The Savannah morning news., 1901-04-21
STORM AND FLOOD
A DAY OF DISASTER IN MANY
STATES.
PITTSBURG STORM TORN
Losses MAY REACH MILLIONS IN
THE IRON CENTER.

Many Manufa eturinG Plants BadIy
Damaged aud Thousands OF skill
ell WOrkmcn VIII lie Thrown out
of Employment In the Rush Sea-
sOn-ThOusands Cut or in water
soaked Houses without Heat,
Light or FOOd-Terrible Snow
storms hinge in Pennsylvania ana
Ohio and Fearful Flood in Pros
pect In West Virginia-Othe
states suffer.
Pittsburg Pa, April 9O.--This city Is
a center of a widespread and disastrous
storm. For radius of $50 miles in West
tern Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio and
Western Virginia. rain or snow has been
falling almost without intermission for
three days. Mountain streams have be-
come torrents, creeks are swollen and out
of their banks, and the big rivers are
oceans of turbid water. Flood records.
1t is expected win be broken before the
water subsidies.
The financial loss cannot be estimated.
In addition 10 the hundreds of thousands
and perhaps millions of dollars it will cost
to put large manufacturing plants in com
mission again, tens of thousands of skilled
workmen are thrown out of employment
and lose their wages just at a time when
all the iron and steel mills are rushed with
orders.
While few and unauthenticated reports
of statistics have been made, disease and
death will follow in the wake of the flood.
Tonight thousands of people are lying in
the upper rooms of their water-soaked
houses without heat, light or food. Where
gas fuel is used the pipes are flooded and
cut off, and what coal there may be is
under five to ten feet of water.
A Town Completely surrounded.
At Schoenville the home of the Pressed
Steel Car Company. the little town is
completely surrounded by water. The
workers and their families constitute a
community of several thousand persons.
If the flood does not quickly subside the
company store will be unable to meet the
demand for food of multitude beleaguer-
ed by flood.
Wheeling, W. Va, fears the most disas-
troos flood In its history. The weather.
! wise say the river will make a new high
| record al that point. The mountain
streams of the war-born state are gush-
| ing down the hillside with resistless force.
| Behind this comes the flood tide of the
| Ohio, fed by the Monongahela, Allegheny
Beaver and other tributaries From 45
| to 50 feet of water is feared at Wheeling
which means an immense loss of prop
erty, followed by destitution and sickness
| for those least able to bear it,
Heaviest Snowstorm of season.
| In many parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio
| probably the heaviest snow storm ever
| known at this season of the year has
been raging for two days. At oil City the
oil exchange went out of business tempor-
arily because it was impossible to secure
| quotations from New York. Pittsburg and
| other points Reports from Ohio towns
| are to the effect that church services may
| have to be abandoned and In hustling
communities where gas is the regular
| fuel, dealers are making arrangements to
deliver coal tomorrow. On one railroad
in Ohio passenger trains are stalled, en-
| gines sent to their rescue become buried
in the snow and all must walt with a hope
for milder weather. In the meantime the
| passengers must depend upon nearby
| farm houses for sufficient food TO keep
| them from starvation.
Business, religion, domestic comfort
and health are all at the mercy of the
storm
Several narrow escapes from death have
| been reported and II is sadly probable
| that when the flood subsidies II may re-
veal a number of CHASTITY secrets. 1t is
| Saturday night and many workingman
has started for home with brain more or
| less muddled. In thousands of places In
the storm stricken district 1t is but a
short step from safety to death.
The Loss Appears Tremendous.
To estimate the financial loss at this
time is simply impossible, and what ap-
! pears a reasonable guess Is appalling In
! its immensity. Steam and steel railroad
| tracks are buried under thousands Of
! tons of earth. washed down from the hill
| sides and in some cases the tracks have
1 been moved. Where the snow and sleet
prevailed telegraph wires and poles went
down under the burden and costly rail-
| road and other bridges have been washed
| away and their piers weakened.
The big manufacturing plants in this.
the Industrial center of the world, have
suffered severely. The cost of repairs Is
| but a small item In comparison to the
delay in filling the orders with which
| all the plants are crowded. The workers
win lose their wages for two days TO a
| week or more, and many of them can
! lily afford the loss. Many merchants in
| the submerged districts are losers on
| stock I'm cellars and thousands have spent
money to pay for help to remove their
| goods. But the most serious Of all will
| follow the flood That Is In the little
! homes that are almost ruined ana the
/ sickness that inevitably succeeds. Aud
| this falls upon the poorer class Of people.
Forecaster Ridgeway said at midnight
| that he did not believe the flood would
/ pass the 3O-foot stage. At that hour the
ohio river showed twenty-seven feet at
! tho Davis Island dam. rising three inches