The age-herald., 1901-04-21
Become Torrents and Many Cities Are isolated rid Telegraph, Telephone and Trolley Wires Country from North to South Suffered
Pennsylvania Mining Districts OemoraIized and Will Suf-
 fer Untold Losses

| Pittsburg, April 20.--This city is a cen
 ter of widespread and disastrous storm.
 For radius of 150 miles in West Penn
 sylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. ra..
 or snow has been falling almost without
 intermission for three days Mountain
 streams have become torrents, creeks are
 swollen and out of their banks and the big rivers are oceans of water. Flood records, it is expected, will be broken before the water subsidies.
 The financial loss can not be estimated. In addition to the hundreds of thousands | and perhaps millions of dollars it will | cost to put large manufacturing plants, in commission again, tens of thousands of skilled workmen are thrown out of em- ployment and will lose their wages at a | time when all the iron and steel mills are rushed with orders. Tonight thousands of persons are lying in upper rooms of their water soaked houses, without heat, light or food. Where gas fuel was used the pipes are flooded and cut off and what coal there may be is under water. Schoen- vile, the home of the pressed steel car company, is completely surrounded by water. The workers and their families constitute community of several thousand persons and If the flood does not | quickly subside the company store will be unable to meet the demand for food of the multitude beleaguered by the flood. Wheeling, w. Va, fears the most dis astrous flood in it's history. The weather men say the river will make a new high | record at that point. The mountain streams of the war-born state are rushing | down the hillside with great force. Be- hind this comes the flood tide of the Ohio | fed by the Monongahela Allegheny Beaver and other tributaries From l45 to | 50 feet of water bs feared al Wheeling. which means an immense loss of prop | erty. f& Nf In many parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio probably the heaviest snowstorm ever known at this season of the year has been raging for two days At Oil City the oil Exchange closed temporarily because 1t was unable 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 communities where gas is the regular fuel, dealers are making arrangements to deliver coal tomorrow On one railroad in Ohio passengers are stalled Engines sent to their rescue be- came buried in the snow Until relieved the passengers must depend upon nearby farm houses for sufficient food to keep them from starvation
 Business, religious service. comfort and n. eral narrow escapes from death have been reported, and it iD probable that when the yellow. sticky flood subsidies, it may reveal a number of ghastly secrets.
 To estimate the financial loss at this time is simply impossible and what ap- pears as a reasonable guess is appalling in its immensity. Steam and steel rail- road tracks are buried under thousands of tons of earth washed down the hill- sides and in some cases the tracks have been moved. here the snow and sleet pre- vailed 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 indus trial center of the world, have suffered se- verely The cost of repairs is but small item in comparison to the delay in filling the orders with which all the plants are crowded The workers will lose their wages from two days to week or more, and many of them can i'll afford the loss. Many merchants in the submerged dis tricts are losers on stocks in cellars and thousands have spent money to pay for help to remove their goods.
 Most Serious Item.
 But the most serious item of all will fol- low in the flood. That Is the little homes that are almost ruined and the sickness that inevitably succeeds. And this falls upon the poorer class of people. At mid night Frank Ridgeway, the local official forecaster issued a bulletin to the effect that the Allegheny and Monongahela riv- CTS would probably reach the 29-foot mark, while the Ohio would reach 30 feet, or feet less than the disastrous flood of 1884 The marks in Monongahela river at 1:08 o'clock this morning were 28.3 feet and the river Is rising at the rate of o1s inches an hour. On the Allegheny 2S.2 feet was the reading of the gauge, with the water coming up about inches an hour while the Ohio river gauge showed 25 feet and rising about inches an hour.
 Tn Pittsburg an immense amount of damage has been done to goods in tine downtown shopping districts. Early this morning large forces of men began re- moving stock from the cellars. They worked all day and far into the night, but in some cases the water rose so rap idly that valuable goods had to be aban- doned Along Duquesne and some parts of Sixth street the merchants expect to be forced to abandon their stores.
 Mrs. Mary Patterson. SO years of age, living in River avenue. Allegheny, in the submerged district; died of excitement this afternoon. She was in poor health and very feeble Four Hungarians are reported drowned near Sharpsburg, but the report cannot be confirmed at this houH
 Widespread and Disastrous.
 A flood widespread and disastrous has inundated all the lowlands in Western Pennsylva1iia and Eastern and Northern Virigina Streams both great and small passed the flood line and are still rising. Pttsburg Is the center of the storm stricken district, and the effects of the flood are probably worst in its immediate vicinity. Rain has been falling incessant- ly in Pittsburg and for many miles around for sixty hours and all precipita- ton records are broken. Parker's Land ing, up the Allegheny. reports nearly four inches, and Greensboro. on the Monoga- hela River, over three inches. Down the Ohio over four inches fell at Wood Junc- tion and about three and half inches at Beaver
 ] west and north of Pittsburg heavy falls