Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1889-06-04
ANOTHER DELUGE,
A Whole Valley With a
Dozen Populous
Towns De-
stroyed.
From 5000 to $4,000
People Drowned by
The Breaking
Of a Dam.
A TALE OF HORROR NEVER
EQuALED IN THE NEW
WORLD.
The Work of Saving and Identifying
The Bodies.
BunAN oHouLs ROB THE DEAD.

eet above 1t, In the Allegheny noun
aims, was sheet Of water formerly
.nown as Conemaugh lake. 1t IL
bout 81 miles long and from | to
" in width aud in some places 1t Ii
90 feet in depth. 1t holds more wa
err than any other reservoir, natural
Or artificial, in the United States
The lake has been quadrupled In siz
by artificial means, and was held In
check by a dam 1000 feet wide. 1t l.
80 feet in thickness at the ba'e, and
the height is ITO feet. The top had y
breadth of over twenty feet.
The steady rains Of the past tw"
iays, in addition to those in the ear
Ter part OF the week, so swelled the
mountain streams emptying into Thu
lake, that it forced the walls and
turned the great volume of waters
loose upon the valley below.
When the dam burst, the water
came like whirlpool, and before the
people knew II they were In Its grasp
By 7 o'clock the stream became thirk
strewn with men, women and chill
dren, clipging to all sorts of temp
rary means of salvation, and tw"
men and a woman chung to the top
of huge trees. A man rescued In the
river here, who was swept away
from Johnstown, says positively that
no less than 1900 lives are probably
lost in the valley of the Conemsugh
WORSE AND MORE OF 1T
SAxG Hollow, Pa June 2, l a m
The first accounts sent out of the
Johnstown disaster are far below the
widest estimates placed upon the ex-
tent of the calamity, and instead OF
1000 or 5000 it is probable the death
list will reach s,000-many say l5,OOO
1t is now known that two passenger
trains, two sections Of the day ex'
press on the Pennsylvania Railroad
have been thrown into the maddened
torrent, and the passengers drowned
The sc trains were held at YOUNGSTOWN
from Friday at II a. m, and were
living on q siding between the Johns
town and Conemaugh stations. The
awful torrent came down the narrow
deflle between the mountains, a dis
lance of nine miles, and with fall Of
800 feet in that distance,
swLEpISG AWAY THE VILLAGES
of South Fork, Mineral Point, Wood
vale and Conenaugh, leaving but one
building standing, woolen mill,
where but All hour before had stood
hundreds, and dashing on with the
roar Of q cataract and the speed oil
the wind upon the fair city at the
foothills. The great Gsutier steel
works sat in this plane and the city
below Il, the railroad tracks bound
ing Il at the base ofthe mountains on
be north. Here the trains were
standing when the tide of water like
a catapult came down on them with
such resistle,s force that the heavy
trains, locomotives, Pullmans and all
were overturned, and J0
y SWIFT DOWN THE TORRENT,
and were lodged against the great
stone viaduct along with f rty-o
locomotives from the Johnstown
round. house, the heavy machinery
and Ionderous framework of the
Gautier mill, the accumulated debris
of more than thou AID houses, fur
niture, bridges, lumber, drift and
human b,ings. The low arches of
the stone viaduct choked up inme-
diately, and the water Lacked
over the entire level of the valley
upon which the city stood, to the
depth of what, from the water works,
indicate about 80 feet. In the great
sea thus formed, hundreds, perhaps
thousands Of people were struggling
for life. Tho scene to-day is one of
the most h arrowing possible for the
Imagination of man to conceive.
The accumulated drift gorged up at
the viadnct To- height Of forty feet
and then took fire from the upsetting
of stoves or lamps.
AS THE FLAMES cRAcKLED
and reared among the dry finder Of
the floating houses, human bodies
were seen pinioned between the
house roofs, locomotives, iron beams,
freight, passenger, Pullman and bag
gage cars, the greedy flames licking,
with haste, their diet of human flesh
The scene was horrible, beyond ue-
scription. From infancy to the
wasted figures of age we're burned
before the eyes of the beholders. and
no rescue from such fate was posi-.
BILE. Strong men turned away with
agonized expressions and women
shrieked at the horror of the scene.
The dead has been computed at moi
less than 5000 and the number ma,
exceed that estimate.
Joussrows, Pa, June 2.-when
Superintendent Pitcairn tclegraphed
to Pittsburg Friday night that Johns.
town was annihilsted, he came very
close to the facts Of the case, although
he had not seen the Inflated city. To
say that Johnstown 70 a wreck is but