Huntsville gazette., 1884-02-23


and Tennessee Rivers Sending Down
Large Contingent of Water-Many Small
Towns Entirely Inundated-The Waters
Rcceding at Cincinnati.
PADUCAH, Ky, Feb. IL.
Paducah claims attention as the scene OF
to-day's flood sensation. The $4,000 people
of this pretty little city got up this morn
ing to find that the flood had wiped out all
previous records. The fact that the high
water of 1888 has been eclipsed here, while
the stage is below last year at Shawnee
town and other points above, is easily ac-
counted for. The great volumes of water
from the Cumberland and the Tennessee
are turning out and adding to the Ohio.
The water is now twentyfour inches higher
at Paducah than it was last year, and has
risen all day at the rate of one inch an
hour. Three days ago it had wiped out
Front and the first two thorOughfareS par
allel with the river. This noon the water
extends back into the business heart of the
city, and the merchants on Broadway and
the cross streets four blocks back from the
river are scaffolding up their goods.
By atual observation and count the
streets surrounding forty three blocks in
the business portion are submerged. Where
pavemenls are high and the first floors OF
the building a step or two above the side
walks, the water has not entered, but
where the difference in level between the
floors and the streets is Slight
there is from three inches to two
feer of water in the stores and
business establishments. Along Broad
way, in front of the Richmond House and
some of the large wholesale places, the only
means of passing are raised planks or
skiffs. The situation is novel, even to old
paJ "a -nr1tt five blocks from the
river and look up and down and see
stretch of water extending to the city's
limits in both directions, with scores of
skiffs plying to and fro where vehicles were
three days ago, is a sight which the oldest
.inbabitant does not remember to have
seen paralleled.
Paducah is now an island, and the dry
land is being reduced rapidly every hour,
for the rise to the center of the plateau
which is the city'S site is very gradual.
Fortunately many of the houses are e.e-
waited from one to three feet above the
streets level. Were. they not the water
would be on three-rourths of the lower
floors in Paducah at this writing. As it is
the houses from which the people have
been driven number. hundreds, and those
the front doors of which can be reached
only by boating can be counted by the
thousands. As the. water advances she
hogs and cows are driven in upon the dry
ldUd, anu HOW S[dlAo III oiONCo IL VIC SO1-
trail streets. = o.,
3 The-cit has to-day located a number of
free skiff ferries to enable the people to get
from one portion of the city to another.
The fires at the gas-works were reached last
night in spite of bulk-beading, and tonight
the city has fallen back on lamps and cam
dies. This is a city of churches, but such
was the decentralization to day thatservlces
were not attempted in any but the Method
ist, and these only in the morning. All
day long the streets, such as were paSsable,
were thronged with people Fookng.,at the
extraordinary spectacle. Merchants are at
a loss to know what to DO. Mr. Lyle, who
carries one of the largest stocks of goods
here, has made two moves, he said tonight,
and is afraid now that his stock isn't high
enough. j. X. Smith, wholesale grocery
merchant, who:has large block 1l3 feet
deep, has already moved has stock once,
and. says tonight that III there jig another
foot more he will have to go into the, water
and move the goods again. The tobacco
warehouse people are in the most critical
position. They have hundreds of thousands
Of dollars worth of tobacco on hand, which
they have been raising up as the water I'D
vanced. The warehouses are great struct.
ures, but portions of them stand in water
twenty feet deep. The collapse Of one Of
these structures now would be attended
with great loss. In many places the cur
rent of the water through the streets is five
and SIX miles iii hours Her streets are Pa
ducah's pride, but they viii be ip sad con-
dition after ell this washing and wearing
/" Nothing has arrived from the Cumber.
land or Tennessee, and the situation in
those fivers Is unlnowr. There can be no
doubt but that it is bad enough, however,
Judging from the water coming out OIL then1'
The water at midnight covers over one'
half the area Of Padacah, which has river
front of three miles, and @ depth back from
- Ta,.A liz 10 yryhn
sleep under the trying circumstances have
gone to bed, prepared to see almost any,
thing in the way of water by morning. s
Captain Dick Morrow, Of the steamer
Nesbit, reports the drowning of colored
man and child in Indian Creek, just above
Clifton, and the miraculous escape OF q
woman and two children. A colored man
ami his wife ana f0ur ehiidfeH had started
in a canoe to make their way out or tbs
high water caught by the overflow of In
dian Creek, up the Tennessee, when; in pass
Ing down this rrsekr ths ssnoe struck tree,
and threw all of the occupants into the wa
ter. The current was very swift, and the
father and one child were soon swept be-
meath, but the mother caught two OF the
children and saved them and herself. In
falling frem ths boat the woman was
thrown against d small tree, and around
this she wrapped her arms with Child IN
each hand and saved her life and two ehll-
aren, one babe and the other only year
OF two old.
Well informed ci izans say that Sl00,00o
will not begin to cover the actual damage
to property in the city, leaving out of all
question the stoppage of factories and al
trade; An examination of the gauge, which
Is now reached by d poI1toon, since DARK
shows stage of 52.1 feet,
Trains got out of town to-day by adopt
ing a novel expedient, The passenger
coaches were put In front Of a tram ot thir1
y freight cars and pushed through the
overflowed portion. Then another engine
was attached and the train taken out.
This viii be attempted tomorrow, but the
railroad men are not sanguine OF keeping
up connection longer than another day.
New Liberty, twelve miles above here, is
entirely abandoned, and nothing but the
roofs Of houses can be seen. The SITUATION
is but little better with many other points.
Four-ffths Of Smithland, situated at tne
mouth of the Cumberland, is under water.
Rose Claire, Brdsview, Raleigh, Elizapeth-
town, Fairplay and Free Fight are all SUB
merged. The front portion Of Caseyvihe is
| under water to depth of ten or twelve
feet. ,,o,.
What is written here at six O'CLOCK
| doesn't hold good at twelve. When the
| first portion of this dispatch was taken &c
| the telegraph office it was possible to gel
| along the upper side of Broadway wlthou'