Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-06-08
Hundreds of COrpses.

NEW FLORENCE, Pa, June 2.-One hun
dred bodies have been recovered at Ninevah
Seventy persons are reported burned TO death
In the Are at Johnstown bridge. w. n.
Hayes, who returned from Johnstown, says
the place Is annihilated. Conemaugh is
wrecked and Cambria City swept away.
Fully Zoo lives are lost.
The calamity was as singular as 1t was IA
tai. Ii is now evident that more lives were
lost because of foolish incredulity than from
ignorance of danger. For more tsan a year
there have been fears OF an accident OF just
| such character. The foundations OF the dam
were considered shaky early last spring and
maLy Increasing leskages were reported from
time 70 time. According to the people who
live Ia Johnstown and other towns on the
line Of the river, ample warnings were given
to the JohRstoWn folks and ia hundreds OF
cases the
WARNING WAS UTTERLY D~ISREGARDED
There has grown up a bitter feeling among
the surviving sufferers against those who
owned the lake and dam, and damage suits
VIII be plentiful. The dams Ia Steny creek
above Johnstown, broke about noon yester-
day and thousands of feet Of lumber passed
Town the stream. IL Is impossible to tell
what the loss Of life will roll up, but at Q
o'clock the coroner of Westmoreland county
sent a message out saying that 100 bodies
had been recovered at Ninevah, half way from
here TO JohnstOwn. Sober-minded people do
not hesitate 10 say that the estimate Of ! 200
lives lost Is moderate.
GLOW can anybody tell how many are
dead?b said q railroad engineer this morning.
81 have been at Sang Hollow with my train
since II O'Clock yesterday and have seen fully
500 persons lost In the flood"
}. w. Fsch, o brave railroad employe, saved
sixteen lives at Ninevah.
The most awful elimination Of the awful
night was the
ROASTING OF oNE HUNDRED OR MORE PER
SOM
In midfood. The ruins OF houses, Outbuild-
ings and other structures swept against the
new railroad bridge at Johnstown, and from
an overturned stove or some other cause the
upper part Of the wreckage took fire. There
were crowds OF men, women and children on
the wreck, and their screams were soon added
TO the awful chorus OF horror. They were
literary roasted IN the flood. Soon after the
fire burned itself out others were thrown
against the mass. There were some fifty
people In sight when the ruins parted, broke
up and were swept under the bridge.
The latest news from YOUNGSTOWN is that
but two houses could be seen In that town.
1t is also said that only three houses remain
in Cambria City.
The first authentic news was from w. n.
Hays, of the Pennsylvania company, who
reached New Florence at 9 o'clock. He says
the valley towns are annihilated. The Asso-
ciated Press now has the only wire between
New Florence and Plttsburg, and has 1t con-
| nected with It's main circuit.
A hospital train arrived AT III o'clock.
THE WATERS ARE o
as rapidly as they rose last night, and as the
banks uncover, the dead are showing up.
Already nine bodies have been picked up
within the limits Of this borough since day
light. None of them have been recognized.
Five of those found are woman. The dead
body Of a young man was discovered In the
branches Of a huge tree which had been car
ried down the stream. All the orchards,
crops and %shrubbery along the banks of the
river are destroyed. The body of another
woman was discovered In the river here.
John l.. Webber and his wife, an old
couple; Mike Tenger and John Forney were
rescued near here early this morning on the
roof of a house on which they had been car
ried from their home In cambria City. There
were seven Others on the roof OF the house
when 1t was carried of by the water. They
were all drowned. The banks on both sides
OF the river at this place are crowded with
anxious watchers, and with horrtfying fire.
quency their vigils are rewarded with the
discovery OF a dead body. Hundreds of peo-
pie from Johnstown and up river towns are
uCiC III oiI VI tuCl dUl
relatives who were swept away in last nights
flood.
INTENSE EXCITEMENT PREVAILS.
Squire Bennet has charge of the dead
bodies, and he is having them properly cared
for. They are being prepared for burial, and
| will be held for Identification.
Many OF the houses here are partially I'M
der water, while at Bolivar the whole lower
part OF the town Is inundated. Every creek
"a a rucbipp river and ayarv rivulat a ronynn
torrent. The ground Ia water soaked, and
when the immense mountain district which
drains Into the Conemaugh above the South
Fork Is taken into consideration, the terrific
volume Of water that accumulated can be re-
| allied, and gathering as 1t did within a few
minutes, 1t came against the breast Of the
South Fork dam with irresistible force. The
frightened natives along the Conemaugh de-
scribes the flood as something awful. The
first rise came almost without warning, and
the torrent came running down the noun
tain passes In one huge wave, several feet In
height. After the first swell the water con-
tinued to rjs, at a IL arful rate.
In order to understand the nature Of this
calamity It Is necessary to describe the
| RESPECTIVE LOCATIONS OF TIE RESERVOIR
at Johnstown. The reservoir lies about
eighteen miles northeast of Johpstown and
is the site of the old reservoir which was one
OF the feeders OF the Pennsylvania canal.
This sheet of water vas formerly known as
Ccnemaugh lake. 1t is from 200 to 800 feet
above the level OF Johnstown, being In the
mountains. 1t Is about three and one-half
miles long and from one mile to one and one
quarter miles in width, and In some places
IL is 100 feet deep. 1t holds more water than
any other reservoir, natural or artificial, In
the United States. The lake had been quad
rupled I'm size by artificial means and was
held in check by a dam ,0C0 feet wide. 1t is
| ninety feet In thickness at the base and the
height is 10 feet. The top has a breadth OF
over 20 feet. Recognizing the menace which
| the lake held 10 the region below South Fork,
the ciub which owned the reservoir had the
| dam inspected once a month by the Pennsyl-
vania railroad engineers and their lnvestiga-
| ton showed that nothing less than some
CONFUSION of nature would tear the barrier
away and loosen the weapon OF death. The
steady rains of the past forty-eight hours
| increased the volume of water In all the small
mountain streams, which were already
| swelled by the lesser rains earlier III the
week. From the best information obtained
| at this time II is evident that something
IN THE NATURE OF A CLoUD-BURsT
| must have been the elimination Of the strug-
| gle Of the water against the embankment.
The course of the torrent from the broken