Connecticut western news., 1884-02-20

| Houses swept Away, People Camping on | the Hills nnd Begging for Food' Ceme. | terIes DisinIerrcd of Their Dead, nnd
 Nearly Every Business Man n Bnni- | rupt.
 A Cincinnati correspondent telegraphs: Dissolution is reported on all sides. No pen picture can give nn adequate idea of the terrible nature of the floods. For miles and miles along the banks of the Ohio. villages and towns are under the water. From Pittsburg the river, on its wav to the Mississippi, skirts the States of Ohio. West Virginia, Kentucky, In- diana and Illinois. Scores of rivers are emptying the waters of half dozen States into the Ohio and swelling It be- yond all precedent. The highest mark ever before reached is ecllpsed. In this city, and in the suburbs, over live thou sand houses are more or less submerged by the flood. A number of houses have already toppled over and have tioated oil.
 The waters of the Ohio have over- flowed all of the bottoms and low lands between the bluffs on both sides. The condition of the sufferers along the river front is growing worse as each inch is added to the swelling tide. The most deplorable state of affairs exists in all that portion of the city lying nearest the river. Thousands of inundated houses are becoming more imperiled every hour. The distress will be greater on account of the general destruction of property and because the sufferers are generally not able to bear their losses. More than half the people of Columbia are washed out, and all of the school houses, churches, the town hall and every available building on dry land are filled with refugees from the flooded dis tricts. One-half of the village of Pen- dleton is submerged and the imperiled houses in about the same condition as those in Columbia. The committee are supplying over 10000 homeless people with food.
 News comes of great suffering all along the river. At Marietta, Ohio, the water has been in every business place and in the second stories of Q majority of them. Pomeroy, Ohio, is almost entirely under water and the destruction has been terri ble. Many hundreds of people are home less and without food. There was nc communication with the outside world, either by mail or telegraph, for four days. The railroad depot, dozen busi- ness houses and numerous residences were swept off. At Gallipolis the suffer. ing has been great. A relief boat which went over the ground from Gallipolis to Pomeroy brings tale of desolation. Ten thousand people are camped on the hills and are in terrible want for food and shelter.
 One hundred and fifty houses have | n l., House steps. The people are worn out for want of sleep, food and shelter, and appeal to everybody to do something foi their relief. Nearly every business mar is bankrupt. The coal mines at Syra. cuse are flooded. Water is pouring through the streets of Cheshire, but tho people are in fair condition, with foot and shelter. A house went by Middle port with woman sitting on the gable end. They rowed out and appealed tC her to get into the skiff, but she would not. for she said she 'had four babeI below" The glass was broken and thu children were seen floating, dead. It Ii estimated that 30, 900 persons along tn, river, within Q distance of twenty-fv, miles of Gallipolis, will have to be fec by charity for weeks.
 There is not an acre of dry ground 1T the entire city of Portsmouth. The peo pie are ferrying live stock to the hills and half the city is doomed. The water stands two, and in many houses four feel on the second floor. Already one hun dred houses have floated away and over one hundred others have turned ano twisted, and two hundred frame houses are anchored with heavy rope tied tc trees and telegraph poles. Clermont county has eleven towns and villages or the Ohio river, all submerged and in ( dreadful condition from hunger an6 want, and no other region in the State is suffering to the extent that our river points are at this hour.
 Houses swept away, household goods all lost, stock drowned, cemeteries disin tered of their dead and people madly fleeing, glad to escape with their lives only, and oftentimes rescued with hardly sufficient clothing to cover their naked ness, feebly presents the hideous picture of untold suffering on the Ohio for the sixty miles above Cincinnati. l cannot picture New Richmond's dre condition and its awful situation.
 Below Cincinnati the news is fully as bad. Lawrenceburg is entirely shut of from outside communication. Many houses have been seen to float down the river. Imagine community entirely cut off from communication with the world except by means of skitf, and that sev eral miles must be traversed over body of water from six to eight feet deep be- fore 0 single foot of land can be reached This is the condition of Lawrenceburg At Aurora, Ind, every dry goods store and drug store is under water. Al Louisville, Ky, the high water has done great damage. At Jeffersonville, Ind. there is great suffering, and of popula tion of II, ,000 at that place about one half have been compelled to leave theil homes and seek higher grounds.
 The correspondent made the danger ous trip from Wheeling to Marietta II an open boat. The scene presented wal one of utter ruin and desolation. The beautiful valley of wrecked homes desolated farms and ruined for tunes. The small towns have suffered most. Benwood, w. Va, is totally sub l merged. New Martinsville, shows noth ing but the housetops. The citizens , have planted cannon on the hilltop anG ] tire volley into every steamboat tha passes. They do this on grounds tha the waves made by the boats toppl e buildings from the foundations.
 Half dozen pilots have been severel, wounded and number of passenger injured. Cochransville is washed out The pretty little town has but thre, houses left. Five hundred people on tn, hills are depending on charity for dail, l bread Mariettn has two thousand fiv, hundred people in destitute circum stances. The number of needy persons increases each day. Two thousand dol