The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1894-05-21
iTHE ALARM AT wILLIAMsPoRT.


MANY Poor rcpit!i Driven from Their
Homes by tho Rising Waters.
WILLIAMsPoRT, Pa, May 2l.-With the
horrors of the disastrous food of 1889,
which spread denth and destruction
throughout this valley, brought back to
memory by the threatened danger of d
sweep of water that promises to be as
great as that OF five years ago, the people
sof this city and all through the west
branch valley are in a stnte of panic that
turned the usually quiet Sunday into one
of remarkable excitement. Since Friday
might a steady and almost continuous
hownpour of rain has been swelling all
Of the streams, and late Saturday night
nnmerous Cloudbursts along the Pine
creek and other tributaries of the west
branch of the Susquehanna have made It
impossible to confine the water within the
banks of the streams. IL has therefore
spread out over the country, and at every
point is pouring into the main river
Adyices from all points up the river say
Che same conditions exist A clOudburtt
Mt Keating, twenty miles above Renovp,
raised the river there twenty feet, and the
siver at Remove is reported higher than In
She flood in 1885, when half the town was
: under water. Above there and extending
1own and hamlet has been reduced by
water to the conditions that prevailed In
1850 Along the Philadelphia and Ellie
railroad, between this point and EmIo-
mum, traffic has been practically srs-
pended. Trains are running between
Williamsport and Lock Haven, but above
the latter point landslides aud track wash
outs have practically swept the tracks
away, and the loss will be very heavy.
The Susquehanna here flows to the
south of the city, and it is crawling up al
the rate of foot an hour. Graifus run, q
tributary which empties into the river be
bow the city, flows north of Williamsport.
j. overhowed its banks and spread over q
considerable portion of the city at about
noon yesterday, flooding many houses
and driving the occupants from theil
homes, All of the houses We're occupied
by poor people, and the rise was so sudden
khat the sufferers lost much of their per.
sonal property.
In anticipation of what was expected
Che fire and church bells of the city were
Fung at 10 o'clock yesterday morning tc
notify the people of the impending dan
ger, and the work of preparing for tht
worst was begun. In the hundreds Of
homes that were submerged five years
ago the people moved out alu stored t0ell
goods in the houses of those living on Tho
highlands. The business part of the dity
was a complete wreck five years ago, and
kundreds of merchants moved their stock
10 places of safety. Conveyances OF every
district hurried through the streets of tn,
city loaded with household goods aud
merchandise, and the scenes beggared de
scription.
The regular church services were all
suspended and In all of the houses OF wor
ship those who attended confined theirde
yotion to the Offering up of prayers fol
the assistance Of Providence in the present
grave emergency.
The "boom" at Lock Haven has broken
aud 100000 feet of logs have beer
lost The Upper Linden boom also broke
1t contained 10000, 900 feet of logs. and
they have gone down. There were abou
176, 100000 feet of logs in the main boom
which broke at l o'clock this morning.
The wind storm did considerable dam
ags throughout Luzerne county. Fehce
were blown down, trees uprooted and put
buildings wrecked. Several large Goa
breakers were badly damaged. Tn
steamer Mayfower, plying on the Sus
quehAnna between Santicoke and Ply
mouth, was dashed against its pier by tn
wiad, and totally wrecked. 1t sank in
few minutes. The crew had marrow
escape. At Ashley tree fell on pas sini
slectric car wreeking 1t and fatally in
Suring Bryan Berry, the motorman. Iwt
passengers were slightly injured.