The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1889-06-08

ocuG uoWh UuO Ndlitf ihhu bhO sionp
South Fork dam, which backs tie Cone
maugh Lake $50 feet above the river
level had weakened and threatened to
burst. 1t did break at 3 O'clock on Fri
day afternoon, and in ALI hour had poured
down over the doomed valley. Some
who were building new
draining system at the lake tried to avert
the disaster by digging a sluice way on
the dam. They had about forty men at
work, and did all they could, without
avail. The water passed over the dam
about half past g Whatever happened
in the way of a cloudburst took place
during the night.
BEGAN IN RIPPLE OVER THE BANK.
There had been but little rain up to
dark. When the workmen woke III the
morning the lake was very full. and was
rising at che rate of a foot an hour. 1t
kept on rising, until at o'clock it first
began breaking over the dam aud under
mining it: men We're sent three or four
times during the day to warn people be
low of their danger. When the final
break came at 3 O'Clock there was
sound like tremendous and continued
peals of thunder, trees, rocks and earth
were shot up into mid air in great col
umns, and then the wave started down
the raviue. A farmer who escaped said
that the water did not come down like a
wave, but jumped on his house and beat
it to fragments in an instant.
NOW 1T is But A MUD PUDDLE.
At the present time the lake looks like
cross between the crater of volca,
and a huge mud puddle, with stumps OF
trees and rocks scattered over it. There
is small stream of muddy water run
ming through the centre of the lake site.
The break IN the dam is about 200
feet wide, and there is but a small
portion of the dam left on either side.
No damage was done TO any of the build
Ings belonging to the club.
To aid those who were willing to heed
the alarm and flee from their homes to
places OF safety the Pennsy lvania Rail,
road sent special traits down the valley,
but few people were willing to forsake
their homes, even in view of the rapidly
rising waters and the terrible menlce of
the weakening dam. and they laughed or
sneered at the warning that was given
them.
Needed THE ALARM TOO LATE.
Higher and higher rose the river. until
the streets of Johnstown were flooded to
a depth of three or four feet. Awaken
ing to sense of their danger the citizens
strove to remove their goods to the
mountain side, and they struggled about
in the torrents that poured through every
street. Up in Stony Creek great boom
held in check mountain of logs. The
swollen streams tugged and strained at
this mountain of lumber until it gave
gave way, and with mighty roar the
enormous mass hurled itself down into
the submerged section of Johnstowu,
crashing through the houses as though
they were tlimsy structures of cardboard,
and sweeping dwellings and all their
contents of living beings aid household
goods off into the Cunemaugh River and
to death. But this was only the begin
ming, and Johnstown was so far the ouly
suffering town. Then it was that the lit
tie ripple over the lakes bank had be-
come torrent and lad torn great gap
in the wall of the earth which held the
water in check, and Jobnstown's end had
come.
Down through the South Fork Creek
sped the flood until it reached the b,nd
where the Conemaugh Creek is Joined
and where the village of South Forks
stood. As man would crush piece OF
paper so the demon of the waters swept
away the village and twisted and rent
the tracks OF the Pennsy lvania Railroad
like bits of straw. The enormous volume
of water swept along the course of the
Conemaugh Greek, dealing destruction
on every hand, obliteratiDg the villages
of Mineral Point, Cunemaugh and Wood
vale, and rushing upon the city of Johns
town and Cambria City, already wrecked
by the breaking of the boom in the Stony
Greek. With rush and roar the tor
rent swept the last vestiges of the city
down the river, hurting houses, mills,
machinery, timber and trees against the
massive stone bridge OF the Pennsylvania
Railroad, and forming dam that held
back the flood until Johnstown was
buried tnirty feet beneath the turbulent
waters.
wRECKING PASSENGER TRAIN