The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-12-19
STORM AND FLOOD.

III ulCuLuOuub vhs-Aao " awe
submersed-Costly Bridges Broken and
Carried Awny-Row-Bonts Busy In the
Streets.
The recent partial inundatian of Rich
mond, Va, is thus described /: Notwith-
standing all precautions taken, the de-
structiveness of the great rush of water
on Richmond exceeded anything ever
known in Virginia. About twelve o'clock
in the night the water gradually rose
into the streets of the lower part of the
CITY. At two o'clock A. NJ. it was up to
the second stories of many houses, and
was pouring into Main street, the prin-
cipal thoroughfare of Richmond. Even
with every vehicle that could be
engaged, and an immense force of
hands, goods could not be removed fast
enough, and the midnight workers
found themselves surrounded by the
surging and billowy mass of water, and
they were at last forced to leave the en-
dangered property, in order to save
themselves.
In Rockets, which is nearer to the
river than any other portion of the city,
acres of streets, thickly built, were sur
rounded, and many of the houses COM
pletely buried beneath the water. No
warning could have prepared the inhab-
itants for q food 80 terrible in it's effects
and 80 swift in its desolation. Steadily,
stealthily, swiftly the seething tide rushed
through the city into the darkened
houses, giving no warning, save when it
crashed in windows, and then by it's in
creasing volume, broke down the fimsy
barriers of doors like reed stems in the
path of a cyclone. Like gnomes and
dark water spirits, struggling men and
shrieking women were seen moving OF
housetops, while the steady fall Of the
oars from the succoring boats fell upon
the midnight air. Boats enough could
not be gotten together to do what was
necessary. Sturdy fathers could be seen
moving cautiously through the water,
bearing their little ones on their Shout
ders ; people crawled to their third
floors, and as they saw the water climb
ing upward called out for boats to take
them off. Horses and wagons, which
were first in demand, were now set aside
for skifs and barges. At one o'clock the
moo rose. Its light, feeble though it
was, came providentially. The cries Tor
lamps and candles were heard now.
Boats plowed the streets weighted down
with the workingman's most precious
cargo, his wife and little ones. AS they
were safely landed at the foot of the
hills the cry of mothers calling to their
little ones to keep together was heard,
and, casting one lingering sad look on
the watery raves where once were happy
homes, they moved off to give standing
ground for other boatloads of the
homeless. The men proved faithful and
worked with q will. Then the river rose
higher and higher, and the roar became
like Niagara IN its fury. .
Great trunks of trees, portions OF
bridges and masses of timber swept
down the stream and tore up such shan
ties and buildings as stood in their path.
Nothing stayed the progress of the
destructive flood. A single timber fell
from q bridge a mile up the stream. It
gathered strength and fury as it went
on and tore up o small clubhouse on the
river bank, and clinging close to this,
gathered tlmbers as it moved, when the
whole mass was hurled against the roofs
of the houses in its track. It went on
down the stream, gathering strength and
being on the swift current a very animate
engine of terror and humiliation. As it
tore down the James River, crushing
everything before it, this confused mass
of timbers looked in the ghostly light of
the moon like o living monster, hiaging
huge arms in fierce contortions where
the river current was not broken. Such
was the sight in Rockets.
In the vicinity Of the gas works, on
Main street, between Fifteenth and
Seventeenth streets, the appearance of
the water was more insidious and came
in more slowly. Here there was no cur
rent, and the water backed into the city
by way of Shocker Greek. At ten o'clock
it was over the door in the old market,
and covered Main, Gary and Franklin
streets for a distance of three squares.
The headquarters of the Chief of
Police and the First police station house
we're blocked up, the water rising rapid
" until it was above the tirst-story, so
the policemen had to climb from the
second-story windows into the fatboats
in the street.
A line OF ferryboats was quickly es-
tablished to enable communication be-
tween the upper and lower sections of
the city. The very centre of the bust
ness portion of lower Richmond was
under water at ten o'clock. The bust
ness signs of the wholesale and retail
houses foated, and the only mode of
egress was from second story windows,
while at half. past two o'clock today the
New York steamboat sheds were under
water and it was ever the caves. The
second floor of the company's Office could
only be seen, while the currents swept
through the building and over the Office
counters.
At five o'cock the New York steamer
Isaac Bell of the Old Dominion line,
which was anchored near by the roof of
the shed, broke loose from her moorings
and was hurled broadside down the cur
rent right over toward the water covered
houses in Rockets. At n moment it
looked as though she would tear her
path through Main street and sweep
down the houses whose roofs held their
trembling owners; at another, as the
current laden with trees and timber
struck her, she looked as though she
would careen and fall on her side. She
danced on the water like a cork and
looked from the streets she was nearly
as large as the Great Eastern, for the
people we're below the level of her hull.
The sight of a large steamboat bearing
down toward the narrow streets was
terror inspiring, but her officers sue
ceeded in finding an anchorage down the
river, near Yeungling's James River
Brewery, and guided her from the streets
in time to save them and her from
damage.
The whole length Of Richmond 'front.'
ing on the river, from the pump house
to the Chesapeake and Ohio wharves,
and streets running thereon, were under
the flood, a distance in all of three or
four miles. On the banks of the river
in every direction was piled furniture
and merchandise in one heterogeneous
mass. Steam tugs could be seen plying
the streets tugging small boats laden
with household goods. In all this pic
ture of ruin and misery wreckers were at
work with their hooked poles drawing
the articles of timber that were flying by.
At half-past n P. NJ. the first span of
Mayo's Bridge gave way with a thunder
ING sOund. and ten minutes later the