Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-10-05
THE FLOOD IN VIRGINIA..

The late rains have caused a great rise in
the rivers of Virginia and done immense
damage. The lower portion of Harper's Fer
ry was completely submerged. Many houses
have been carried away. Over fifty lives
have been lost and great numbers are without
Il possibility of help reaching them.
At Richmond there were four hundred stores
under seven feet of water. Between Eff
teenth and Eighteenth streets the street ears
stopped, and ferry boats run on all the main
streets. The Manchester end of Mayo street
bridge gave way and half of the bridge float
ed down the stream. All The wharves are
under water, and the York River Railroad de-
pot is completely submerged. Several small
manufacturing establishments along the river
bank have been swept off. The river has
been dotted with small houses, fences, dead
cattle, ETC., drifting down the stream. The
gasworks were also submerged
Several small stores have been swept off
with all their contents. Families who re-
manned in their houses hoping that the flood
would subside, had to be brought eff in boats,
while all their furniture was lost. Two hun
dred houseess families are camping out on
the neighboring hills. The Mayo passenger
bridge, quarter of a mile long, has been en-
tirely swept away. The water has entered
the Mayo tobacco warehouse, 80 feet above
low water mark. All the teams in the city
were impressed to save tobacco, much OF
which belongs to the French and German
Governments all but le0 hogsheads were
saved. The immense body of water rushing
through the canal endangered the upper part
of the city.
The loss in Richmond will reach 100000
and in the State will be four millions. All
cotton, iron and flour mills, employing four
thousand hands, have been compelled to stop
running, being so badly damaged that they
cannot be repaired for two weeks. All ice
houses in the city are twenty feet under water.
it being seven feet higher than ever was
known before.
The damage has been heavy in George
town. The streets bordering on the river are
filled with all sorts of goods, and persons in
boats are recovering them. Teams are en-
ployed in carrying barrels, bags OF guano and
all light merchandise to places of safety. Two
or three wharves have been swept away. The
debris of several canal locks have passed
down.
The chain bridge above Georgetown has
been washed away by food in the Potomac
river. Railroad travel between Washington
and Alexandria is suspended, owing to the
insecurity of the bridges across the river.
Several piers have been displaced. The
Orange and Alexandria, chesapeake and
Ohio, and the South Side consolidated rail-
roads are seriously injured nearly all of the
bridges have been carried away. Large
quantities of flour in barrels and other mer-
chandise have been recovered while floating
down the Potomac.
The long bridge has been damaged
About 600 feet of the causeway is entirely
swept away, and both spans nearest the south
draw are broken. Five or six hundred feet
of the Washington and Alexandria Railroad
track have been destroyed, and large por-
ton of the trestle work under the bridge has
been carried off.
The flood on the Rioanna river is the high
est 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 torty-eight hours, but was washed away
and drowned. Her death was witnessed by
crowd on the other bank of the river, but
there was no boat near by with which she
might have been rescued.
On Thursday, while James Rawson,
daughter and servant, and Robert Whitley,
wife and three children, and a colored woman
with three children, were standing on the
abutment of the canal bridge at Lynchburg,
waiting for boat to take them of, dredg-
ing machine broke loose from above, and
drifting against the abutment, carried it
away, with all on it, They were all drowned
On the Manassas Rallroadthe Drldge across
the North and South Shenandoah rivers are
gone. No information has been received
from beyond Sharpsburg. Many lives are
known to have been lost. The Baltimore and
Ohio railroad track above Harper's Ferry has
been swept away. Scottsville, in Albemarle
county, has been inundated and the destruc-
ton of property is very great. Eighteen
lives were lost.
Trains are running regularly between Alex
andria and Richmond.
A dispatch from Lynchburg estimates the
loss by the flood at 100000. The loss to the
Alexandria and Orange Railroad is $500, 600
dispatch from Harper's Ferry states that
the number of lives lost at that place by the
flood was AZ. Immense damage has been
done in the Valley of the Shenandoah All
is quiet on the Potomac above Harper's Ferry.
The rise and flood beyond that point is being
confined to the Shenandoah. The Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad track is uninjured.