The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-05-14

yards and all bridges being completely carried
away. Forces of men are busily engaged clear
ing away the debris and hundreds OF people sur
round the ruins. Strangers have begun to pour
into the city from every direction. The Council
has appropriated 81, 900 for immediate use in the
burial Of the victims. A private subscription
has already reached into the thousands. A COM
mittee is canvassing the city for clothing and
bedding. The rink has been turned into a ref
uge for the homeless, who are many. All aid
possible is needed from every source.
Among the losses are: Mcdowell & Terrence,
lumber, $4,000; Miami Powder Company, $685.
900; Little Miami railroad, $125 900; private in
dividuals, $4,000 The city engineer places the
city loss at $75. 900. The Little Miami road has
about sixteen miles Of track swept away. In ad-
dition to the above. two more bodies were found
this evening. being children. and they are not
identified. The complete number of deatho
whose bodies have been found is twenty five,
with eleven still missing.
The storm Of last night was far-reaching It
is heard of in Illinois, through Indiana and Ohio,
and at Winchester, Va. Here there has been
unusual electrical disturbance for the past three
nights On Monday night there was almost un-
interrupted lightning from II p. NJ. to A. NJ.
Tuesday night a similar condition existed, ac-
companied by heavy rain and hail, the latter of
very narrow range Last night there was an
other electrical storm, with wind, heavy rain
and hail. The Xenia storm, however. was much
more furious. The counties Of Montgomery,
Clarke, Butler, Warren and Greene lie adjacent
in Ohio, and form an elevated plateau, with but
shallow valleys and low hills In these counties
are the towns of Dayton. Springfield,
Hamilton, Lebanon and Xenia. In
the eastern counties of Indiana, adjoining this
district, are Connersville snd Richmond. At all
these places the rain of last night was one Of the
heaviest volume ever known. Dayton measured
A inches in about three hours. Xexia was stu
ated so as to meet the worst results. Shawnee
run traverses the portion of the city adjacent to
the Little Miami railroad, which lies lower than
the main portion of the oity. The railroad en-
bankment rises above the general level and the
stream flows through it in large culvert Last
nights rainfall was entirely Too much for the ca
last swept away the embankment, and with ac-
cumulated force rushed upon the small cottages
located in the low lands, and without warning
bore them from their foundations.
At Springfield, the food was of nearly equal
volume, but the drainage was better. East
High-street bridge was undermined, and is
mass of ruins. In the eastern and southern
portion of the city. many families were driven
from their houses by the encroaching food.
Dozens of bridges over the stream were washed
away. The losses cannot be estimated. but will
be exceedingly heavy
At Lebanon, O., the NJ E. Church, the Leba-
non House. gristmill, warehouse and several
residences, were unroofed. Shade trees were
ruined. Nearly every railroad across the State
was crippled and some will require several days
for repair.
ANOTHER ACCOUNT
The bright May sunshine of this morning fell
on a desolate and stricken town. After night
of darkness and terror it was grateful to have
light and sun, but what an awful scene 1t re-
vealed-homes laid waste, property swept away,
and, worse than all, the wholesale destruction of
life Like all calamities, the story is of disas-
ter that no one would have suspected could have
happened About o'clock last night wonder
which continued with undated fury for
three hours. The wind came in a continual gale,
with an occasional gust which broke down
trees, slammed shutters and did other damage
The rain fell in sheets, while the sky was livid
with wave after wave of electrical disturbances,
and the muttering of the thunder was hoarse
and continual Most families were huddled
together in fright, for no one knew at what mo-
ment the storm might terminate in a cyclone
But few persons dreamed that food was COM
ing which would sweep away part Of the town
and drown many people. In the midst of the
storm. about 10 o'clock, the fire bells rang out an
alarm, but no great number of people responded
to the call, as they thought it was only fire,
and that it could not do much harm in such
storm; but directly the second warning came
and brought out the whole town, 30 to speak
The streets were dark and the rain was coming
down in torrents, but it was soon learned that
the trouble was that Shawnee creek, that here
tofore harmless little stream, had become mad,
and was out Of its banks and sweeping
everything before it. Standing on the banks
of this little stream, in the rain and darkness
it was an appalling situation. There was
no light, and above the roar Of the angry waters
and the flashing lightning and thunder came the
cry for help from frightened and, in many in
stances, drowning persons. Men rushed fran
tically from the shore into the waters Others
ran in other directions for ropes, ladders lights
and boats At the corner of Detroit and water
streets A bonfire Of store boxes kept nm with
coal-oil was built which gave light to work by,
and which threw lurid glare over the scene.
Here Morris, Tarbox and Byer did heroic work
in rescuing nine persons from the flooded
houses.
Further down. at what is known as Barr's
bottom, strip of low land along the creek, a
scene of terrible destruction was witnessed. A