The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1889-06-06
HUNDREDS DROWN.
A Horrible Calamity Befalls a Town
in the Allegheny Noun
tains.

OF JOunSLOWn mas D6eu uOOuSu anu uunu[6uB
of lives lost. At Blairsvile Intersection q
reliable courier states that 1900 lives are
lost Houses are floating about, and the
people who are free Are panic
stricken and are fleeing to the
mountains At point near New Florence,
eighty five persons have been seen floating
down the river On drift wood One report
comes that but two roofs of the houses in
Johns:own can be seen. The Covetown and
the New Florence bridges have been
washed away, and all the buildings along
the Conelnaugh, between New Florence and
Johnstown have been carried away. The
railroad towers have been abandoned by the
operators The flood at Johnstown has re-
suited in an awful catastrophe. 1t is said
that the reservoir above the town broke
about 5 o'clock this evening, and the i'm
mense volume of water rushed down to the
city, carrying with it
DEATH AND DESTRUCTION
Houses with their occupants were swept
away and scores, probably hundreds, OF peo-
pie were drowned The latest reliable infor-
nation received from Johnstown comes
through Pennsylvania railroad officials,
who aver that over two hundred
dead bodies have been couEted
floating down stream at JohnstoWn alone,
while along the line many additional lives
have been lost 1t is asserted that there are
but two houses in Johnstown proper entirely
above the water line Johnstown is COM
petely submerged and the loss of life is in-
estimable Houses are going down
the river by the dozens, and people can
lie seen clngiDg to the roofs.
A. Cakeville, village of several hundred in
habtants, the houses are almost entirely
covered, and a great many dwellings at
Blairsvile are submerged Scarcely dwell
ing in the vicinity of Sang Hollow can be
seen. The bridges at Bolivar and Min h,
it is reported. have given away and that at
Salisbury it is feared
WILL BE CARRIED AWAY.
People here who have friends in the flooded
district are eagerly waiting fo~ news at the
telegraph office. Great uneasiness prevails.
The river at Livermore is rising, and great
destruction will follow. The telegraph wires
are down absolutely fo- six or seven
miles below the immediate scene of the dis
aster, and being in an unworkabe shape for
three or four miles distant II was at least
7:3O O'Clock before an accurate outline Of
the effect of the tidal wave could be learn ed.
The chief officials of the Pit!sburg end
of the main line OF the Pennsylvania
railroad received most of their first
information from the signal tower at
Sang Hollow, six miles west of JOhnstOwn.
A boy was rescued by men in the signal
| tower of the railroad company. His name
| is unknown but he said that with his father,
mother, brother and two sisters he was
swept over the breas: of the new stone rail
| road bridge at Johnstown; that it capsiZed
few seconds later and they
WERE ALL DROWNED
so far as he could tell The railroad opera
or off cia'ly reports that before dark they
| were able to count 119 persons clinging to
buildings, wreckage, or drowned and float
| ing in the current If this information is to
| be credited, the damage in the town
| proper must be in the nature of clean
sweep. As early as 1 o'clock the alarm YVES
| sent to Johnstown that there was danger
! from the dam. The railroad officials were
notified, and in a very short time began to
carry people from the town to places CT
safety on regular trains and hastily i'm
provised rescuing trains Supt. Pit
cairn, of the Western division of the
| Pennsylvania railroad, was On his way 10
| South Fork, and was notified of impending
| trouble. Supt. Pitcairn promptly took
| charge of the railroad and of tn e work, and
began the double duty of clearing tracks and
sending ali possible aid to those in danger.
His prompt work and Intelligent comprehen-
sion of the danger and his strenuous efforts
to spread the alarm no doubt
SAVED MANY LIVES.
In order to uude rstand the nature of this
| calamity, it is necess ary to describe the re-
| spective locations of the reservoir at Johns
town. The reservoir lies about two aud
half miles northeast of Johnstown, and is
the site of the old reservoir, which was one
of the feeders of the Pennsylvania canal
| II is the property of a number of
wealthy gentlemen in Pittsburg, VINO formed
kense.ves into the cooperation the title of
which is the South Fork Fishing and Hunting
club. This sheet of water was formerly
known as Conemaugh lake. 1t is from 200
to 500 feet above the level of Johnstown. be-
| ing in the mountains 1t is about three and
a half miles long and from q mile to q mile
and quarter in width, and in some places
it is 100 feet in depth. 1t holds more water
than any other reservoir, natural
| or artificial, in the United States
The lake has been quadrupIed in size by ar
80 49,, and was held in check
dam 700 to 1 900 feet wide. 1t is 80 feet
in thickness at the base and the height is
110 feet The top has a breadth of over 20
bad to the region below the South Fork club
had the dam inspected once month by the
Pennsylvania railroad engineer, and their
Investigation showed that nothing less than
some convulsion 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 email mountain streams, which were
| already swelled by the lesser rains earlier in
| the week. FROM the best information OBJ
| tained at this time it is evident that some
| thing in the nature OF a cloud burst must
have been the elimination of the strug-
| ge of the water against the en-
4ankment The difficulty of obtaining def
mite information added tremendously to the
excitement and apprehension of the people
in Pittsburg who had relatives and friends
at the scene of the disaster. Members of the
South Fork club, and among them some of
the most eminent men in the Pittsburg finan-
cial and mercantile world were in or near
Johnstown, and several of them were
accompanied by their wives and families
! There happened to be also quite a number
of residents of Johnston in Pittsbury, and
when the news of the horror was confirms
and the railroads bulletined the fact that no
trains would go east Tonight, the scene at
the union denot was profoundly pathetic and
exciting. But two trains were sent out by the
Pennsylvania railroad from the union station
at Pittsburg, and the first Of these was the
npecial train Of the associated press The
Pittsburg papers also tent out special, but
up to 1890 nothing reliable as to the de-
tails of loss of life or property has been
ascertained. The difficulty of sending press
dispatches was overcome by an expedient
familiar to the associated press in trying
times.
The tracks west of Johnstown are at some
points entirely carried away and the road
bed gone. The river for some distance above
the bridge Is flied with buildings and drift
forty feet high, which is on flre and likely to