The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-05-22
Tremendous Fury of the Flood.

VI DO4ic VI tDSAA was thC1S
ing of the peril which, back of them OF
the hills, was sweeping down, bearing
ruin, destruction and death. Not until
the tremendous bore thirty feet high ant
of the width of the valley, throwing uI
spray like smoke and bearing grea
mass of timber, earth and stone in it
teeth, was in sight and fairly hoverins
over them did they fairly appreheno
their danger. Looking up at it then in
the horrible moment of agony that was
left them there was no escape. Toward
the coming food there was no possible
outlet. Only death in that direction
On either side toward the hills-oh, sc
far away-they looked in vain. The hill
of waters fianked them, and hope on eth.
er side was cut off. Down the valley
there was no chance for the heetest rider
TO outrun the hungry monster that came
roaring after. 1t was a moment of dead
liest terror. Hemmed in, surrounded
overwhelmed, what could they do? There
was nothing left but to raise white faces
and imploring hands to heaven, and to
Gods mercy leave their fate.
The great, CHASTITY horror of that dawn
shrink from contemplating. The
shrieks of women and children, the dumb
helpless CONSERVATION of strong men,
the roar of the rushing waters, the crash
of timbers, the writhing, gurgling, and
drowning of the victims as they were
seized up, whirled onward, crushed, and
swallowed up in the food beggar .des-
cription. Here was no slowly rising
stream, driving its victims inch by inch
from floor to floor till they waited on
the roof to be delivered from the en-
croaching tide; nor was it a confagration
driving the terror-stricken inhabitants
from house to house and from street to
street until it had laid city in ashes.
These are calamities which, appalling
though they be, give at least sign OF
warning and a chance to escape. But
here was village that woke with over
whelming destruction on its head that
left them hardly time to pray before it
swallowed them up in very hurly bur-
" of death. The water they had stored
up and held back that it might turn
their wheels and do their bidding, had
risen against its masters, and with the
angry roar of an ipsurgent mob had come
down upon them without any thought
of mercy.
And the tremendous power ofthis vast
volume of water can hardly be conceiv-
ed. The great stones in the dam and in
the foundations of buildings were tossed
about by it like pebbles. 1t seized deep
rooted trees and whirled them out ofthe
ground as man might firt half
planted scrub from its place. 1t plunged
against massive walls, and, as they tott-
cred and fell, it caught great blocks of
masonry and flung them far and wide in
the track ofits fury. 1t tburrowed under
the heavy boilers that with derricks and
jack-screws and heavy machinery had
been slowly and laboriously set in their
places; it tossed them up like feathers,
and, using them as battering-rams car
ried them aloft in its arms with great
sweep of destruction and death as it went.
Itlifted buildings from their foundations,
and, crushing them together, scattered
their fragments, iron and mortar and
brick and stone, all through the fair
Valley it trayersed. The boarding
houses of the operatives and the resi-
dences of the capitalists, it plucked up
and whirled together in a drifting, I'M
distinguishable mass. 1t gathered rein
forcements for its work as it swept along,
it took bridges in its arms and dashed
them down upon other bridges, crushing
and destroying them, it rolled before it
and on its great curling front large blocks
of stone, masses of timber and iron, which
it seemed to handle as weapons of de-
struction, dashing them down upon
whatever stood in its path.
A more awful spectacle than that of
this devouring wave, thirty feet high,
with streamers of spray above it, and all
the tokens of the death and destruction
1t had caused plunging along with it, and
with the roar of an earthquake accom-
panying it, could hardly be imagined.
Its work in Williamsburg, the first vii
lage it struck, was quickly done. Lying
there in the narrow valley, the food fair
ly lifted up that part of it which lay in
its track and bounced it in air. From
the point where it first struck the south
eastern portion of the village it made
almost clean sweep.
With all the gathered debris of its first
capture, great mass of floating timber
and trees, fragments of buildings and
bridges, and helpless human beings, |
struggling and drowning in the midst,
the food rushed on to Skinnerviile,
where SINNERS large silk mill, with the |
boarding and dwelling-houses connected
with it, were lifted up bodily and swept |
away. At Haydenville, mile further
down, the brass works of Hayden, Gere
& Co., with their Office and the Savings
bank, were swept away, and the dwell
ing-houses on both sides of the main
street either carried offor totally wreck
ed. Besides these the Diamond Tobac-
20 works, a cotton mill, and several 9TH
er manufacturing establishments were
destroyed. The savings bank contained
funds to the amount of some $4o0, 900 or
100000.
The food struck the village of Leeds a
little before 6o'clock, and the havoc done
here was pot less than In the other places.