains have been run through to
West Philadelphia via the Lamokin juno
| ton over the Chester Creek and West
Chester Railroads. This route requires
about an hour and quarter longer to run
| it.
The officers of the Philadelphia, Will
mington, and Baltimore Railroad declare
this be the most extensive flood that has
ever visited their line, much exceeding that
| of 1859. The streams along the line in this
State have been much swollen, but the
| track between Wilmington and Baltimore
has escaped injury. In Baltimore the flood
nearly equaled that of last year. The re-
porter of the ABserican describes the scene
thus, at ? o'clock on Sunday night" At
| two o clock the rain moderated somewhat,
but no visible indications were had that it
would cease entirely. By this time the
water from The Falls had completely cover
ed HARRISON street from Pratt street to
Gay, and Saratoga street from Saratoga to
midway between Holiday and North streets.
In Holiday it opposed entrance to the office
Of the Police and Fire Alarm Telegraph
| On Gay street it had reached to about 30
feet south of Frederick. On Fayette street
it had reached midway to Frederick; on
Baltimore to the clothing store of Smith
Brothers & Co., and on Second to near
Frederick street. Foundry and other
streets in that vicinity were also inundated,
water on Holiday street ftom Saratoga to
Foundry streets, reaching nearly to the
second stories of the Louses. Row boats
were now thought of, and detail of police
men were despatched in search of such to
Light street and other wharves. When
we left the intersection of Gay and Frede-
rick streets, hogsheads and dry goods box
es, large timberS and other debris were be-
ing whirled out of Saratoga street and
thence down HARRISON street, while per-
sons on Gay street called over the inter
vening sheet of water that the wreck of Il
bridge, fences, trunks of trees and other
matter were floating down i'll large quanti-
ties" The damage, though great, does
not equal that caused by the flood
last year, owing in part to the people being
on their guard and commenced saving their
property in time. Two of the bridges
across the Falls have been swept away and
immense damage and loss sustained by the
city as well as individuals On the Pataps-
co the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad has
again been considerably damaged.
In Washington and Georgetown great
damage was sustained by the flood. The
bridges on Rock Creek were swept away
with shanties, and everything that would
float, on its banks. Bladensburg was
flooded, the water rising higher than was
ever before known. The Chesapeake and
Ohio canal also sustained some injury.
The streams in our own immediate vicin-
ity were greatly swollen by the heavy rain,
and we hear that the Octoraro and Basin
Run swept away, or seriously damaged
some of the bridges over those streams
The p. e &. G. Railroad along Basin Run,
we have been informed, has sustained some
damage, but to what extent we have not
heard. The roads are badly washed, and
Supervisors are calling OH the Commissions
ers for funds to repair them.
The damage 10y the flood to railroad track
near Gray's Feerry, was repaired on Thurs
day so as to allow the trains to pass over 1t
Il low rate of speed.