The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1870-10-04

The DfsasfrOus Inundntions IN vhr2nsW'
The additional details which we publish this
morning, in connection with our reports OF the
last three days, Of the late unparalleled mum
dations Of the beautiful valleys Of the Virginia
rivers, from the James to the Potomac and the
Shenandoah, give us distressing exhibit Of
the losses of life and property involved. The
bulk OF the wealth OF the State, agricultural
and manufacturing, is in the flats or bottom
lands Of those river valleys which, between
the mountains or hills on each side, vary from
a half mile to four or five miles in width.
These bottom lands of the main Shenandoah
river and It's branches, for example, are some
eight or ten feet above the ordinary summer
level of the stream, and almost every spring
and autumn this banks are filed to overflow
ing. But when, as in this late terrible equi-
noctal, the drainage of the mountains over an
area of twenty or thirty thousand square
miles, from rainfall Of two days, equal to
one-fourth the average rainfall of whole
year, is poured down into these rivers, the
only wonder is that so many people OF those
narrow valleys escaped from the very jaws OF
destruction, and that so few, with the des-
perate chances in their favor, were drowned
The heaviest losses Of property from this
unprecedented October food (and food early
in October is annually looked for from Mary
land to the Csrolinas) have been in the valley
of tho James river, between Lynchburg and
Richmond, in the sweeping away OF or
damages to -four mills and factories with their
contents, bridges, canal entertainments, crops,
fences, houses, live stock, aud so forth. In
the Shenandoah valley, however, where they
have had an unexampled wheat crop in guam
tity and quality, and heevy hay crop, the
losses of the farmers and millers have been
immense; for their wheat was mainly in the
mills which have been swept away, together
with their hay stacks in the river bottoms.
Sheridan's terrible raid up that valley during
the war, in which two thousand barns and
scores of mills, with their contents, were
burned, and all the live stock within his reach
was taken away, was hardly more destructive
than this disastrous inundation to the beauti-
full but unfortunate Shenandoah valley.
Ho uuu cuuCiih6 ehAo
resulting to the State would, however, be com
paratively easy to bear, if limited to the val
leys of the James and the Shenandoah. But
the disaster has extended to all the rivers Of
Virginia, more or less, and it may be that q
misfortune so general and so heavy will require
some relief from other quarters IF SO, we
are sure that the rich and generous city Of
New York will, as usual, in all cases where
suffering community calls for aid, be the first
to extend her liberal helping hand. The
people Of Virginia, in their heroic efforts to
recover from their prostration by the war,
have commanded the general admiration of
the North. Yet it has so happened in the mys
terious dispensations of Providence that at
the very time when those self-reliant people
were congratulating themselves that they were
fairly on their feet again this heavy disaster
has come upon them. But let them not be
discouraged, and II the destitution calling for
immediate relief resulting from these ruinous
foods is more than they can meet, let the
facts be known and relief will he given from
New York and the North to our brethren re-
stored again to the family altar of the Unlon.