Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1884-02-21
FALLING WATERS
Thousands of Homeless People
Suffering from Nipping
Fr0StS.

day the river at Cincinnati reached the
highest mark that IL is known ever t.
have attained in this part Of the Ohio
| Valley, and then remained apparently
stationary for Two hours at IL feet q oi
an inch. The flood had then reached its
limit for the present and began slowly
10 fall, so slowly that it took four hours
to move Il of an inch down the gauge.
| This check tu the flood is due to the sud-
den and considerable fall of temperature
within the past twenty-fOur hours and
the prevailing cold.
The coming cold was noticeable early
in the evening of Wednesday, and before
Thursday morning the thermometer reg
lstered below freezing. The situation
inCincinnati and vicinity during gWednes
day evening and early Thursday MORN
ing was distressing There were nearly
II feet of water in tie channel, the rise
continuing at a rate varying from d 3
inch To l inch an hour and the thermom-
eter below freezing. Although cold
weather had been predicted twenty four
hours in advance yet the wave descended
upon the valley quite abruptly. All of
Wednesday com paratiyely pleasant
day as to temperature and deceived many
who failed TO prepare sufficiently for the
change. The cold wave came like a tibet
in the night. Even people not directly
affected by the flood were found unpre-
pared and awOke yesterday morning to
find hydrants and water pipes frozen
and the mercury fifty degrees below its
mark of the preceding afternoon.
INCONVENIENCE MULTIPLIED INTO
MIsERIEs.
Had these inconveniences been all, it
would have been well, but down in the
bottoms and everywhere in the abodes
of the stricken noOd-sufferers these in-
conveniences were multiplied into mis-
cry. The actual present suffering of
these destitute people wo'd undoubtedly
have been less had the rise continued
under the circumstances that have pre-
vailed for a week. The heavy night
went down upon them with d mighty
river and still rising. They were prepared
for foot more of water the next morn
ing, but not for IA fifty degree fall of the
mercury. They were overtaken 10y the
severe cold in their miserable water
flooded abOdeS without the requisite
supply of fuel, shivering through the
night, and awoke in the morning to find
a considerable rim of ice encireling their
houses at the waters edge and the water
still rising. Their situation was truly
deplorabie and although since that time
the river has ceased to rise and begun
TO fall the situation has been bettered
but little.
PEN PICTURE OF THE FLOOD.
A back ground of muddy water ex
tends from the Ohio river northward
along the course of the valley farther
than the eye can reach, tapping the base
of the western hills on one side and
Freeman avenue on the other. There
stand in bolder, more striking relief
than canvas ever bore the like. the man
moth factories and ware houses, the
isolated dwellings, the sweep of tele
graphic lines, the trains Of laden freight
cars, not one of which can be reached
except by floating craft. Looking across
the valley there is not point of ground
elevated above the surface of the water,
that stands in varying depths from a
feathers edge to fifty feet or more.
Across the surface, family seen from this
distant point of view, are gliding iDnu
merable water craft, the occupants OF
which are discernible only as a slight
excIescence in the outline of the vessel.
Each has destination of its own and
adapted to the necessity of its occupant.
One glides away to the farthest western
shore, another stops at some building not
wholly submerged, with yet story, or
perhaps two, above the waves; it may
be factory, it may be an isolated dwell
ing not yet vacated. Away to the south
is seen the marking of Eight street, the
highest fill in the valley, now submerged
and covered with two feet of water. The
telegraph poles set along this fill look not
unlike the slender stunted trees that
one often sees in marshes. The connect
ing wires are unseen in the distance, and
the iron posts bearing the gas lamps are
like misty things-nOw seen and now
not. Still beyond is the main current
of the Ohio, rushing along on its destruc
tive mission, its surges all merged into Il
smooth surface and lost in the distance
And beyond rise the Kentucky hills that
limit the vision. Such is the general
view of the inundated valley.
RECEDING SLOWER.
"a. M.-The river continued to recede
slower, falling an inch and a quarter in
three hours. Clear and cold.