Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1870-10-05
Great Hood i'm virginia.

The greatest flood for 35 years is now rag
ing in the Shenandoah river The damage
to property at Harper's Ferry is immense.
Twenty buildings, mostly large stone and
brick edlfices, have been swept away, and 40
persons in this vicinity alone have been
drowned, and the lives of as many more
placed in imminent danger. Shenandoah
city, mile above the Ferry, is entirely gone.
Nearly all the families of the island are still
in their houses, and no rescue can reach
them. Some of the houses will doubtless
stand. The Winchester railway trestles are
completely gone, and the bridges are de-
stroyed as far up as Shenandoah Valley
| At Richmond, Oct. I'd, at midnight, the
river was still rising and invading still fur
ther the lower part of the city Hundreds
of persons were busy carrying off the fur
niture from the houses about to be swept
away. In front of the st. Charles Hotel,
about in the center of the city, is anchored
schooner. Her crew pull off In boats as
regularly as If at sea. In the lower part OF
the city the only object of attention was q
single gas lamp still burning, though within
few inches of being submerged.
The Richmond and Petersburg R. r. has
put on their road four times the usual num-
Der of cars to accommodate Southern travel
The food on the North Anna river is the
highest since 1907 The families of Mr.
Jennings and Mr.. Miller, whose houses were
washed away, numbered in all five persons.
A young lady of the Jennings family chung
to tree forty-eight hours, but was washed
away and drowned. Her death was wit
mes sed by a crowd on the other bank of the
river, but there were no boats near by which
shs night ha{s s been rescued EDS On the Ma
and South Shenandoah river are gone.
A later dispatch from Harper's Ferry says
| By the rising of the water on Saturday, A
| lives were lost The entire town is a waste
of waters and no vestige of human life can
be seen. The methods of escape were won
derGul and it is a marvel that hundreds oil
lives were not lost instead of the compare
lively few recorded. No idea of the amount
of injury inflicted on property can yet be
estimated, but everything perishable is des-
troyed. The flood came on with such fearful
rapidity that no one could take the slightest
precaution. 1t seemed but moment after
the first rush that the city was seething
gulf of waters. Instantly houses of the
strongest kind were whipped from their
foundations like pipe-stems and whIrled bod
lily down the stream, laden with their hor-
rOr-strieken owners. House alter house
| suecumbed to the torrent, and went dashlng
into the stream amid the fearful shrieks o.
their occupants, while the sudden extinguish-
ment of lights, and the floating away of &
dark mass of debris, told too painfully the
story of death All that brave hearts could
do was done to save the unfortunate families
almost doomed to certain destruction. Tit
machine shop, owned by Werngag, was the
last building that fell, which was about Il
O'Clock on the morning of the LIST inst. Mr.
Wernwag was in the building, three-storJ
one, at the time it fell. Through the wrecl
that was rapidly floating down, he was seer
coming out. Just above the falls, below
Harper's Ferry bridge, he was seen to cling
consciously to his frail raft; but, after pass
ing through few of the dashing waves IL
the falls, was lost to sight, while the raj
was plainly visible. Incredible as it MAJ
seem, he was seen near Berlin, followed by
boatman named I. Leopold, and rescued
about ID miles below that village. HI
was soon resuscitated and was found to b
but slightly injured. The trestle-work am
bridges on the Winchester and Potomac Rail
road, running through Harper's Ferry, ar
completely swept away The bent and broker
, iron rails tell the power of the mighty flood
! Even the stone abutments of the old Shen
andoah bridge have been washed away.
The water rose TO within few feet of tn
large iron bridge connecting Maryland ant
Virginia, over the Potomac at Harper's Fer
~, inundating the lower floors of the hOte
The number OF mills ana dams dcstroye
is about fifty. The freshet was confne
within the radius Of the upper valley {
Virginia The food was so great that
carried cattle and hogs before 1t like so man
chips of wood it was particularly sever
along the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad
5 About a dozen land slides occurred betwee
a Gotham and MillborOugh, and eight or te
: bridges were swept away. The road is dam
aged TO the extent of 100000.
At the MOuntain-TOp House, on the sum
NIT of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the kitche
was flooded with water.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad has suc
tanned no damage to bridges or the track o
the main line BY the floods, and the passer
ger and freight trains are running regularl
and on time to Wheeling, Parkersburgh an
the west, and also to Washington city.
The accounts coming in from the count
9 of Albemarle from the towns of Alton an
= Greenwood. represent the destruction
: property from the food as immense. Man
> lives have been lost in that vicinity. tt
food in some instances swept away entir
families. The number of lives lost in Alb,
!, marie county, as far as heard from, is Il
The amount of destruction of grain, tobace,
barns, cattle, hogs, houses, and mills, is il
: calculable.
RICHMOND, Oct 3--The rise of the wat,
has ceased and the flood is slowly subsidin,
The city is in almost as bad a plight as
u 1865. when Gen. Grants army entered. II
entire lower portion of the town has bee
Z untenable since Saturday, and the create
{ distress prevails among the people drive
. from their homes. In the business part
the city the damage is estimated at 81 200
Z GOO. not counting the time lost in gettiI
things to rights again. There is no mo
mischief feared, as the waters are recediI
quite as rapidly as they rose.
Communication throughout the city
still carried on mainly by improvised ferrie
the second and third stories, and in some i
stances the attics, affording wharfage. Cast
Thunder caught fire on Saturday by the u
Stacking of an immense quantity of liz
which was stored there, and but for the co
slant fall and rise of waters the who
central part of the city must have been co
re sumed. Salt in immense amounts stored
le the vicinity of the Rockets has been wash
he away, and the city is veritably saltle
There is no prospect of gas for days, provid
r -. :l~t aha rain has entirely ceased.
addition to the horrors OF destfuclIOn, InS
"A were serious fears of flour famine, all
:. mills for miles around being destroyed, q
the -four stored in the city being swamp
n with the first rush of the waters. In eve
~ street and alley piles of furniture and hou
m hold stuff are lying awaiting means of tral
- portation. The record of death is not
y large as at first apprehended. Seven peol
Is are known to have been drowned, and so
he tho were missing have since returned af
At wonderful escapes.
of