The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1889-06-07

Allegheny and the Monongahela. Wall up
the farther shore OF the Allegheny with
PERCEPTIONS hill rising almost from the
waters edge, narrowing the space for the
Ohio to flow 10 mere gap between the hills
100 yards wide, and yon have fair idea of
the geography of the place where yesterday
there wac city of 10000 people, and
where to-day there IS a waste of water chok-
ed with blazing wreck.
Stony creek and Conemaug creek come
together there and form the Conemaug
river. The stone railroad bridge referred
to by Superintendent Hays spans the Cone
maug river Just below the town. The mas
sye stonework stood firm, fatally firm.
EVERYTHING SWEPT BEFORE THE FLOOD.
The big lumber boom up stony creek
burst at an early hour yesterday, and the
rushing water hurled It's thousands of logs
into the flooded sections of Johnstown and
Kernville borough, lying just across the
neck. 1t was worse than bombardment
by heavy artillery. The foundations were
already undermined, and the heavy logs
crushed through houses as though they had
been built of paper. The flood swept every
thing clear as it went, and while grea:
masses of wreck were carried away down
the river through the wild mountain gorges,
so much of it caught on the bridge and the
hill, which above the bridge curves back
from the river, that a dam was formed, and
the water backed still further up into the
town.
At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, just before
the wires went down eaet of here, the OPP
orator al South Fork ttlegraphed fom
Sang Hollow that the great South Fork
dam was about to burst. The next call oyer
the wire for South Fork got no answer
The wires were down. An hour later there
came a rush of water in Johnstown compar-
ed with which the preceding flood had been
as nothing. 1t poured down Conemsug
creek in great wavelike wall of water,
sweeping everything before it.
WRECK OF THE CAMBRIA PLANT.
The immence works of the Cambria
Iron Company, employing 1000 men,
the second largest iron works IN the
country, were buried out of sight, ex-
cept the roofs and chimney tops, which
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 had stood in
the town before. 1t was no longer a
flood of water, it was town afloat,
Many had taken warning and fled to
the higher ground, but hundreds of
men, women and children were swept
away, their heartrending cries arising
above the crash of the smashing
houses.
AN AWFUL SCENE.
The mass of wreck. water, dead
bodies and drowning people rushed
down into the mouth of the gorge,
where the hills come together like
pair of giant arms, and choked the
stream. The stone bridge stood firm
as the hills. The wreck caught on the
masonry. It thickened into dam. 1t
chung to the bridge and the hollow of
the hill.
1t gathered strength with every
piece of wreck and everybody that was
crushed into it, and bound them all
together into tangled wall, closing
up half the outlet toward which the
mountain waters piled their flood. The
water burst even the flood limits,
which it had taken for its new banks,
and poured new river in new chan
mel through the heart of the lower part
of the city.
The drift piled up against the dam
it had formed at the bridge. House
after house added its wreck to the heap,
until it formed a tangled mass from
80 10 60 feet thick, rising high above
the water, and stretching back three
fourths of mile along the curve of
tho hill