Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1875-10-08
The Flood at IndianOla, Tex.

The New Orleans Bulletin of Sept. %
gives the following particulars OF the ter
rible effects of the inundation at indian
ola:
Thursday at ten m. the wind was
blowing fearfully, the water still coming
in higher, and in two hours rose six feet,
submerging most of the town. The alarm
spread like wildfire Those who had boats
were plying about in the waves taking
women and children to places of fancied
security. Families were sent up to the
highest portions of the dwellings, house
hold goods were confusedly hurried into
garrets and the whole town was one scene
Of terror.
There were no means of leaving the
town and so all had to secure themselves
as best they could. Midnight Thursday a
heavy current set in, running through the
town, and then commenced the dull crash
on all sides of falling houses. The water
by this time had reached point covering
the whole place fully six feet
Looking out, nothing could be seen ex-
cept housetops and the white foam on the
heavy rollers. With every crash, above
the screaming of the wind and the roar of
the waters, could be heard the wall of
despair from drowning women and chill
dren.
Frantically clinging to the remnants OF
the wrecks, mothers with children IN their
arms vainly implored for help when all
around were unable to render any. The
scene beggared description. Strong men,
overcome with emotion, wept like chill
dren, and some wanted to rush forth to
certain death rather than suffer to see the
victims perishing before their eyes whilst
they were powerless to render assistance.
Not an eye was closed that night in
Indianola The loud splash and cracking
of timbers proclaimed another house gone
| and the sound was echoed by piercing
| screams. ~f
About daylight Friday morning the
wind lulled and the water fell as rapidly
as it had risen, and by noon it was posi-
BILE for people to get about in the higher
portions of the town.
The severity of the damage done was
then fully appreciated. Not house in
the place but showed evidence of
the gale. Squares completely vacant,
stores and houses having been carried off
by the current, leaving only the founda-
ton to mark the spot where once they
stood.
AS soon as the citizens were able to get
in peril. Those confined in the upper
stories of the dangerous buildings were
taken out and the corpses caught by fall
ing timbers rem owed. 1t was sad work,
and nobly did the people respond to the
call for duty. 1t was then that the most
| heart-rending scenes were met. Here a
little girl, almost nude, wading in the
water in search of father, mother and SIS
tiers, whose bodies lay bleaching on the
sand, miles distant; there, old men, pale
with emotion, looked for their grandchil-
| dren whose prattling voices were forever
sti1Ied by the treacherous waters.
No pen could portray the sad picture of
| Friday at Indianola. A town of 3 900 in
habitants under water for twelve hours,
with $50 of their number suddenly strick-
en- down, could not but tear-stain the pa
| per and make the hand of the chronicler
! tremble
Up to Monday evening last ninety
| bodies had been recovered and given
| Christian burial. As there were no coffins
left after the storm in Indianola, friends
| of the deceased were forced to devise from
dry-goods boxes, in fact from everything,
covering for those who died. Fathers
bore to their last resting place the flowers
| of their family flock, and alone buried
luOS6 VIM were u6dTcr 10 tnem imam llIc
itself; husbands laid away beneath the
sands the remains of wives, children and
| fathers.
Singular to say, most of the bodies were
| not found in the town. The tremendous
current swept even many of those who
were caught beneath fallen buildings, and
| carried them back to the lake in the rear
of Indianola. Along the shores of this
could be seen, protruding through the
| sand, almost buried, the arms or heads of
the victims. 1t was next to impossible to
| recognize single one.
The action of the waters and waves had
been such as in cases to completely be-
head the drowned. The last remnant of
clothing was torn from them, and only in
cases where a bracelet or lingering re-
manned could friends identify the lost. 1t
would seem almost as though the demon
of cruelty had been at work. Headless
trunks, armless bodies, all were scattered
| about on the beach, memorials of the
| storms dreadful work