Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1886-02-18
THE GREAT FLOOD.
The Scene mt Fort Deposit-Working
10 Reopen the Railroad.

The Scene mt Port DePOsit-WOrkiH
40 Reopen the Railroads
Special Correspondence Of Gazette and Journal
PoRT DEPOSIT, ND, Feb. 16.-Port
Deposit is O ''mess,n and no other word
can describe the situation more accu-
rately. For if ruined houses, floating
outbuildings, the miscellaneous contents
of lumber yards, coal yards, saw mills
and warehouses, indescribably mixed up
with mountains of mud-smeared ice do
not make q "mess,n then nothing else can.
Approaching the town by railroad from
Perryville gives one q full view Of the
scene of desolation. In the main street
of Port Deposit the ice lays from six
| to 10 feet deep, stretching from the base
| of the great hills that overshadow the
town to the rivers edge. The great flood
that carried the huge ice foes up against
the mountain side, crushing with resist
| less force the frame structures in its way,
| subsidized when the water began to flow
out below Windmill Island, and dropped
the ice upon the street, the hillside and
the river shore, burying the railroad
under an icy barrier 10 feet deep. In
many places below the town the piles
| of ice between the track and the river
lowered to a hight of 20 and 25 feet,
and looking from the car this sea of ice
extended away above the town, as far as
the eye could reach.
Yesterday active efforts were made to
open the railroad TO travel. From the
Perryville side so p, w. IL b. Il. II. lab.
orers, under charge of Supervisor Robert
McClintock, worked vigorously with pick
aud shovel, while large force from the
Frederick division worked on the upper
end of the town. BY evening it was found
that such good progress been made that
| it was decided to keep the men at work all
night, the moon and locomotive head.
lights furnishing ample light. The task
\ was very laborious, the men being com
PEELED to do all the work with pick and
shovel, standing most of the time in water
nearly to their knees. BY this morning
| great progress had been made, and ii is
expected that through communication
will be established by evening. Linemen
were also at work, yesterday, and by
evening telegraph communication was re.
| sumed.
1 An estimate of the damage sustained
by this flood and gorge-the greatest ever
known--is impossible, but it cannot GER
tainly, when the interruption to business
is taken into consideration, fall much
short of $l50,000. Great sympathy is
expressed for the sufferers, especially fol
James A. Davis, whose loss from the
total destruction of his coal and lumber
yard will approximate $4,000.
1t is hard to comprehend what will be
come of the ice stacked up along the river
shore. There are thousands upon thou.
sands of tons, and it seems impossible
that it will melt even in the course of al
unusually torrid summer.
During yesterday the ice ran out freely
and, although it gorged considerably OIL
the flats, the eastern channel kept oper
all the time. The flood has caused heavy
loss to the poor of this place, whose
homes were on low land, and aid hal
been solicited from Baltimore and Phila
delphia. Many people were compelled te
camp out on the hills Inst night, where
large fires were kindled, making pic
turesqne scene.