The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-24
RESULT OF HIGH WATER
BIG FOUR PASSENGER WRECK, IN
WHICH TWO MEN ARE INJURED.
Railroad Traffic Greatly Interfered
With-View of the Flood from
the Monument.

The rain which has been falling upon In
dianapolis and vicinity, with hardly day
off, during the last ten days. ceased yester-
day morning, and gave place to a soggy
snow which, under the circumstances, was
welcome About 722 inches of rain has
fallen since the LIST of March, 2.S6 inches of
which was the result of the torrent on Tues
day. and made it the banner day of the
year. Although the rain has been frozen
out the city is by no means dry The earth
is soaked far beyond its capacity and the
surplus has filled the streams, sewers and
some cellars. Washouts are plentiful,
trains We're delayed, levees and sewers are
shaky in places, bridges in the country are
down, and residents along the river and
creeks are still uneasy lest another down
pour comes to drown them out utterly.
The best idea of the inroads made by the
waters upon the surrounding lowlands could
be had yesterday by taking bird's-eye
view from the top of the soldiers monu-
ment. Away to the west, where formerly
the clear and lmpid White river washed
the shores of Indianapolis with it's ribbon
like stream, a mighty flood of turbid waters
could be seen rushing along at the rate of
fifteen miles an hour, spreading over all
the low country to the east and seeping
through the levee on the west into the
bayous. The circus grounds west of the
river looked like a lake. To the north Fall
creek on similar rampage, tearing
at it's banks and swirling around the piers.
Above the bridge at Indiana avenue the
water succeeded in getting over its banks
and spreading over Cerealinetown. The
people were driven from their houses and
took refuge where they could The water
company's pumping station, north of Fall
creek, in the angle formed by the creek and
the river, looked like little island, standing
all alone in the waste of waters, protected,
as it is on all sides, by levees.
Pogue5 run, Pleasant run, Eagle Buck
and Crooked creeks all were greatly swol-
en-. The classic stream of Pogues was
looking for trouble as usual, but did no dam
age. In some places it overf1owed enough
to get into a few cellars and make pools
in peoples yards, but it went down rapid
ly yesterday Mayor Taggart and some of
the city officials made tour of inspection
yesterday morning and congratulated them
selves and the city over the $1270O eX-
ing the stream. They attribute to this
measure the good behavior of the stream
on the present occasion.
Pleasant run got out of its course near
Prospect street and dampened considerable
ground. "A fill over an old bridge east of
Sherman drive caved in and left large
hole in the middle of Washington street.
Not for years have Eagle creek and Buck
creek been SO high. Two bridges over the
latter in Perry township were swept away.
The White river intercepting sewer has
been considerably taxed during the recent
rush of water and may be seriously dam
aged. 1t is filled with rapidly running water
and those who examined it yesterday say
that If the water rises much more it will
destroy the embankment which protects the
Nlan han anl~<s II
many places and the pressure of the water,
extending a quarter of a mile to the west
of where the sewer lies in the old bed
of Fall creek, is very strong. In some
places the water is leaking from the sewer
through the cracks in the embankment
Engineer Jeup says the breaks are caused
by the fact that the contractor has not
piled enough dirt on the sewer TO properly
protect it.
day reported eleven bridges down. One of
these is the new steel bridge over Eagle
creek on the Charlottesville road The
bridge is moved six inches from its founda-
tions. but the latter are intact The other
bridge on the Charlottesville road is also
down. The other bridges reported down
are:
Sleeps creek bridge, Pike township; Will
liams creek, Washington; Bean creek,
Franklin; Madison road bridge, at South
Bottom road Mud creek, Lawrence;
Crooked creek, and a bridge on the Rock
vile road. in Wayne.
with railway traffic. During Tuesday night
but three trains entered the Union Station
and no trains could get through to Cincin-
natl until yesterday afternoon. The Gin
cinnati. Hamilton a. Dayton, the Monon,
Lake Erie Il Western the Chicago division
of the Panhandle. Cleveland division of the
Big Four the Michigan division north of
Anderson. the Cincinnati division between
Cincinnati and Shelbyville, the Peoria &
Eastern west, the Indiana, Decatur e. West
ern and the vandalia were running their
trains about on schedule time last night.
The st. Louis division OF the Big -Four will
be all right this morning, it having had
some trouble at Hadley yesterday after
noon from landslide. The officials of the
Chicago division of the Big -Four expect to