The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1881-02-18
Storm and Flood.

The rain and thaW OF last Friday ana
Saturday caused considerable damage
throughout the country. In our own i'm,
mediate neighborhood the damage is
confined to the washing out under the
railroad track in many places, necessitas
ting extreme care concerning accidents
liable to arise therefrom. The Troy and.
Columbia meadows were flooded to an
unusual extent, and damage to bridge
abutments, &C., are reported.
The damage from flood and storm in
various other sections of the country is
more serious.
At Washington, D. c., on Saturday the
Potomac became damned with ice and
carried away part of Long Bridge. The
water backed up, inundating the lower
part of the city and flooding Pennsylva-
MIA avenue. The Sixth street depot was
an island and the water reached to the
steps of the National Hotel Cellars and
easements were flooded in all the lower
part of the city, and in some streets the
water was so deep as to make them inns
passable. Georgetown was also flooded.
The water receded Sunday. The ice in
the river is packed on the Washington
side from above Georgetown to a point
below the mouth of the eastern branch.
The section Of the Long Bridge which was
carried away is lodged in the ice about
500 yards below the bridge Several
cases of drowning in the food of Satur&
day are reported.
The railroad tracks between Trenton
and Burlington City, in this State, are
under water. Canal boats are lying on
the tracks on the Trenton road. All the
small buildings near the Delaware and
Raritan canal locks are partly under was
ter. The old Camden and Amboy shops
are inundated. AS far as the eye can
reach the Pennsylvania shore is inundas
ted. The water has been on the railroad
bridge on the main line between Bordens
town and New York, and the bridge was
in perilous condition. Twentysseven
cars, containing eight tons each. have
been placed on it to hold it in position.
The water is at the axles of the wheels
The condition OF affairs at New Orleans
is very bad. Twenty thousand people
have been forced to ask assistance from
the relief committee, and the property
damage will be enormous. The Missis>
sippi levees have been giving away and
the Governor has announced that the
State has no funds to repair them. This
will cause the ruin of vast amounts of
property unless outside aid is secured.
The water has receded in many parts of
the city, leaving foul debris of mud and
refuse. It is feared that the great rise
reported in the river north will flood the
city again, and this time, to a greater
depth than before. General alarm pres
walls.
Another great snow storm occurred on
Saturday in the Northwest. The cold is
excessive. The snow in some places is
four and five feet deep on level, and
from twenty to thirty feet deep in drifts.
Une Valley, twenty miles long and on an
average sixty feet deep. on the Southern
Minnesota road, is said to be drifted
nearly level full of snow. Water tanks
and telegraph poles and, in some cases,
buildings are covered with snow. More
suffering exists, perhaps, in this valley
than in any other part of the country,
and families living within reaching dis
lance are doubling up, two or three fami.
lies sometimes occupying small house,
and then burning the vacated building
for fuel. Railroad travel is either sus-
pended or nearly SO in all sections.
Council Bluffs was entirely isolated on
Saturday and Sunday. There is much
fear of loss of life in the remote settles
ments throughout the Northwest.
Throughout Pennsylvania much dams
age has been done and more is expected.
The Delaware, at Milford. is falling, the
freshet having caused $4,000 damage in
that section. The ice in the Lackawanna
river is moving rapidly, and fears of an
ice gorge in the channel above Carbons
dale are making the residents uneasy.
The flood has been the most disastrous
that ever visited the Juniata Valley, the
loss in bridges to Huntington county, Pa,
alone being about $4,000. Two spans
of the bridge at the mouth OF the Pays
town branch, four road bridges over the
branch, and the road bridge at Newton
Hamilton have been carried away, and
the bridge at Mcveytown partially de-
stroyed.