The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-02-23
RIVERS RAMPANT.
Ohio Valley Beneath the Wild
Waters.
Cities Submerged and Levees De-
stroyed-M Destruction of
Property Imminent.

to night with prospect of continuing.
| The river is rising at the rate of one
inch per hour. 1t is already the highest
since 1847. The indications give rise to
fears that it will exceed the rise of 1880,
the greatest on record. Navigation is
closed. All cellars below Third street
are flooded, practically suspending busi-
ness in that part of the city. A great
force is kept busy removing goods. Mad
dOx & HObart's distillery, and the Globe
Rolling Mill have been compelled to
close operations. The former have
! driven away all their stock. Other dis
tllleries in the same locality will be
compelled to close to-day. If the rain
should stop now, it is estimated there
will be five feet more of rise. What will
come with more rain would make the
highest water ever known.
IN AND AROUND LOUISVILLE.
| LOUISVILLE, February 2O-A sudden
and almost unprecedented rise in the
Ohio river occurred night before last,
| and up to a late hour tonight even the
Oldest inhabitants could form no opinion
as to how much more water was coming
or where the end of the present disas-
| trOus flood would be. A heavy and con-
tinuOus rain fell, and 1t continued most
of the day and night. The rains seem
to have extended all the way to the
mountains, as all news from above in
dicate. This evening there were thirty
three and half feet of water in the
| canal. The river Is rising at the rate of
upward of two inches per hour.
No freight was received on the big
go" line wharf boat for the Memphis
ami New Orleans packets, as there was
no certainty when the boats could get
under the bridges at Cincinnati to arrive
here and carry 1t off. In the tenement
houses at the foot of Fifth street, run
ming west, the water is five or six feet
deep in the first story. The inhabitants
have nearly all taken refuge in the
upper stories.
All along the river front at Portland
the first floor of the houses are under
water. The water is fully three feet six
inches high on the floor of the street car
stables, and cars do not run the whole
length of the road All the houses below
in Happy Hollow are under water, and
they number seventy-five or eighty.
| The cement works at the shipping port
are all under water and the inhabitants
are all confined to their houses. The
place presents the appearance of being
deserted. All houses from Thirty-ffth
to Thirty-ninth street near the river are
more or less submerged. At 5:3O this
afternoon the river at Portland at Thirty
third street was rising at the rate of 212
inches per hour.
Approaching the city, Fulton street
forms line of separation. The Cham
piOn Saw Mills and Hall & Sons mills
are wooden islands. O'Neil s. Co.'S
coal elevator may be seen far out in the
river, and GOldbacks coal offices are
designated by only enough of the walls
upon which to paint sign.
HEAVIEST RAIN ON RECORD.
ST. LOUIS, February 2O.-The rain
storm which commenced here and in
this part of Missouri little after 12
o'clock Saturday night, and which has
not yet ceased, is said to be the heaviest
waterfall on record. According to the
Signal Service reports, the precipitation
from 10 o'clock Saturday night to 10
o'clock Sunday night was 1886 inches,
and from 10 O'clock Sunday night until
noon to-day 2.43 inches, making total
of 639 inches in thirty-eight hours.
Since noon to-day not much water has
fallen, but enough to make the aggre-
gate something more than six and a
half inches. The rain stopped about Z
o'clock this evening, when the wind
began to rise, but at this writing, 9 p.
M, there are no signs of clearing
weather.
This rain area is not more than $50
miles wide, but must be fully 1 900 miles
long. The rain fall on the Ozark noun
tains, this State, must have been very
heavy, for the GascOnade river, which
rises in those mountains, poured an i'm
mense volume of water into the Missouri,
raising the latter stream more than ten
feet at st. Charles, and sweeping away
all the false works erected at the Wabash
railroad bridge at that point, and doing
| much other damage. The lower part of
the Illinois river, which is within the
rain area, has also been at flood height,
and has emptied a great quantity of
water into the Mississippi, which, in ad-
ditiOn to that from the Missouri, has
caused an unprecedented rise in the
Mississippi at this point, but no damage
has been done outside of submerging a
few lots Of freight on the leVee. The
rise here since last night has been over
twelve feet, and at dark tonight the
water is still swelling rapidly. At one
time this afternoon the rise was at the
rate of foot an hour, and the average
for twenty-fOur hours has been six
inches per hour.
A POst-Dispatch special from st.
Charles says the Missouri river rose
seven feet between Sunday evening and
this morning, and the country around Is
much flooded by the rain, and the track
of the Wabash, st. Louis & Pacific road
between here and st. Peters is flooded.
The river has risen about ten feet
since yesterday. The rise was so unex-
pected that considerable freight lying
| on the levee near the old Short Line was
swepG away. Other property has been
moved further up the bank to-day. The
Ohio & Mississippi east and the Missouri
Pacific west were the only trains that
departed to-day. All trains Oh other
roads have returned on account of wash
| outs.
| OVER THE BOTTOM LANDS.
| LOUISVILLE, February 20.-The Even
ing Post special from Henderson says:
| The river is all over the bottom lands,
and Is the highest water since 1877.
| The river extends back six miles from
the banks. News from the interior Of
Kentucky and Indiana report rain for
the past thirty hours.
AT MADISON, IND.
MADISON, IND, February 20.-The Ohio
| river at this point is oyerhowing the