Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1889-07-25
COUNT ToLsToI's wife is in America
looking after her husbands books.
ADISASTROUS STORM.

Lancaster (O) Letter, July 81.
One of the most disastrous storms ever
known in the Hooking Valley culmina-
ted yesterday in the breaking of Sharp'S
dam. at Sugar Grove on the Hooking Ca
nal. The dam held in store large body
of water that supplied the lower levels of
the canal. The heavy rains had filled the
reservoir to the banks, when suddenly the
dam gave way, and with a mighty roar
the sea of water went out through the
valley, taking with it every movable OBJ
iect. For twenty miles the soil is plOwed
up. Trees, fences, crops, and hundreds of
head of live stock have been swept away.
No lives were lost, because the people had
taken warning and because the houses are
situated on the bluff that overloOkS the
valley. But the canal for miles is wreck
and thousands of feet of railroad track
are washed away.
At Athens the Cincinnati, Washington
and Baltimore and the Hooking Valley
railroad tracks are carried away, and on
both roads trains will be delayed several
days. Roads and bridges are annihilated
and the whole valley for miles around has
the appearance of dry water-course.-
Competent judges place the loss in the
hundreds of thousands
THE STORM AT WAVERLY.
The heaviest rain ever known here Wis
tied this section of country Thursday
night. About three inches of water fell
here. Eight or ten miles North cloud
burst deluged the entire country. Hun
dreds of rods of fences are gone, immense
gulleys washed in the public roads, and
much damage done to outlying crops
Several hundred feet of the canal bank is
washed out, hundred-fOot aqueduct at
Stony Greek went down, and the big stone
culvert at Indian Creek is gone. Coon
Creek plowed through the pike and canal,
and has changed Its channel and is now
flowing into the Scioto River.
IN THE KANAwHA VALLEY.
Parkersburgh Letter. July 49,
The greatest disaster which ever befell
the Little Kanawha Valley came last
night in the shape of a terrible cloud
burst. which has completely flooded the
country, destroying many lives, carrying
off thousands of dollars in property and
running the crops for many miles. The
deluge fell here about dusk and continued
to fall in torrents, doing much damage in
the city. The worst of the storm struck
the lower side of the Kanawha, filling the
small tributaries from bank to bank and
ending in the worst flood within the re-
collection of the oldest inhabitant. In
three hours the Kanawha raised six feet.
and ran out with such velocity that every
thing before it was swept away. At this
point thousands of logs and number of
boats went out or were sunk.
Above the destruction was still greater
Big Tygart Valley is completely ruined.
The big mill near its mouth went ont and
took the Tygart bridge with it. In the
valley fences, crops, and much live stock
was lost. AT Chesterville, small town
about ten miles above, half the residences
were carried off bodily and left in corn
fields. In Clay District fine church and
three dwellings were wrecked.
The worst story of all comes from Nor
ristOwn, small village near the head of
Tucker Creek, where the cloud burst con-
centrated in all its fury, coming down on
the village about midnight and totally de-
stroying it, together with many of its peo-
pie. About twenty lives were lost. The
people are said to have been picked up
and hurled against each other in such
short space of time that no chance to es-
cape was given the people.
At Pill Brush all bridges and culverts
are washed away. and it is impossible to
reach or communicate with that point or
any other on the upper waters. 1t is i'm
possible now to enumerate the loss even
here, as the river is still rising and tear
ing everything loose. A family boat, con-
tanning three or four persons, went out
during the night and it is believed all are
lost, as the last seen of them was when a
woman held up child in her arms and
beck0ned for assistance as the boat dis
appeared iJl the food.