The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1889-06-08
A Modern Deluge.
5000 or 10, 200 Human Be.
ings Perish in the Flood.
Fire Adds its TerrOrs to the HOBO
caust Of Struggling Victims.

CAu6O va 0SA mo .-->0
On the afternoon and night OF
Friday, May 31st, the most de-
structive food that has ever occur
red in the United States swept
down the Conemaugh valley in
Pennsylvania, completely destroy
ing six or eight towns, and drown
ing eight or ten thousand persons.
The frightful rush OF waters was
caused by the collapse OF the South
Fork resavoir, an enormous artl1-
cial lake held in reserve by a rock
and cement dam no feet in height.
Owing to incessant rains the water
in this immense receptacle had
raised to within few feet of the
top of the rock dam, when terrific
rain and thunder storm came up,
and under the immense strain the
dam gave way, precipitating this
great wall of water into the thickly
settled valley Nesting between the
Allegheny and Laurel mountains
where the streams were already
full to overlooking from the recent
: rains. The consequences which
followed we're simply terrible and
heartrending. The people OF the
towns and vicinity have had dread
!. of some such calamity all along
but as they have on several occa'
!. sions received false alarms of the
dam giving way, it had become {
;, stale story with them, and wher
the real danger was staring then
5 in the face they could not realiz'
y the peril threatening them. Al
though the officers and passenger
,s shouted from the railroad train
and warned the people to flee t
Re- higher ground, but few of then
n believed there was any real DANCE
or decided the warning, and In Al
hours time, and in some instance
ck within few, moments, the angr
r rushing waters were upon then
The scenes of death and destrut
ton that followed almost begga
: description. In some places tn
water came down in solid wall ]
- or 20, and some say 80 feet higl
carrying everything before it. l
other places it rose or was backe
up more gradually, rising at tt
rate of five feet an hour-one inc
I every minute = and the doome
= people first took refuge in the upp'
e. stories of their houses, only to
forced to climb upon the hou
tops, and then find the buildiI
rs loosed from its moorings and bor1
along with the angry tide, beariI
-. them to almost certain death.
When the news first came ov
be- the wires, the destruction OF Ii
tn; reported was SO great that it W
almost impossible to believe it, b.
=. as the hours and days of suspen
that followed were only relieved
details of horrors that had tral
i n PRED, the great sympathetic he'
irsd of the civilized world grew 81
over the recital of the incidents
the awful holocaust of human
4 ings. Strong men, weak won
Tex and innocent children were ali
zas. helpless in the force and fury
La. the mighty waters, and the scel
and incidents related of that tel
"a "a BILE evening and night are enou
- to cause pity in the hearts OF
- most callous and indifferent. ]
towns of South Fork, Mineral Po'
CHI, Csas Conemaugh, Johnstown and "a
, :,ss bria, each of which had popr
sod ton of from 1900 to 5000,
three or four smaller villages,
y side number of industrial en'
s.s s prises and farms, we're liter'