Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1884-02-21
The Calamity in Detail.


and disastrous results, thus far main
ly confined to property, as that which
is now raging on the Ohio and its
tributaries. The Allegheny and the
Monongahela are stationary, though
another rise is feared; but from
Wheeling to Cairo the Ohio has
broadened into a great lake, in some
places thirty miles in width and thir-
ty feet in depth, drowning out the
business of cities and towns, wash
ing away aud weakening thousands
of houses, submerging farms and
plantations, and driving thousands of
homeless people to the hills aud high
lands for safety, without food, house
hold goods, or shelter, except such as
they may secure from the charity
which is already on its way thither to
enable them to bear up against the
misery of their situation until the wa
ters recede again and they can once
more return to their homes and repair
the waste and desolation which have
been caused.
The losses caused by this unprece-
denied flood it will be difficult to com
pute. 1t is only known that they
will run far up into the millions.
Other rivers, the Kentucky, Tonnes
see, Cumberland, Arkansas, Red, St.
Francis, and the Mississippi, are but
just commencing on their career of
destruction. The amount of loss is
not confined to actual property de-
stroyed, though this will be i'm
mense.
AT WHEELING ALONE
it is estimated at nearly SO, 600, 600. A
still greater amount will be incurred
in the damage done to farms, the
weakening and gripping of houses
and stores, the stoppage of manufac-
tories, the loss of time and wages, and
individual suffering occasioned there
by. and the irreparable damage done
to household effects and goods in store.
A flood is well-nigh as destructive as
a lire. There is scarcely a manufac-
DRY exposed to the action of this flood
but will be injured thousands of dol
lars worth. A dispatch from Wheel
ing graphically describes the situation
in the following extract:
Since last Wednesday morning the
population of this city has regarded
with intense excitement the work of
destruction that has been going on.
Hundreds of men have been compell-
ed to stand by and see their property
destroyed without being able to inter
fere. They have in numberless cases
lost the accumulations of a lifetime,
and are left far advanced toward the
evening of life in absolute want. Men
who week ago were the owners of
handsome residences and could graft
fly almost every wish, now know not
where to lay their heads or how TO
provide food and clothing for their
hungry and shivering families This
is no fanciful picture, but fact in the
broadcast sense. The city of Wheeling
has suffered greater loss in the last six
days than during the entire 100 years
of its existence combined. Nothing
like it has ever been dreamed of by
its people, much less experienced, and
years will not be sufficient to etface
the last traces of our great calamity.
SUFFERERS BY FLOOD.
There are more people now in dis
tress on account of the Ohio River
flood than there were in 1871 on ac-
count of the great fire of Chicago,
and what is more, the distress is prob
ably quite as great But 1t is not con-
centrated in one city 1t is spread over
a vast area. From Pittsburg to the
mouth of the river, about 1000 mlles,
the valley of the Ohio is flooded. Some
villages have been swept entirely
away, and in the cities the loss and
distress are very great
If the Ohio River were q living be-
ing, acting according to an individual
will and regardful of consequences,
one would say that it had lured peo-
pie into building cities and towns on
its banks for the sole purpose of de-
vouring them. There is no cruelty so
great as 1.-THE total depravIty Of mani
mate things Fire and water, antag-
onistic as they are, here find a com
mon plane.
AT CINCINNATI.
A dispatch from Cincinnati says,
TIE outlook is one of deepest gloom,
OF suffering ana disaster hungtr anu
despair, and, as hour by hour the
flood goes onward and upward the
terrible calamity increases in its IN
tensity. The great flood of 1883 has
been surpassed, and with the waters
still rising in all the streams above
and increasing in violence at this
point there is reason for much alarm.
What will be the limit now no one
can tell. The best judges have no hes
itancy in predicting sixty eight feet, o
depth of nefoot and eight inches over
the highest mark of SO. Ghis means
a frightful destruction of property,
perhaps an alarming loss of life, and
much suffering. Houses that with
stand the water at its present depth
will be overturned at sixty-eight feet,
or at less depth, and, in instances,
there will be a consequent loss OF lie
and fbo,,eo lie x.,,ll 10 o,,f off frnr11 a