Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1889-06-06
THOUSANDS DROWNED.
One of the Most Horrible Calami-
ties on Record.
The City of Johnstown and Other Penn.
syivania Towns swept Out of FIX
Istencs by Rushing Waters
Terrible Scenes.
MISERY Am woE


MISERY AND WOE
PHILADELPHIA june 3-Late details OF
the calamity In Pennsylvania multiply many
times the early estimates OF the number of
lives lost aud the probable value of the
property destroyed. The first reports were
confined mainly TO the destruction wrought
at Johnstown. but they have since been eX-
tended to a dozen towns and villages
and to cover a vast extent of terri
tory. When the flood caused by
the bursting of the South Fork dam, came,
it rushed down with fearful rapidty,
wall OF water from thirty to fifty feet high
Jamestown was almost totally destroyed in a
few minutes. Large factories, stores public
buildings, paiatial residences and modest
homes were swept away and their inmates
crushed to death in the collapse of build
ings or drowned after heroic but vain eff
forts to reach places of safety.
II is estimated that 10000 citizens OF
Youngstown and its immediate vicinity per-
ished The towns of South Fork, Mineral
Point, Conemaugh Woodvale, Cambria City
and other places, having from 900
to 1000 inhabitants were completely
devastated, and hundreds of their citizens
carried down by the torrent to be tossed
lifeless upon the banks and partly buried IN
debris Such fearful destruction as was
oceasioned within thirty miles from
the dam to the town OF New
Florence has never before been
recorded The stone bridge OF the Penn
sylvania Railroad Company just below
JohnstOwn withstood the tremendous flood
and against its piers was thrown a
pass of wreckage, 20 which per-
haps 1000 human beings were clingipg
tenaciously for life. Portions of house
after house were added to this drift
which became an immense dam Even
bridges freight cars and locomotives were
lodged there. Then to the horror OF the
food was added that OF fire, which was
communicated to the debris from a stove,
and many who had hoped for succor from
the waters We're burned to death.
The magnitude of the catastrophe can
not now be approximately stated. The de
VISITATION in the entire region is SO COM
plete as to prevent access to the desolate
and heartbroken survivors, and the prop
city loss is incalculable Watchers
Upe the banks OF the rivers recov-
efing bodies villages below Johnstown
have become charnal houses, all points an
nopncing numbers Of dead left by the re-
ceding flood Several trains on the Penn
s1lvania railroad were o1ertaken by the
rising waters and some passengers, stran-
gers to the locality, lost their lives in
The excitement which prevailed In Johns
town and neighboring places whole fami-
lies were swept away together The scene
of utter desolation, the deeds of hero!sm
and the lamentations of those unable to
LEARN tidings of loved ones make n pathetic
story, but It is married by the deplorable
fact that the ghouls who escaped the flood
robbed the dead bodies of valuables
Some corpses were taken from the
piftahnrnh nfbarc AZ
distances from the point where the disaster
occurred
Movements for the relief of survivors,
who are in need OF all comforts OF life,
have been made promptly by Federal, State
and municipal authorities and by in
dividuals
HOW THE FLOOD CAME.
At 4 o'clock Friday afternoon, Just before
the wires went down east of Sang Hollow,
the operator al South Fork telegraphed
Sang Hollow that the great South Fork dam
was about to burst The next call over the
wire for South Fork got no answer The
wires we're down.
An hour later there came a rush of water
into Johnstown compared with which the
preceding flood had been as nothing. 1t
poured down Conemaugh creek in great
wave like wall of water, sweeping every
thing before It,
The immense works of the Cambria Iron
Company, employing 1000 men, the second
largest iron works in this country, were
buried out OF sight, except the roofs and
chfmney-tops and these soon began to
crumble and disappear under the battering
of the floating timber
Half the town seemed to be lifted from
its foundations and swept away at once
The wreckage covered the water thicker
than the houses that had stood in the town
before. 1t was no longer food of water
1t was town atioat.
Many had taken warning and fled to
higher ground, but hundreds of men, wom-
en- and children were swept away, their
heartrending cries rising above the crash of
smashing houses.
The mass of wreck, water, dead bodies
and drowning people rushed down into the
mouth of the gorge, where the hills come
together like a pair of giant arms, and
choked the stream.
The stone bridge stood firm as the hills
The wreck caught on the masonry Ii
thickened into dam. 1t clung to the bridge
and the hollow OF the hill 1t gathered
strength with every piece of wreck and
every body that was crushed into it and
bound them all together in tangled wall
closing up half the outlet toward which the
AAOuhOdAA WdOCAo biiCh uOOu.
The water burst even the flood limits
which it had taken for its new banks and
poured a new river In new channel
through the heart of the lower part of the
city. The drift piled up against the dam it
bad formed at the bridge House after
house added It's wreck TO the heap until it
formed tangled mass from thirty to sixty
feet thick, rising high above the water and
stretching back three-quarters OF q mile
along the curve of the hill Here it was
that the awful holocaust took place.
The thousands of houses fioated against
the bank ON one side have been jammed
and pounded by logs coming down from
above, and human occupants have been
wedged in as part and parcel of the
heterogeneous mass, which extends for
three-quarters of a mile and is 40 to 60 feet
high and 800 to 800 feet wide. 1t is this
mass which has been burning above the
water line.
THE HOLOCAUST.
DERRY, Pa, June 3--Of all the fearful
occurrences the most terrible was the fire
in which Supervisor Hays, of the Pennsyl-
yania road estimated that from 900 to
1000 beings were burned to death Over
800 frame houses were iammed together in
a heap forty feet high against the
massive viaduct of the Pennsylvania
road at Johnstown. All the houses
were destroyed and the majority of the in
mates were crushed to death before the
terrific fire began. Men, women and chill
dren, with their limbs pinioned between
the timbers. their hfe-blood slowly ebbing
away, begged for relief. One woman
asked a man on the banks to cut
her legs of. man was caught by
the arm and be asked for q knife
TO sever the member. Others were all
smashed and squeezed TO death beneath
the grinGing timbers and surging waters
Some were pressed deep into the water,
and the flood soon ended their misery
But when the fire broke out in the mass OF
ttmbers nobody escaped Saturday after
noon men succeeded in reaching the ruins,
bnt were powerless to aid. No APP
pliances were at hand TO do proper work
and the people who are wedged in among
the ruins of their houses against the inn
mense stone bridge, facing death by flood,
by fire, by hunger and by exposure, are, in
all human probability, beyond hope How
many of them are in this awful plight may /
never be fully known.
TRAINS WASHED AWAY
PHILADELPHIA, June Authorization was
received Saturday night at the office of the /
Pennsylvania railroad of a frightful dis
aster to two of the through trains from
Pittsburgh, which have been supposed to
be safe at Conemaugh Assistant Superin- /
tendent Trump telegraphs from Blairsville !