New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-07-11
THE FULTON COUNTY CLOCDBURST.

The sudden and historic rise of Conemaugh
Lake on the morning Of May 81 was due to a
rainfall sufficiently widespread to reach from
Lake Erie to North Carolina. But the dis
asters along Cayadutta Creek last Tuesday
evening were caused by local not Il general
storm Rain fell that day in this State only
at few widely separated points in showers,
some light, some copious The one which
made mischief i'm Fulton County and along the
New-YCrll Central Railroad was doubtless con-
fined to a few square miles lis greatest
severity. perhaps was limited to much smaller
area and to a period Of time reckoned by min
uteS rather than hours. Although bad weather
continued most Of the day, and the afternoon
rain was heavy, it is not likely that the deluge
could have proved SO serious without the re-
enforcement Of a cloudbutSt.
This meteorological phenomenon results from
the same conditions As the thunder shower,
hailStOrm, summer squal and tornado, although
it resembles the last named weather freak in
It's anatomy. In this type Of local storm Cor
feature Of a local storm. hot moist air is car
red up from the surface of the earth. through
an opening, only few hundred feet across, in
the colder layers above Such is the velocity
of the ascending current that some Of the
water produced by condensation remains sus-
pended near the base Of the cloud, although
part Of it is dispersed sideways to fall in scat
tered drops more or less furiouSly. Mean
while. the gyrating air column is borne along
over the earth But in time. owing to a com
binatiOn of causes, among which is usually a
collision with hill or mountain slope, the
ol, 1au1v ba ftti1
emulation is preciptated in bulk Ferrel
says: "The water in cloudburstS generally
does not fall as rain, but is poured down." The
foothills Of the Adrondacks reaching south
ward into Fulton County greatly favor such an
occurrence. Already the small stream which
flows through GlUyerSyille, JohnStown and
Fonda to the Mohawk was swollen: but when u
torrent which cannot we'll be accounted for
except by the occurrence Of cloudburSt sud
denly added its volume to the angry Cayadutta
the latter quickly rose. and its destructive power
was enormously enhanced. In a course Of not
over six or eight miles it swept away three
dams nearly dozen bridges and several mills
and houses, destroyed number Of
lives and, on debouchng from the narrow
valley into the broad Mohawk cut away great
embankment, which it may require days to re-
store. TO some extent, no doubt, the first Of
these disasters promoted the others; the strain
on one dam, for instance, being abruptly aug
| mented by the surrender of the next one up
stream; and the horror Of the whole was in
tensifed in JohnstOwn by the extinction of the
electric lights when they were most needed
and the temporary suspension Of telephone
communication.
Perhaps the greatest lack of human caution
revealed by the story of the new Johnstown
disaster was displayed by the luckless spec
tatorS standing on the stone bridge whose
collapse caused almost the only loss of life
To chance rather than foresight, probably. is
due the fact that the dams were mostly below
rather than above the chief towns which suf-
fered, otherwise, the havoc might have been
far more appalling