The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1890-10-13
A TERRIBLE STORM.
The Heaviest Rain Ever Expe-
rienced, while it Lasted.
SERIOUS DAMAGE RESULTS
To Railroads In all Dlrcctions..Thc
Great Floods of'S8 Outdonc In
Many Respccts..Tho Worst
Probably not Known.

A rain storm generally pronounced
the hardest, while It lasted, ever expert.
enced here, fell last evening. A very
heavy rain, but not phenomenal, fell
about 5 o'clock. This ceased, and a few
patches OF blue sky appeared. About
twenty minutes past five the sky began
10 cloud up with the densest black
clouds ever seen here. Lang before 1t
| Is ordinarily dark the light Of day was
absolutely shut OIL from the whole face
Of the earth. At half past five tire.
mendous rain began, and 1t grew
momentarily harder until at six the rain
was literally falling In sheets. It lasted
so until about twenty minutes past six,
when 1t began to slackeD, and in Il short
time only n gentle shower was falling.
In the fosty minutes that the storm
was at its worst the rainfall was prob.
ably heavier than in any tqual time re.
membered by the Oldest inhabitant Of
| Wheeling. Yellow torrents poured
down from the hills, and all the streets
running from cas-. u west ran rivers oil
muddy water into the main streets.
THE STREETS FLOODED.
From Tenth street to the creek Market
street WIS full OF a rushing tide OF water.
Main street from the foot OF the hill to
the creek was even worse. Twelfth
street was still worse. 1t was full Of
water from house to house, and wher.
ever there was IN opening into 4 cellar
the muddy flood poured In. covering the
cellar floors from few inches to several
feet. Fourteenth street was never so
full OF water except In the flood OF 81
The turgid streams from east OF Four.
teenth street united II. Market with the
curb.full mass Of water and mud from
Market, and below on both Ma'ket
and Fourteenth the streets were tenn
porarily converted into rivers, the
waters flowing over at places upon the
sidewalk, and at low points flooding the
cellars rs on Twelfth street.
AtFourtecnth and Main, and from that
south to the creek, there was lake
which, when it receded, left deposit Of
sticky, slippery mud. At Sixteenth and
Market the situation was as bad. At
Market and Fourteenth, also, big ridges
OF gravel, sand and Shiny mud were
lGllS VI DObll SllSClt5 CNCiN lSl-
lar got more or less of deluge, but not
a great deal Of damage was reported. The
Mcclure house was flooded from Twelfth
street.
on THE SOUTH SIDE
In the South End Of town the vista
ton was, as it always is, most severe.
Caldwell's run behaved as il generally
lJnpo II ,va, n n u.oI ~, In l,o ,rb;1a vet
the storm was raging, and after the rain
was over the water from the hills SWELL
ed the raging river still higher, invading
houses, overlooking bridges and cover
ing roads and fields.
The flood swept irresistibly on, carry
ing logs, stones, earth and debris OF all
kinds with it. At the old Eof street
bridge the debris, with the mountainous
torrents behind it, lodged against the
gas and water mains. Nothing could
Withstand such force, and the city gas
mains, natural gus mair9 and water
mains gave way and parted, leaving the
Eighth ward in darkness, without water
and fuel gas. For good while it was
feared that the EoT street bridge would
be washed away. The stree. cars stop.
ped for short time during and imme.
diately after the storm, but afterwards
the bridge was found to be safe, and the
electric motors made their usual trips
till ten O'Clock, when, fearing serious
complications from the storm, the power
was shut of.
AT cALDwELL's RUN.
A yisi. TO Caldwe)l's run showed that
the damage there was serious, although
the roads into the country were impass.
able, and it was impossible to get the
particulars OF the ruin wrought. 4
bridge was reported 10 be washed away
up the run. Pieces Of fences, articles OF
furniture, logs and trees were swept
down the stream. There we're some
wild reports in circulation, but no loss
Of life was credibly reported. When the
city gas main broke, the open end swung
around in such 3. way us to pour its
whole contents into house standing
near. Secretary Franzheim and Assist.
ant Secretary He'll were notified Of the
accident by telephone, and went down.
| They shut off the gas. The natural gas
and water were also shut off rs promptly
as possible, to avoid accident. Several
of the houses in that vicinity were
flooded in the lower stories, and great
masses Of mud and stones were piled
up where the run Overlooked.
Great alarm prevailed in the vicinity, |
owing to former experiences, and most |
Of thote who dwelt below the danger
line got out OF harms way.
The amount Of water that came down
the run indicated that the rain was even
heavier east Of the city than in town.
The run was etill pouring out swollen
tide at midnight, the volume then being
even greater than few hours before, so
that the storm must have been awful in
the hills about it's headwaters,
WHERE THE STORM WAS WORST.
The storm in great many OF It's fea.
lures strongly resembled the two dis.
astrous ones Of July and August, 1888,
the ravages OF which have not yet been
entirely repaired. The heaviest fall OF
water was east Of Wheeling, out the val
Icy OF Wheeling creek. A man who was
sitting in an Elm Grove car at the east.
ern terminus when the storm was at its
height told an 1STELLIGENCER reporter
last evening that 10 his mind there was
indisputably cloud burst. He said the
water came down after fashion that re-
sembled rain about Fl much as torrent
Of water poured out Of tub would re-.
semble shower bath. He was looking
at gulley which comes down past the
Askew residence, and it was dry as usual
one minute, and the next was the bed of
a rushing torrent larger than Wheeling
creek is at that point on an ordinary
atage. va fi-,-.
A telephone message was received
from the Elm Grove station OF the Nat
ural Gas Company Of West Virginia by
the ISTELLIGENcER about half past nine
o'clock last night. Mike Madden, in
charge there, said that up Peters run
the storm was decidedly worse than in
IS. At that hour Middle and Little
Wheeling creeks were going down, but
Big Wheeling creek was just rising to
its greatest fury. ~
A house, COW ana,a sofa we're swept
down Wheeling cseeA, Tho house
struck an obstruction otSsome character
near the Whitaker mill and was broken
In nipcas PARTS OF Il lodvpd thera and