The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-07-28
DISASTROUS STORM.
Western Pennsylvania Badly Flooded
and Much Damage Done.

Western Pennsylvania Badly Flooded
and Much Damage Done.
PITTsBURG, Penn, July ga serious rain
storm passed over this section to-day, causing
considerable damage to property in the sur
rounding country. At Queens Station the
houses were flooded, fences and out-buildings
washed away and ont he Dewecl1ley branch
the damage to the track was heavy.
AT Petrolia the greatest loss occurred, some
% or 80 stores and dwellings being washed
away. The Kansas City and Parker Railroad
was damaged to the extent of $4,000, and
telegraphed lines are down in all directions
The total will probably reach 100000. On
the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, at Guffy
station, culvert was washed out and the
track so damaged that trains cannot Reports
of the same nature are received from the
Monongahela valley. No damage was done in
this city.
The storm of yesterday though not so severe
in the city or immediate vicinity was fearful
in its effects in the surrounding village and
country. The principal damage here was in
washing out of streets and sidewalks. Sewers
were burst, houses had foundations loosened
and cellars were fillec With water. The cellar
of the Union railroad depot was flooded and
the car tracks and roadbeds of the Pittsburg
Virginia & Charleston road swept away The
tracks of the Pennsylvania of the Pittsburg
Fort Wayne q Chicago railroads were washed
out. In Elizabeth, 10 miles from here, the
water was six to eight feet in some of the
streets near the river. Wagons, sheds, houses
and all loose stuff along the stream were car
ried out. The storm throughout Oil county
was very damaging. The oil towns, Petrolia
| and Harms City, suffered terribly, 25 houses
in the former place being swept away and des-
| troyed, and the line of railroad between Par
| ker and Harms City submerged, bridges wash
| ed out culverts destroyed and the road bed
ruined in many places while the people in that
| section in many places barely escaped with
their lives. The north side of Maine street at
| Petrolia consists of large buildings and when
| the rushing water struck the piles ON which
! they were constructed, they rapidly hoated
| across the street smashing and carrying along
all the buildings from the railroad to the Cen
trail Hotel buildings. On the east side of the
Mononghahela city and along the Baltimore &
| Ohio railroad was the heaviest storm known
for years. Houses fences, outbuildings, lum-
| Der and other property were swept away and
many of the coal mines flooded. Miners in
some mines barely escaped drowning.
At Shroder's mines near Elizabeth men
| waded through the water up their chin. The
| only known loss of life so far reported is Mrs.
| Daley, drowned near Shanes Station on the
| Baltimore & Ohio railroad. Damage to grow
ing crops is very great
| At Twins stain the rain fall is reported to
| have reached seven inches, and Yonghaighny
branch railroad was damaged in many places.
| The force OF the water was so great as to break
the street rails. The railroad people are hard
at work in all directions, and will have the
| damage repaired in short time.
| AT TWINS Station Fultons planning mill,
| Cunning & Avery's foundry and several dwell
| ling houses on the low land met the full force
| of the flood. The damage sustained by
farmers amounts to about $4,000 Over 100, ;
600 feet of lumber and 100000 shingles were
| swept away.