The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1889-06-13
THE LOST CITY.
WIPED UP BY THE RAGING
WATERS.
Johnstown, the Scene Of the Late Disas-
ttous Flood in the Conemaugh Val
ley OF Pennsylvania.

ley OF Pennsylvania.
We give below an article from the
Richmond Times in regard to the
food at Johnstown. 1t is the best
description of this terrible affair we
have yet seen, and gives one a very
clear idea Of the nature of the disaster. |
The Times says:
The hapless city of Johnstwon that
was engulfed by the food, lay in a
close bound valley of the Conemaugh |
river with the South Fork, on which
was dam hundred feet high, which
made lake, the surface of which was
three hundred feet above the level of
the town two miles below.
As the waters began to subside it
was found that hundreds of people
were clinging to trees for miles below
the town. but the work of resCulng was
slow and difficult, and when Sunday
morning dawned the scene was one of
despair and ruin as far as the eye could
reach.
When we estimate the tremendous
power of the food of waters, we can
understand that when the flood had
accumulated above the dam, the sud-
den break precipitated vast mass of
water down the close gorge and swept
! the 900 people away with wave
perhaps fifty feet high. On the western
water shed the rise of water is more
sudden than in the east, the valleys
being narrower, and the mountains
and the hills much more abrupt. 1t
was like the rush of Niagara down into
the whirlpool.
The unfortunate inhabitants had
been repeatedly warned of the risk,
but appeared to be as needless as the
dwellers on the side of volcano.
The South Fork Reservoir was the
largest in the United States and it con-
tanned millions of tons of water.
When the dam broke, like crumbling
sand, building or even a rock that
stood in its path presented as much
resistance as card house. The dread
execution was little more than the
work of an instant.
The flood passed over the town as ii
would pile of shingles, covering over
f or carrying with it everything that
stood in its way. 1t bounded down
the valley, wreaking destruction and
death on every hand. Torrents thai
poured down out of the wilds of the
, the mountains swelled its volume.
, The wrecks of the town were piled
, up against a railroad bridge in masse:
, fifty feet high, and the wreck caugh,
, fire, and the demon of fame came t.
add its horrors to the holocaust where
! thousands of men, women and Childrer
| struggled and perished between th'
two destroying elements that contend
ed in their dreadful rivalry of destruc
| ton.
The picture Of the place that was
few days ago a city of 1900 peopl
q shows only seven houses left from tn
II disaster, and still the awful calamity
C | DuI nall Ieldteu.
The lake which broke and did tn
= dreadful work was an area of abou
4 seven hundred acres, three quarters c
q a mile wide and two and half mile
h long. 1t was the property of tn
"a South Fork Hunting and Fishing Clul
4 The railroad bridge which spans tn
"a river below the town stood firm, an
\ caused dam that backed the flood u
20 against the town, while the vast "log
boom" in Stony creek, that emptit
into the Conemaugh, at the towr
rushed down and battered the alread
shaken houses.
L The immense works of the Cambr
II Iron Company, employing seve
t. thousand men, went down before tt
towering wall of water like piles {
=, shingles and the batterng of the ma
= OF floating timbers from Stony cree
:, at once began to destroy the roofs
= the houses and break TO pieces the pill
- of wreck on which hundreds Of scream
~ ~. ing people clung with disparing e
:, forts for the last chance OF life.
"A 1t is impossible to describe brief
=, - the su,ldenness with which the dlsast
:; came. 4 warning was heard at Con
maugh, two miles distant, a few mil
~ utes before the rush Of water came, b.
=. il was attributed to some meteolog
~ cal disturbance, and no trouble W
- borrowed because of a thing unsee
,, The low, rumbling noise increased
- volume. h w.yer, and came nearer.
:, suspicion of danger began to force
self upon even the braves', which w
increased 10 a certainty u few inlnut
-. later, when with rush, the NIGH
" stream spread out in width. The
was no time to save themselves, al
as many unfor;unates were whir!ed IN
OF the midst of the stream before III
lie, could turn around. Men, women a
'od children were struggling in the wat
viii powerless to help themselves.
1t was twilight of terror and
gathering shades of evening closed
loi' a panorama of horrors that has