The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-02-08

Our February Thaw-A Disastrous
Breaking Up or . Rough Winter
So Far Escaped.
Under the general thaw of the last five or
SIX days the snow has been disappearing from
the fields, and tho ice has been softening,
breaking up and floating of in our tdewater
rivers. We were apprehensive, when the rain
storm set in here yesterday morning, that it
was perhaps another of those extensive nor
casters which, sweeping in upon the land from
inc uuif OF Mexico, cover all the country from
tho Gulf to the great lakes, and from the
trough Of the Mississippi River TO the Atlantic
Ocean f; and, if So we might with reason fear
general breaking up of our frozen rivers in
heavy and disastrous foundations of ice and
water East and West 1t appears. however,
from the reports of the Signal Service Bureau
that our storm Of yesterday was comparatively
a small affair, extending from North Carolina
northward and hardly reaching beyond the
Aleghanies westward; for the day before it
came and on the day it was prevailing here
strong westerly or northerly winds and clear
or clearing weather were reported from the
Western and Southwestern States
These facts encourage US to hope that the
breaking up of our frozen rivers may be SO
gradually Effected in successive gentle thaws
and light rains, with frosty spells of weather
intervening, as to result in no serious disas-
ters from foundations, East or West We
still think it likely that this late storm is bring
ing down from the mountains that general
swelling Of the streams which may be fol-
lowed by damages to property and damages to
human life in the breaking up of the Potomac,
the Susquehanna, the Delaware, the Mohawk
and Upper Hudson and the Connecticut. The
great danger, especially feared, is from rise
In the Susquehanna, which, in dislodging and
setting adrift the enormous ice gorges at va
rious points in the lower river, from Harris
burg to Chesapeake Bay, will sweep away
bridges, mills houses, villages and every
thing in its course on the immediate bottom
lands Of the stream. The oldest raftsmen on
the river say they have never known it to be
so gorged with such alarming accommodations
of ice in all their recollections of thirty forty
or fifty years. The danger, therefore, is posi-
tive, imminent and fearful to contemplate;
but then gradual unlocking of the frozen
gates and barriers of the river may open the
way for the passage of its ice drifts to the salt
water without serious consequences to life or
property. We hope to hear, during this day,
that the Susquehenna has been unlocked,
but that from the comparatively light food
ing of the river, its vast accumulations of ice
are floating down hsrmlessly to the bay.
But the most destructive food recorded of
the Susquehanna has been but bagatelle in
its damages compared with those tremendous
Spring foundations of the Ohio which have
occasionally swollen the river to q level as high
as sixty feet above extreme low water mark
Is such an inundation now to be feared in the
Ohio? We are encouraged to hope that this
season it will not come. The freshets from
these February rains and thaws in such south
ern tributaries Of the Ohio as the Monongahela
and the Great Kanawha may reopen the river
through its whole course from Pittsburg, but
while the Allegheny and other northern
branches remain sealed up we expect there
will be no disastrous inundation of the imme-
uAoV0 OAO voAcy. TIOW TIC IopOEtS DeIOre
us we judge that these late rains and thaws
have operated so gently upon the tributaries
which enter the Ohio from the south as to repel
the idea of rushing inundation. On the
other hand they will probably carry off so
much of the Winters surplus of ice and snow
in the Alleghanies as to secure the main river
against any extraordinary freshet, even in the
event Of a continual thaw eliminating in
general rain storm later in the season.
So far the prospect of q general breaking up
of our rough Winter, with its enormous sup
plies of snow and rain, is encouraging If
we are given now another lucid interval of
only two or three days of westerly winds and
frosty skies we shall be prepared for another
February thaw, without fear of the con-
sequences. What we desire is the unsealine
of our ice-bound rivers-not in q general
dsluge, but in what we may call gradual
approaches, or broken doses and such we
can only hope will be our transition epoch
this time from the SHOWS of Winter to the
blossoms of Spring.