The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1891-07-29
FIFTH EDITION.
A GREAT FLOOD.

/
"A Regular Cloud Burst Tho Rain
Comes Down in Torrents = Sewers
Burst, Streets are Torn Up and Gel
lars and First Stories of Houses
Flooded.
There never was such q flood In
Wilmington was the general expression
heard upon every hand this morning.
This may have been true, and no doubt
those who spoke thought 1t was true,
at any rate there was a wonderful
downpour of rain.
1t rained in iltful showers all night
but the real gust that done damage
came on between and 5 o'clock this
morning. 1t was accompanied by vi
vid hashes OF lightning and terrific
peals Of thunder. The loud reyerations
seemed to rift the clouds asunder to
let the rain down the faster. From the
hillside streets came dashlng streams
OF water tearing up cutters and carry
ing sand and stone down the fiat level
streets and filling them up with deb
Iris
Hearing that the flood was very de-
Istruetive along Shipley street run, q
representative OF the REPUBLICAN start
ISu Out tliS llOIililB W Stc IL IL WIS u5
bad as reported. He found IL worse
than reported. Market street, Ship.
ley street, Orange and Tatnall streets
were washed clean and hardly parti-
Gle of dirt could be seen between the
block stone pavements. At the rail-
road the Hood was checked and hero
and there piles of sand and gravel al
ternated at the crossings.
| No serious damage was found until
the reporter gotto Chestnut street and
Maryland avenue. Great piles of
sand were here shoveled up on the
avenue and at tho junction OF Monroe
and Chestnut. The one sewer here
was not sufficient to carry offthe great
volume of water that came tearing
down from all that section of tho city
between Broome and Washington
streets, and from Delaware avenue.
1t would have taken three sewers as
large to have done that.
Approaching the large hotel at the
Junction OF Maryland avenue, Monroe
and Chestnut Streets the reporter
Hooked into the cellar and found It
within two feet Of the joists and beer
kegs were swimming about on top
The hotel is kept by William Cole and
the property belongs to Patrick Ma
garity.
Mr.. Cole says IL was simply impos.
slble for the one single sewer to carry
of the water and 1t had to no some
place. At one time when thef flood was
at its heiBhth the water came into the
bar room which is some two feet above
the pavement. The house of Michael
Conway on tho South side OF Maryland
avenue was similarly flooded, as was
the cigar and tobacco store at the cor
ner OF Monroe and Chestnut streets.
This point is what might be termed
the Hooded district bounded by Mary
land avenue, Madison sti Get, Second
street Adams street, and Front street
Ilhts district has been literally flooded
Iout. The houses on South Monroe
street are occupied by John Crane,
John Nigolilke, John McGovern, Wal
ter Q. King, Simon Cohen, James
Rowe and Laura Coffin. Their cellars
were all iilled with water and in some
Instances the water came into the
lilrst story and ruined carpeting and
Iother furniture.
Destruction relgned su, rame along
Front street from Madison to Adams
Hundreds OF loads of sand were piled
upon the ctrbs, and the streets swan
with filtered mud. The sewers seem
to have been completely choked up
with brick and stone, and the flood
had free sweep over the streets and In
to the cellars and the lower stories OF
houses. On Lancaster avenue the eel
lars OF the houses occupied by Thomas
!. Fitzsimmons Rol ert Mclaughlin,
Tho Wilmington Beef Company, The
IBlumenthal Morocco Works, james A.
Harrington, G. +. Shelmlre, Thomas
Ryan and Michael Jolce were complete
Ily filled with water.
The l{lumenthal Morocco Works are
$50 Hooded that they could rot be run
to-day and the hands, about 400 were
laid or for tho day. On the north side
Iof Front St., are the following sufferers:
Murphcy Bros. Agnes Stewart John
y. Han Hey, Peter Folan. Frank Gozz,
Owen }. Hession, and John A. Todd.
Slr. HesSion, who has large Hour and
iced store Is by far the heaviest loser.
He had about 100 barrels of the best
grades OF Hungarian flour standing on
end. Tho water came UP several inches
on the barrels and the flour Is more or
less damaged. His -four In sacks.
much of 1t is ruined and his corn, oats
and feed In bins are practically total
loss. He did not know how high to
place his loss, but 1t might be anywhere
from $500 to $500 John A. Todd,
grocer, at the corner of Lancaster
avenue and Adams street has suffered
severely.
The Front and Union Street Railroad
iComDany's cars ran through several
Inches of filtered mud all this fore
moon. A large force of wOrkmhn und-
Ter street superintendent McGoskey was
at work ehOvelling up sand in heaps
70 DO carted back to where it came
from.
Along Pleasant street. from Monroe
TO Adams, every cellar is flooded, also
the first stories OF many OF the houses,
Amongst those who suffered losses on
this street were Patrick Bakey, J. b.
Vincent, Levin Shockley, C. NJ. Rowe,
IN. d. Sinclair and Charles Kessler.
On Adams street the following have
lost by the overflow; Joseph S. Me
Knight, William Whitcraft, Joseph
Keenan,, John G. Reed, William Clough.
Charles Cro2ier, Fannie Duntze, L. NJ.
ISpeaknlan, John NJ. higgins. The loss
les OF these parties are small 1t is true,
but being all laboltng people, they
are poorly able to bearthem.
But the greatest destruction ofprop-
erty seems to have been on tho north
Islde of Second street from Madison to
Monroe. Not q cellar escaped In this
row, and in most Instances the first
story OF each OF the houses have been
completely flooded, running carpetsand
parior furniture. The Shipley Run
Sewer, that comes down from under
the Pussy & Scott Morocco Works and
which 10 here uncovered, makes a short
!dctour along the rear of the yards of
the Second street houses.
The flood was so strong the founda-
lions OF tho South wall of the sewer
were undermined, when several rods
length Of the wall fell over into the
middle of the sewer. This damned up
the water and made it flow directly
Into the Second street houses and into