Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1902-03-06


there Friday night. Cox's house was
| the front did not fall out, it was badly
cracked and otherwise damaged and
will probably have to come down.
Both houses are owned by Mrs. Ellen
Kelley. They were built about 10
years ago and, prior to the flood, were
worth about 81, 200 each.
Another family in the same neghbor-
hood had an unpleasant experience. At
about 10 o'clock. water forced in the
cellar wall of the house No. ll19 Davis
street, which is owned by +. o.
Bennett and occupied by Charles W.
Heckler and family The house is
frame, but it rests on brick base on
the stone foundation, and it was the
brick and stone which caved in. A
large volume of water rushed in,
startling the Hecklers, but they de-
| cided not to forsake the house and
| shortly afterward retired, trusting to
| Providence to save them from further
| trouble. At the time the water was
over a foot high on the front pavement
and in order to leave tho house it
would have been necessary to make
the trip in boat, which they did not
happen to have about the house.
Another sufferer was Thomas Dingle,
colored, who occupies neat frame
house near the bridge across Four
| teenth street just east OF Claymont.
The house is No. 1900 East Fourteenth
street. The water rushed along Four
teenth street, across Claymont and
almost carried the foundation from
under Mr.. Dingle's house. The Belgian
block street bed in front of the house
was wrecked, the pavement washed
away and the earth under it carried
into the sewer, leaving gully in front
of the house and on the east side of it,
which was several feet deep Had it
not been for the strong foundations
the house would most likely have
| fallen.
Some of the houses in that section
of the city were flooded which we're
never flooded before, and in some the
food visited the second story, which
! is usually considered safe, causing the
occupants to flee after they had assembled
the stairs feeling that they were out of
harms way. Hundreds Of people
were at work shoveling mud from
floors, porches, &C., and in some places
it was necessary to remove two or three
| inches of mud before reaching the
/
ture were set out in the sun to dry
High water mark was measured on
the mouth of the sewer at the foot of
Buena Vista street, and man who has
lived there for some time said it was
two feet higher at that point than it
has been for 20 years. A similar report
came from Henry Clay, where there
was also much damage.
THE STORM IN THE COUNTRY.
The storm Friday night washed out
road near the Brandywine Springs Park
roof garden. 4 boulder was torn from
the hill near the trolley entrance to
the park and it fell on tine railway
track so that the trolley cars Saturday
morning stopped near the end of the
bridge which spans Red Clay Creek.
Roads in that section are in very bad
condition. They have been washed out
and quicksands have been left in them.
In the neighborhood of Mt Cuba.
| the road along Red Clay Creek has
various heights of water.
Houses along the Landenberg branch
of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad were
in some instances flooded, water from
the Red Clay Creek entering the cellars.
At the mills of the Joseph Bancroft
d Sons Co. at Rockford the waters
rushed into an elevator and filed it
to the depth Of several feet. The bottom
| of the elevator was badly damaged.
| The waters reached the drying sheds
and boat which was stored inside
floated about The metal bowls in the
| hydraulic room were covered with,
water, This is the first time that the
| flood has ever reached that height at
| that place. Boys were engaged in
| shoveling mud from the floors into
| wheelbarrows and removing it from he
| buildings Saturday morning.
The high water of the Brandywine
has subsidized and left wake OF de-
| struction from the mouth several miles
up The stream. At Lenape the water
VAS higher than at any time this
| winter and many driver who was
caught TN ono Or the other side of tho
stream toward evening remained at the
farm houses until Saturday morning.
Tho rise commenced shortly before noon
and II was one of the most rapid in the
history of floods at Lenape Both the
branches of the stream poured millions
of gallons of water into the main one
and the rise, as noted by those who
were fortunate enough to view the
sight, was three feet per hour. The
flood reached its height shortly before
| 6 O'Clock, when the water was level
with the platform of the pavilion at
the station, the depth being estimated
in the main stream at 90 feet 1t was
less than a foot from the bottom of the
trestle of the trolley road and the water
leaped against the piers of the main
bridge until the waves lashed the iron
work and the trunks of huge trees
a.ttI tnr %
number OF times struck the bridge, but
they did no damage. No teams could
cross at any time during the afternoon.
Great damage was done to the breast
of the large Lenape dam. There was
one unbroken sheet of water from tho
railroad to the trolley tracks and in
one place it was upon the latter track.
This extended up stream as far as the
eye could reach and the location of the
dam breast could only be guessed at.
Where it was supposed to be there was
smooth sheet of rushing. muddy
water which passed beneath the trestle
and under the bridge with roar which
could be heard at long distance.
A number OF people who were wait
ing for trains viewed the rapid rise of
the stream and witnessed number of
novel sights. A huge log came whirling
down with the current and upon one
end of it was perched muskrat. The
animal was holding on for life, but
every now and then It would be thrown
from its perch, only to Chamber back
again. 1t was last seen far down the
stream still sailing along with the log.
A battered boat sailed down amid a
mass of rubbish; then came small
frame building, much the worse for
wear. There were huge trees of all
conceivable shapes, logs, ties, portions