The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-02-23
INUNDATED CINCINNATI.
Scenes and Incidents Of tho Floods Mt Por L.
opoIis md Other Cities--tireat Damage
Loss OF Life nv the Floods.

A late dispatch from Louisville says: Dur
ing the past twenty-four hours the Ohio
river, by bursting through cut-offs and pour
ing over emb lnkments has completely sub
merged one-fifth of the area of this city. At
least 1000 or 5000 people have been driven
from their homes, and the loss by actual de-
struction of property, to say nothing of that
from the stoppage of foundrles and
miGdn nSt is e fully s $4oooO ni At
formed the only protection to
square mile of densely peopled territory
gave way in several places simultaneously,
and the immense body of water came down
with tremendous force, sweeping everything
before 1t. People who entered their houses
on dry grc II I'd and went to bed in apparent
safety awoke 10 find the water in the second
stories. The Trailer of the buildings were
lifted from their foundations, carried,
in some instances, hundred rods
and deposited against some other
structure or left upside down in the midst of
sea of waters. Thirty-tive squares were
covered inside of half hour to a depth of
from ten to thirty feet. number of
people lost thti lives, but the exact number
could not be ascertained at the time of send
ing the dispatch Many men escaped by
swimming. Several women with babies in
their arms waded for squares before they
| reached places of security. At least thirty
people of all ages and sexes were rescued
from trees into which they had climbed
| Az shipping IO1nU anu tuDurDS
of Louisville, 1000 houses, mostly owned by
poor people, were submerged.
Among those known to he drowned at
| Louisville are John Finch and son, George
Lynch, Edward Harris and George Bell.
About 30 buildings were entirely swept
| away, their inmates barely escaping with
their lives by wadng or being taken off in
boats.
At Cincinnati a later dispatch also gave
particulars of further disaster and loss of
| life through the raging floods. The freight
depot of the Cincinnati Southern railro ad
was undermined in the morning, and fell into
the surrounding wa'e's, carrying with 1T
number of people. Three boys. two freight
| handlers and four members of Coups circus
were believed to be drowned.
The OHIO valley from Pittsburg TO Cairo,
says a Cincinr al dispatch, is a vast scene of
| deso'aticn. The water has reached point
never before attained. and the famous floc 4
of 1882 is eclipsed. In that year the dep h o
water at Cincinnati was Nt;-four feet three
inches. At this writing it is sixty-five 'eet
one inch, and elrly on a stand. The entire
| river front of Cincinnati for five miles was
Bbmerged the water being in many instances
several feet deep in the second stories
| of residences and business houses.
| The gas works were submerged, and the city
was in total darkness. save for the surer-
natural glare shed upC n the gloomy scene by
an occasional electric light. The theatres
resorted to calcium lights, while the news
paper offices were forced 10 content them
selves with OIL lamps nj tallow dips.
About 1900 workmen in Cincinnati and
Louisvil'e were thrown temporarily out of
work. and nearly all business in both cities
was suspended The losses will aggregate
many millions of dollars. The Ohio legisla-
| ture placed 100000 at the disposal of Civ
cinnati for that city's immediate relief. At
New Albany, Ind, Hardentown and other
places on the Ohio, hundreds of people had
a., Oh 4ha,- I -.
Ind. twenty miles below Cincinnati, was al
most entirely destroyed.
Here is picture of the terrible condition
of affairs in Cincii III when the floods were
at tteir height: "lf you can conceive an
addition of tiftet n feet to the ordinary an
| nual rise, with current ten miles an hour
sweeping through the inundated di. tricts.
you can form some idea of the scene pre-
| sented by our devastated city front and the
lmost unreasonable losses that have fol-
lowed. Darkness exchanging the city like
pail: the atmo' plere heavy with fog, or
rain pouring in torrents; the streets sloppy
and i'll places almost impossible; the yellow
waters Of The Ohio surging through
| block after block in the lower part of the
city thousands of men. women and chill
dren homeless or crouching i'll the upper
stories of their dwellings, besieged by the
food; vast number of people, young and
old, sleeping in station-houses or public
| buildings, many of them utterly destitute
and craving bread-this is picture of Gin
| cinnati at night"
Seventeen public schools III Cincinnati
| were thrown open for the sufferers, free eat
| ing houses were established and people fed
| by thousands. In the inundated districts
| sightseers rowed over the water i'll every
direction. Boat-loads of ladies, fashionably
! dressed, were no uncommon sight. Men who
owned property in the bottoms were rowing
about looking after their interests. Boys
and men floating on improvised RATS
| were busy picking up whatever drifted
by on the current. Relief boats OH
their missions of mercy, propelled by
| strong arms, shot out in every direction.
| he and his brother and thirteen other boys
were on the platform at the railroad depot,
! and that the entire party were thrown into
the water; that he swan to Gest street. es-
capped, and went home; that his brother and
| all the other boys were drowned.
At Newport, KY, opposite Cincinnati, the
situation was deplorable. Thousands OF
| people. driven from their homes, were fed by
charity. The water in some of the streets
was twenty-five feet deep, and in n majority
OF them steamboat could easily navigate.
| Iawrenceburg, Ind, Il town of 5000 in
habitants, was submerged from five to
twenty feet rough estimate of the loss
| there is $780, 00. New Albany and Jeffer-
sonville suffered severely. The scenes
among the poor people beggared description
| Al MADISON, lnu., nuuureuS OF ldinllleS Wero
| driven from their homes, and there was
great suffering. The courthouse and other
large buildings were thrown open for the re-
| ceptioa Of the suffering people. The whole
Of the front of the city was under water.
On the Kentucky river the destruction was
simply fearful. Whole farms were ruined
houses destroyed, barns and crops carried
away. Warsaw, Client, Carrolton and Veyay
Ky, were badly overlooked.
At Louisville so sudden was the coming Of
tie flood that the first intimation that some
OF the people had was the bun sting of the
water thru u III thor doors and windows. The
life-savers and firemen found many helpless
persons struggling around in the water
clinging to logs and pieces of lumber
About sixty persons were rescued from such
perilous positions and many families were
taken from the seco n l-story windows
Jacksonville, Ind. was flooded from two
TO twenty feet deep. Five thousand people
we're homeless Many lost all they had on
earth A large number of cottages in the
lower part of the city were swept away, and
hundreds of people were auartered in second
stories, in public buildings, and in business