The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1888-07-25
ONE HOURS HAVOC.
Great Loss of Life and Damage by
the Wheeling Storm.


WHEELISe, W. Va, July 20.-Last nights
| cloud burst and the preceding storm of less
I than an hour caused loss of perhaps %
lives. and the destruction of many thousand
dollars worth of property in this neighbor-
hood alone Hourly reports from dis
tant points in Ohio and West Virginia iadi-
cafe that the damage elsewhere is immense,
while there is little room for doubt that
many persons persisted. The cloud burst
| here occurred at 6 o'clock and the rain was
over before 4 In that hour terrific damage
was done but long after the tremendous vol
nme of water that fell was swelling the
! streams and flooding streets and houses
PERHAPS A DOZEN nRowsED.
At $50 last night the Baltimore and Ohio
wooden bridge across Main street was swept
away with from twenty TO thirty on it, OF
these ten are known to have been saved.
Several of the rescued were on tow boat
which could not land at the wharf owing to
the current, and had 10 seek a landing lower
down. The river rose three feet in fifty min
utes. Out the National road the trains, coal
chutes, houses and all are gone. The Wheel
ing and Elm Grove Railroad was swept
away for miles, and the roads covered six
feet with water. Over the river the ruin is
even worse. The storm lasted less than an
hour, but flooded the streets from house to
house
On the upper end of Golf street, high on
the hill in the Second ward. the water was
! over the top of stoves and like objects.
! Wagons in the valley of Wheeling creek
were buried beneath the mud and debris.
The Chaplain street and Golf street bridges
are both gone Wood street bridge is impas-
sable Nine residents on the banks of Cald-
wells run are known to have been drowned,
and six houses are gone.
DAMAGE or MANY KINDS.
The Pittsburgh, Wheeling and Kentucky
division of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and
st. Louis road is badly washed at places and
at Others covered II foot deep. The Ohio riy-
er trestle at the creek is gone. Sewers burst
in several places, and roads were washed out
so as 20 be impossible a substantial bridge
on the suburban Elm Grove motor line at
Leatherwood was washed away. The loss
in the city will reach $4,000 and the dam
age to crops in the country is inestimable
The ruin wrought by the cloud burst cut of
town is awful. Every hour or so new fatal
ities are reported. 4 man named Kel,z was
washed away by Boggs run, and he and his
horses were drowned. -Four lives were lost
at Elm Grove.
100000 LOST AT ST. GAINESVILLE
ST.. CLAIRsvILLE, o., July 20.-rhis place
aud vicinity were visited last evening by a
most terrific thunder storm, with violent
winds, and a rainfall that eclipsed the aver
age waterspout. Grain fields were laid waste
and shocked wheat was swept away, and the
growing corn is not to be seen. The Bellaire
and st. Clairsville and the st. Clairsville and
Northern railroads are almost entirely wash
cd out The incoming train ON the Balti-
more and Ohio was stranded at Echo, and
the trainmen and passengers escaped as best
as they could with their lives, the water, fill
ed with drift, running TO the headlight of
the engine. Several narrow escapes are re-
ported, and it is feared that number of
lives were lost. This place and vicinity are
damaged fully 100000