Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-09-05
RAIN FLOODS CLEVELAND
Terrific Storm Overfows City's
Finest Residence Portion.
DAMAGE AMOUNTS TO A MILLION
Houses Undermined AS Though Made
of Strawberries Washed Out and

of Strawberries Washed Out and
Corpses WhirIed Through the
Streets-No Loss Of Life Reported.
Cleveland, O., Sept with the
breaking of dawn yesterday morning
the citizens of Cleveland awoke to
look upon a scene of unparalleled dew
astation 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 por-
ton of the city, and caused an amount
Of damage Appropriated at $1,000
900. Theappalling overflow was caused
| by q terrific rain that commenced to
fall shortly after 2 O'Clock, which
turned into a perfect cloudburst be-
| tween the hours of and 5, and then
continued with great force until near
| ly 10 o'clock. The storm, according
| to the weather officials, was the heav-
| lest that ever swept over Cleveland
since the establishment of the gov
| ernment bureau in this city over 40
years ago. That no lives were lost is
| nothing short of miracle, as the
| stories of thrilling escapes from the
water on several of the principal resi-
dent streets of the city are told.
| Great volumes of water poured over
| from Doan and Giddings brooks down
| Quincy street, swamped Vienna street.
rushed over Cedar avenue back over
| on East Prospect street, rushed like
| mill race down Lincoln avenue to Eu-
| clid 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.
Over a large share of this exclusive
| residence territory the water rushed
with terrific force varying in depth
! from to feet. Culverts. trestles and
nothing seemed capable of stemming
| the tide of destruction.
| Hundreds of residents who were inn
i prisoned in their beautiful homes like
| stranded islanders were almost panic
| stricken, expecting to be called upon
at almost every minute Danger sig
nails were flashed about the city as
| speedily as the disabled telephone sys-
tenn would allow and the work of res
| cue commenced. Row boats piled back
! and forth assisting whole families
| from perilous positions but these prov
| ed pitifully inadequate and it was soon
| pO
| ordinary precaution of calling on the
life saving crew from the river, us-
tance of seven miles. The life boats
were quickly loaded on wagons and
hurried 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 trap with water and feet deep
surrounding their homes. At this point
| the life saving crew worked valiantly
and assisted by squads of tiremen and
policemen finally succeeded in landing
! the terror-stricken people in places of
safety. The fear was greatly enhanced
| by the momentary expectation that
| great OudhST T15lSHlS udul WOulu pIedh
loose and belch forth 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 Wood
land, and the bodies were soon being
tossed about in the waters. Fully a
dozen of the corpses were washed into
cutters and had not been recovered
early this morning.
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 ter
ribly handicapped by sand and dirt,
which was swept over the tracks Sew
eral washouts occurred, the worst be-
ing on the Lake Shore near Gordon
Park where the trestle was buffeted
about by the force of the water until
rendered almost worthless. The dam
age to the railways cannot be even
estimated now. The mail service from
the east was completely tied up from
| 10 O'Clock in the morning until 5
o'clock last night when a train got
through on the Lake Shore. But the
vast amount of damage falls upon the
householders in the flooded district.
The great sea of water reached a
depth of l foot on the first floors of
scores of the east end homes, boiling
up from the sewers and pouring in off
from the streets carrying everything
that came in its path along with it,
In many cases the fearstricken resi-
dents battered down cellar walls in
order to give the torrent an outlet and
prevent the swamping of their entire
homes.
A remarkable feature of the storm
which caused such terrific destruction