The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1901-09-05
RUIN In CLEVELAND.
cloudburst Causes Flood in the
Ohio City.

devastation and destruction caused
by raging flood. While the entire
city was more or less affected, the
great volume of raging water vented
its anger over miles of the eastern
portion of The ci and caused an
amount of damage approximated at
81 100000. The appalling overflow was
caused by terrific rain that COM
menced to fall shortly after two
o'clock, turned into a perfect cloud
burst between the hours of three
and five, and then continued with
great force until nearly ten o'clock.
The storm, according to the weather
officials, was the heaviest that ever
swept over Cleveland since the estab-
lishment of the government bureau
in this city over 40 years ago.
No Loss of Life.
That no lives were lost is nothing
snort of miracle, as the stories of
thrIning escapes from the water on
several of the principal resident
streets of the city ares told. The
surging waters spread over an area in
the east end nearly eight miles long
and 1b miles wide. This extended
from Woodland Hills avenue to East
Cleveland and back to East Madison
avenue. Great volumes of water
poured over from Doan and Giddings
brooks down Quincy street, swamped
Vienna street, rushed over Cedar ave-
nue.. back over on East Prospect
street, rushed like mill race down
Lincoln avenue to Euclid avenue, and
then on to Glen Park place, where
houses were undermined as though
built of straw, and almost incredible
damage done to streets and property.
Swept Everything Before It,
Over a large share of this exclu-
sive residence territory the water
rushed with terrific force, varying in
depth from one to six feet. Culverts,
trestles and bridges were torn down
and for hours nothing seemed ca
pable of stemming the tide of de-
struction. Hundreds of residents who
were imprisoned in their beautiful
| homes like stranded islanders were
almost panic-stricken, expecting to
be called upon to wade out into the
swirling waters at almost every
minute. Danger signals were flashed
about the city as speedily as the dis
nbled telephone system would allow
and the work of rescue commenced.
Rowboats piled back and forth as
sisting whole families from perilous
positions, but these proved pitifully
inadequate, and it was soon found
necessary to go to the extraordinary
precaution of calling on the life saw
| ing crew from the river, distance
of seven miles. The life boats were
quickly loaded on wagons and hur-
ried to the scene of destruction.
Rescued by Life-Snvers.
The torrent surged with awful
force for hours in Deering street
| from Paramount to the boulevard,
and over a dozen families were
water five and six feet deep surround
| ing their homes. At this point the
life saving crew worked va1iantly,
and, assisted by squads of fremen
and policemen, finally succeeded in
landing the terror-stricken people in
places of safety. The fear was great
ly enhanced by the momentary eX-
pectation that the great Shaker
Heights dam would break loose and
belch forth terrible destruction.
Cemetery Invaded.
! Shortly before noon the torrent sue
ceeded in undermining a score OF
graves in the st. Joseph cemetery, al
the corner of East Madison and Wood
land, and the bodies We're soon being
tossed about in the waters. Fully g
dozen of the corpses were washed in
to cutters and had not been recovered
at late hour.
Damage to Parks and boulevard.
The great food boiled over the bank!
of Doan brook all along the boulevard
and caused damage that it will takt
months to repair. Great jagged hole.
are torn in the beautiful driveway, anC
the look of ruin stretches in every di
e. rection. Gordon and Wade parks, OF
the East side, and Brookside park, OF
the South side, where the water also
did great damage as it leaped over tn,
banks of Big creek, are damaged to al
amount figured at 100000. Through
GIenville the overflow was terribly de
structive. Many houses are swamped
culverts torn out and several streets
turned into seething .quagmires. Thu
loss in the village is also estimated a
100000.
Street Railways Suffer.
The street railways will suffer al
immense loss, extending in varying de
grees over every portion of the city
The Big Consolidated will have to re
build their tracks over differentpart
of the inundated East end district, ant
the loss is placed at $4,000. The Su
perior street trestle of the Little Con
solidated is practically ruined, ant
this, with other serious damage in tn,
lines of the company extending wa.
over in the West side, will run thei
loss way into the thousands. The of
} ficials of the road were not ready, how
ever, to make any statement of theil
loss, more than that it would be un
usually heavy.
Train Service Blocked.
The train service on all roads wa
blocked from two to six hours by tn
fearful effect of the storm and fooC
Every road entering the city was tel
ribly handicapped by sand and dir
WHICH was swept over the track
Several washouts occurred, the wors
being on the Lake Shore near Gordo