Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1896-02-13
RUIN IN IT'S WAKE.
ATLANTIC COAST SWEPT ~
WIND AND RAIN.
Raging Elements Nearly Wipe On,
Many Eleven Bridge Re-
pairers Die Near Bristols Conn.,
Peril In the Bursting OF Dam.


Cyclonic winds and drenching rain
swept the entire North Atlantic coast
Thursday. Ruin and death were left in
the wake of the storm. Frequently a
velocity of seventy-fye miles an hour was
reached by the wind. Shipping suffered
severely, though the warnings to sailing
masters, given in ample time, kept nearly
all the vessels in port. To the horrors
of cyclone and food that of fire was added
at the village of Bound Brook, N. j.,
which was almost wiped out. 1t is said
that fully forty houses were destroyed by
fire. Many of them, as they blazed, were
swept from their foundations into the
rushing waters of the flSod, communicate
ing the confiagration to others, and in
this way the fire spread more rapidly than
it otherwise would.
The dam at Pocahontas Lake, n. j.,
broke and all the lower part of the city
was inundated. All day the melting snow
swelled the streams and poured into the
lake, which is a mile and q half long by
three-fourths of mile wide. 1t was COW
cred by eight inches of ice, and the whole
was held in check by the frailest and
fiimsiest of wooden dams. The water
rose to the top. Meanwhile the water
rushing through the fiume and from all
the sewers had filed the Whippany river.
which flows through MorristOwn, to the
brim, and the water ran over. Crowds of
people fiocked down to view the spreading
waters. Suddenly with great crash n
section of the dam eighteen feet wide went
down and wall of water six feet high
swept into the valley, quickly followed
by thousands of tons of ice. In ten min
utes the water rose ten feet in the streams.
The embankment of the Delaware and
Lackawanna Railroad runs through the
town. The Whippany river flows under
this embaakment through a sixteen-foot
culvert The immense volume of water
rushed against the embankmenf and, not
being able to escape, backed up through
the town, rising in the houses and food
ing all the first floors. People fled in
terror to the second stories. Many heroic
rescues were made.
Barns were carried away and large
number of horses and cows were drown
ed. A large part of the Whippany Rail
road was washed away. Thousands of
tons of ice in large cakes were carried
down the stream, and these did most of
the damage to buildings, carrying them
away.
is under water. From all sections came
reports of impeded traffic, damaged houses
and barns and washed out railways.
Along the Delaware river the damage was
extensive, the water rising within few
hours to the point marked as dangerous.
Three culverts and half mile of track
were washed away at Manufacturing,
where the Pennsylvania and Lackawanna
Railroads meet The Lehigh and Hudson
River Railroad was washed out and all
passenger and freight traffic stopped. The
railroads losses will be many thousands
of dollars.
Death in Icy Waters.
Eleven of gang Of forty bridge re-
pairers, working on the railroad span over
the Pequobuck river, a mile east of Bris-
tol, Conn, met a terrible death by drown
ing at 8 O'clock Thursday night, when
the structure collapsed because of the
flood
The old New Haven bridge was TO have
been replaced by stone structure. Trains
have had orders to run slow over it since
work was commenced, and in the after
noon il sagged dangerously, when the
o'clock train passed over it. A work train
with forty bridge repairers was sent to
repair it, and while engaged in this work
the structure collapsed, precipitating the
workmen into the icy water below. The
unfortunate men in the water attempted
to seize sticks and portions of the abut-
ments which had broken loose, but they
were carried down stream and were quick
ly lost to sight in the darkness. Eleven
were drowned.