Wilmington daily commercial., 1875-08-04
The Wonderful Floods.

ALL THE oIvIIIZED WORLD SOAKED AND DELuaE!
THE STORMS IN THE wEsT-THE FLOODS o
EUROPE.
The rains in the West have been cortinuou
for weeks, and now many of the rivera are over
flowing. Wheat in the shock is sprouting, an,
corn is being washed out. In Ohio, on the Mia
mi River bottom the water is sometimes up b,
the tassels Of immense fields of corn.
YESTERDAY, THE OHIO,
and Its tributaries continued to rise. At Chill
cothe the canal broke below the city, and 500t
bushels OF wheat were swept into the river. Al
Cincinnati, the lower stories of the houses alonl
Water street were flooded, and the river wal
still rising. The gas works at Athens, Ohio
were inundated, and the city WAS compelled tt
use candles. No trains arrived since Saturday
In Indiana, the flood in the Wabash river is the
highest ever known. The Wabash and Erie ca
nal between Lafayette and Fort Wayne is bro.
ken /" IN hundred places" In West Virginia
the town OF Pennington is almost submerged
and there Ia
GREAT DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY
between Wheeling and Grafton, on the line OF
tho Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Four bridges
on the Parkersburg branch OF that railroad have
been destroyed. 1t is estimated that 100000
worth OF logs, barrels, DC, have been swept
away by the flood at New Martinsville. Accord
ing to the Signal Service reports the flood in the
Ohio and Mississippi Valleys will increase to-
day. The loss by the recent nundations in Cen
tral Illinois is estimated at 81 1000, 600.
A correspondent Of the New York Times at
Columbus. O., telegraphed yesterday that while
the rains had not entirely ceased it was thought
that
THE HEIGHT OF THE FLOODS
had been reached, and tho waters will probably
now slowly settle. Their falling, however, does
not stay the damage to farmers products, and
only immediate and continuous sunshine would
repair the losses.
The excessive wet in the Ohio valley is shown
by reports of the July rainfall. The signal SER
vice puts it at 9G3 inches or nearlya quarter of
the yearly average. Mr.. 1. II. White, who sends
observations from Mt. Auburn, Ohio, to the
Smithsonian Institute, reports the fall at IL a46
inches. Marietta observer says that the total
rainfall during the month at that place was 1O.6
inches. Even the lowest Of these reports is
1857. The rainfall Iof last month alone is more
than an inch greater than that OF May, June,
July and August last year.
NOT ONLY IN THIS COUNTRY
but in Europe have such enormous rains occur
red. Colonel Forney writes to the Philadel phia
Press that nothing like it has been experienced
in Great Britain for many years. In some conn
ties it has been entirely without precedent. For
instance, in Bath it is the greatest fall of rain in
eighty years at Clevelsnds, Lyme Regis, " the
greatest ever registered here !" at st. Lawrence
and Ashburton, /" the heaviest for ten years." at
the Craig Rosse, "the heaviest since August 49,
1853" One correspondent says "Durng
the five years l have kept record the rain
in twenty -four hours has never before reached
two inches, while in twenty-one hours of inces-
SAINT rain on the 18th Of July $40 inches of rain
fell. Great damage has been done to crops,
and Col. Forney thinks the demand on America
for breadstuffs will be very largo. Rains have
been heavy throughout Europe, including
France, where at Toulouse and elsewhere terri
bic damage and loss of life were caused by river
inuudatiOns.