The San Francisco call., 1897-07-15
Lives of Seven Persons Lost
While 16O Are Rendered
Homeless.
RECENT HEAVY RAINS CAUSE
THE DISASTER.
Miraculous Escape of an Express
Train-SaVed by a VIgIlant
NIghtWatchman.

MATTEAWAN. n. Y, July 14-With
4 roar which was heard for miles, even
above the battle of the elements, a mighty
wall of water swept down the narrow val.
ley east of Fishkill three hours before
dawn this morning, tearing down trees,
lifting powders and bearing destruction
to every thing in its course. Seven per-
sons lost their lives in its onset and 15C
were rendered homeless. House after
house was swept away in the van of the
water, which left in its course furrow
ike a river bed, and when dawn broke at
last a spectacle of destitution and ruin
was presented.
Five bodies have been recovered, among
them that of Mrs. John Conroy, a sur
vivor of the Johnstown flood.
The reservoir which caused the dis
aster was situated high upon the hills
and its overflow ran into the Hudson in a
small stream known as Towanda Creek,
running through narrow ravine for about
a quarter OF a mile, which opens into a
PLAIN between the river and the foot OF
the hills. 1t was through this ravlne that
the mighty food of water swept What
houses were in It's way were picked up
bodily from their foundations and either
dasheo TO pieces or whirled along in the
torrent like chips on an angry sea.
The heavy rains of the last few days
had swollen the reservoir TO the brink.
Every little rivuIet that fed it had become
q rushing stresm. At 2 O'Clock this morn
ing, when everybody was asleep, the dam
between the upper half of the reservoir
and the lower half gave way and the full
weight in the upper part was preclpitated
against the lower dam, which could not
stand the strain. The down-coming rush
of water swept it away as completely as
though il had been a wall of card board
and with roarl that brought the sleepy
farmers out of their beds trem bling with
fright the mighty torrent leaped down the
ravine. Nothing could Withstand its ter
rible force.
Between the ravine and the river are
the New York Central tracks on the edge
of little plain. Between them and the
hills on the lowlands were about a doze
buildings, chiefly dwellings, and the ex-
tensive brick works of Van Buren, &
Timoney. Two of the houses were occu-
pied as boarding-houses for the employees
of the brickysrds and contained large
number of persons. When the food
poured out of the funnel-like ravine and
spread over the hatlaEds it gained an
awful impetus and demolished the brick
works utterly. Not vestige of the ex-
tensive building was left. 1t tore away
hole in the railroad tracks 100 yards wide
and hurled one of the workmen's big
boarding-houses bodily into the Hudson.
Many residents rushed from their beds
for safety, but many did not. One family,
Perry by name, in its wild flight left the
baby behind. Most of the killed were in
the workingmen's boarding houses.
The Montreal express. which left here
last night, had a narrow escape. 1t was
due at the place just about the time the
food came. The watchman at the brick
ward heard the roar of the torrent and
thought of the train. He snatched up
signal lamp and ran wildly up the track.
AS he heard the whistle of the locomotive
it was drowned by the crash of the food
striking the buildings behind him. The
express rushed on, and in an instant the
glare of the headlight was in the watch
mans eyes, He waved his lantern fran
tically, and the engineer put on the air
brakes and reversed the lever.
Before the train could be stopped the
forward trucks of the locomotive were in
the water. In another second or two the
train would have plunged into the wash
out. Passengers thronged out of the cars
and shuddered when they realized their
narrow escape. The damage to property
is estimated at 100000
The reservoir is of oval shape and about
500 feet long and 300 feet wide and thirty
or thirty-five feet deep. 1t is used as an
auxiliary supply 10 the regular water
works system of Mattewan and FishkilI
Landing. from the main source OF which
it is distant about foGr miles.
Ths largest reservoir of this system is a
considerable lake near North Beacon,
which has massive masonry and is intact.
a second reservoir, situated much lower
down the mountain, which was built to
reduce the pressure in the pipes. is also
unbroken. These two have no direct con-
nection with the Duchess Junction reser-
voir, though all three feed into the same
pipes.