Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1883-02-21
THE OHIO DELUGE.
Untold Damage and Great Suffer-
ing at Cincinnati, Louisville
and Other PlaceS--LOSs
of Life.

and ii inches and rising slowly. 1t
will certainly reach 60 feet before it
begins to fall The weather is cloudy
are idle, but there is water enough in
the reservoir for six days The police
report no increase of crime in conse-
quence of the lack of gas last night.
Much sickness is found among the i'm
prisoned people in the tenement houses.
Relief boats are busy visiting all such
places, and ample means are at hand
to prevent suffering
Common Council to-day voted to
recommend an appropriation of S75-,
600 and to ask aid of the Legislature.
A SHOCKING DISASTER
is reported by telephone from the west
ern part of the city. Both the freight
and passenger depots of the Cincinnati
Southern Railroad were undermined
and tell into the surrounding water, car
rying with them hundred or more peo
pie. The depots were one-story frame
structures, resting on the Mclean
avenue fill, which is almost covered by
water On both sides of the fill the
water is thirty to fifty feet and the
earth has become SO soaked as to melt.
The catastrophe was further FASTENED
by the breaking of a sewer. which sent
the current along the bank. Crowds
of people have been. in that vicinity
looking at the floods, and it is suppos-
ed these are the victims.
The Southern Railroad depot is the
only freight depot that went down
When Ryan's restaurant, small
building, went down, the crowd rush
ed over on the platform Of the depot to
see what was the matter, when sud-
denly the whole depot collapsed and
sunk in the water The track was at
the same time depressed and the cars
standing close ran into the depression,
covering The people who had gone
down with the falling structure. Not
one body had been recovered at |
o'clock, nor could the bystanders give
any intelligent account of how many es-
capped. The work of recovering the
drowned will be exceedingly difficult, as
the place is isolated The other part
Of the street is melting as this portion
did. 1t is impossible, however, that
the break in the great sewer in Nc
Lean avenue caused the depot ts sink.
SOME OF THE LOST.
Later Information makes it definitely
certain that three boys, two freight
handlers and four members of Coup's'
circLs are drowned. The baggage
n raster says that he heard rushing
noise when Ryan's saloon went down
and buried around and saw the depot
give away. He is sure that at least
ifty people were thrown into the
water. 1t now appears certain that
the disaster was caused by the break
ing OF the great sewer. Twenty-Five
feet of one end of the freight depot and
half of the passenger depot are gone,
the latter being separated at the par
tition between the waiting room and
ticket Office. Books, tickets, safe, etc,
were gone in an instant.
THE CLIMAX CoMEs-ALAGMING sITUA-
TON.
A CLEAN of hope came tonight
when the reports showed the river had
reached the highest point at p. NJ,
when the marks showed So feet
inches, and though it receeded but half
an inch during the next four hours the
fact that the worst seemed over gave
relief. The tension has been so strong
on the entire business portion Of the
city and the slie htest rain falling to-
night gives sort of nervous apprehen
sion of more disaster to come. The
situation is alarming 1t would re-
quire the publication Of the greater
portion of the directory to name the
business men, especially in tobacco,
produce, grain, commission, whisky
and all kinds of manufacturing inter-
ests, whose business is wholly sus
pended Many of these also lose goods.
Manufacturers also lose heavily in
damage to machinery and stock, aside
from the loss of time. More than one
thousand business firms and manufac-
tories are thus prostrated. Yet busi-
ness men are not disheartened nor self
ish. These same men for two days
have poured in contributions to the
fund for the relief of the suffering
among that much greater class, the
poor, who are driven from home and
deprived of work 1t is estimated that
thirty to forty thousand workmen are
out of employment by the closing of
manufactures 70 them the loss of
time aud injury to household effects
is the smallest loss. Dampness in the
houses after the food subsidies must
bring sickness and suffering.
LOUISVILLE.