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

The Damage Not SO Great as Re.
pOrted-LOss of Property Along
the Susquehanna - Names Of
the Losers.
The damage by the flood to Port Deposit
was not as great as reported. Stlll there
is not fence or clubhouse from the depot
to Rock Run that has not been washed
our or carried away by the food, which
was not the case with previous floods.
The lumber yards of Tunis Il Co.. Row
land & Buck, and j. A. Davis suffered some
loss. The fishermen are heavy losers.
All their buildings and contents have been
washed away.
AT seven o'clock Sunday morning the
logs and lumber began to drift by, and
from eight up to six o'clock that evening
an almost solid mass of them a half mile
wide, intermingled with sheds, roofs,
fences, and here and there a dead horse.
COW or pig were floating down on the
Hartford county side. The supply did not
seem to be in any wise Stacking off at
nightfalI. Messrs Flynn and Parrot
representing the firm of Green, Stone II
Co., of Pennsylvania went to Port De-
post to organize a force to bnild boom
to save this valuable lumber, but they
found that they might as well try to stop
a sheet of lightning, as no one could vep-
ture upon the river. Besides this no one
about the locality would have counter.
anced the construction of boom that
would have gorged the stream as effect
ually as drift ice, only to back the water
up so high as to make the inundation
complete. The Williamsport timber
boom broke at 9 a. m, Saturday morning
with twenty nine foot rise of water, and
the logs finished timber and debris from
up country was on Sunday speeding by
at the rate of eight miles an hour on
river swollen fifteen feet above it's nat
ural level.
The river rose suddenly two feet just
before the first rush of logs, and from 8
o'clock to p. M, the time of high tide,
the water rose thirteen feet more. 1t kept
rising until 5 p. M. The Columbia and
Port Deposit Railroads last train went
from P,rt Deposit to Perryville at 11.30
O'Clock Saturday night. Sunday the
place where the tracks ought to be seen
was an angry torrent of water.
All the islands of the Susquehauna
near Port Deposit were submerged, and
no communication could be had with the
main land. These islands are Smiths,
Roberts. Wood, Spencer's, Steele's and
Snake Ears were entertained that the
and three children. who live on Roberts
Island, were drowned. They proved to
be groundless however. A earpen-
ter shop. with all its tools and
material, hoafed away from the town
amidst the general escape OF outhouses
and sheds, and one such structure, 10 by
12 feet in size, was caught with rope
and tied securely ashore.
Port Deposit has practically but one
street extending for more than mile be-
tween the river which is usually ten feet
below, and a cliff over a hundred feet
high.
So threatening had the angry waters
become by ten O'clock Saturday night
that the Inhabitants on the west side of
the street either moved their effects to
the upper stories of their dwellings or
betook themselves hurriedly to the houses
on higher ground. All night long lights
were moving about the town, and gray
morning shone on nea,y erybody
awake and on the alert for danger. Over
come by several hours exertion and anx-
iety, however, few persons had dropped
into an uneasy sleep. Men, women and
children were early astir, and those who
had remaiLed within doors were con-
fronted at their house entrances by hus-
bands or brothers carrying lanterns and
returning to change their knee boots Tor
hip boots. as the water Was steadily ris-