The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1891-02-18
Stage of the Water Here.

"whars the river doing?" "WhaI
will We get here7" "What's the latest
from above2"
These and similar queries were about
all one heard here yesterday. AS q
tonic Of conversation the river drove
everything else ont Of sight.
All day the bulletins posted at the
newspaper Offices were surrounded by
anxious crowds. Every item Of intelli'
Veuce that threw any light on the situa'
tIOu was grasped almost as drowning
man clutches straw, and the people
living on low grounds on the South
Side and on the Island and merchants
alopV Water and Main streets, whose
cellars are invaded by forty feet OF water,
and who were uneasy early in the day,
became convinced before the afternoon
was yery far advanced that they were
destined to suffer.
The work Of removing goods from eel.
lars along the lower streets In the heart
Of the city began by the middle Of tho
afternoon, and was kept up Tor the re-
mainder OF the day and until a late hour
last evening. The sidewalks on Main
street below Fourteenth, on Fourteenth.
Water and South streets, were covered
with barrels, boxes and bulk freights.'
Most Of the cellars from Main street
to tie river and from Twelfth to the
creek would be very wet at forty feet OF
water, while q few OF the store rooms
within that area will have water on the
first floor at forty.two feet.
BEGINNING TO MOVE.
Later in the afternoon Island people liv'
ing below the forty foot danger line began
to haul things out. Some families de-
serted their houses and moved their
household goods over to town. Others
took out only the most costly and most
delicate furniture and prepared 10 move
upstairs till the food subsidies.
Last evening there was regular pro-
cesaion OF pianos coming over the Sus'
pension bridge. MuBic dealers wagons,
expressmen's trucks and all sorts OF We
hicles that would serve were in the line
Twenty or thirty pianos were hauled
over to town and stored in sale place.
Nearly everybody brought everything
out Of the cellar, and tacks were pulled
out OF the carpets and preparations made
to get into the second story or get out.
As usual, the wiseacres who knew aiI
about what the river was going 70 40
differed about ten feet as TO what mighl
be expected here. The lowest estimate
was forty feet. From that TO forty-sigh'
guesses we're common. A great many
people set sheir marks at forty.fve, anu
bets that It would go 10 forty.fve, that Y
would go to forty-three, that It woulc
not beat forty.one, ETC., were frequent
PITTSBURGH AND WHEELING.
Nearly everybody, in estimating tht
stage Of water here, adds 90 much to thu
highest stage at Pittsburgh. Some rive
men have an iniallible rule TO multiply
the stage at Oil City by three. Neithe
OF these methods Of guessing Is any bet
ter than Just guessing without any rule
The difference between the stage q
Pittsburgh and here has varied sine
ISl0 from ten feet TO eighteen. II Y
oltener over than under twelve feet
The difference necessarily and logical!
depends on the condition OF the river
putting into the Ohio between here ant
Pittsburgh. The following table show
the way tho figures differed betweel
Wheeling and Pittsburgh in past floods