The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-09-02
City is Devastated and Damage to
the Amount of Over One
Million Dollars Is Done
Crew of Life Saving Station Called
Upon to Rescue Citizens I'M
prisoned in Their Homes.

CLEVELAND, Ohio, Sept. with the
breaking of dawn this morning the c1ti,
zens of Cleveland awoke to- look upon a
scene of unparalleled devastation and
obstruction caused by a 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 city and caused
an amount of damage approximated at
81, ,000,00O
The appalling overflow was caused by a
terrific rain that commenced to fan
shortly after o'clock, turned into perfect
cloudburst between the hours of 8 and 3
and then continued with great force
until nearly 10 o'clock The storm. ac-
cording to the weather officials, was the
heaviest that ever swept over Cleveland
since the establishment of the govern
ment bureau in this city over forty years
ago.
That no lives were lost is nothing short
of miracle, as many stories of thrill
ing escapes from the water on several
OF the principal residence streets of the
city are told
The surging waters spread over an area
In the east end nearly eight miles long
and mile and half wide.
This extended from Woodland Hills
avenue to East Cleveland and back to
Great volumes of water poured over
from Dean and Giddings brooks down
Quincy street, swamped Vienna street,
rushed over Cedar avenue, back over on
East Prospect street, rushed like a mill
race down Lincoln avenue to Euclid ave-
nue., and then on to Glen Park place
where houses We're undermined as though
built of straw and almost incredible dam
age done to streets and property
residence territory the water rushed with
terrific force varying in depth from one
to six feet. Culverts, trest1es and bridges
were torn down and for hours nothing
seemed capable of stemming the tide or
destruction.
IMPRISONED IN THEIR HOUSES.
Hundreds of residents who were i'm
prisoned 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 disabled telephones would allow
and the work of rescue commenced. Row
boats piled back and forth assisting
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 saving crew from the river
a distance of seven miles. The life boats
were quickly loaded on wagons and hur>
ried to the scene of destruction.
The torrent surged with awful force
for hours in Deering street from Fair
mount to the Boulevard and over a
dozen families were penned in like rats
in a trap with water five and six feet
deep surrounding their homes At this
point the life saving crew worked val
iantly and assisted by squads of fire
men and policemen, finally succeeded in
landing the terror-striclxen people in
places of safety. The fear was greatly
enhanced by the momentary expectation
that the great Shaker heights dam would
break loose and belch forth terrible
destruction.
Shortly before noon the torrent sue
ceeded in undermining a score of graves
in the st. Joseph cemetery, at the corner
of East Madison and Woodland, and the
bodies were soon being tossed about in
the waters Fully a dozen of the corpses
We're washed into cutters and had not
been recovered late tonight.
The flood boiled over the banks of
Doan brook all along the boulevard and
caused damage that it will take months
to repair. Great Jagged holes are torn
in the beautiful driveway and the look of
ruin stretches in every direction.
PARKS BADLY DAMAGED.
Gordon and Wade parks, on the east
side of Brookside park, in the South side,
where the water also did great damage
as it leaped over the banks of Big creek
are damaged to an amount figured at
$1O0,G00. Through Glenville the overflow
was terribly destructive. Many houses
are swamped, culverts torn out and sew
eral streets turned into seething quag-
mires. The loss in the village is also es-
timated at 100000.
The street railways will suffer an I'M
mense loss, extending in varying degrees
over eIe cry part of the city. The Big Con-
solidated will have to rebuild their tracks
over different parts of the inundated East
end district, and the loss is placed at
SEC, 900.
The Superior street trestle of the Little
Consolidated is practically ruined, and
this, with other serious damage in the
lines of the company extending way over
in the West side, will run their loss way
into the thousands. The officials of the
road were not ready however, to make
any statement of their loss tonight
The train service on all roads was
blocked from two to six hours by the
fearful effect of the storm and flood.
Every road entering the city was terribly
handicapped by sand and dirt which was
swept over the tracks. Several washouts
occurred, the worst being on the Lake