The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-03-05
BIG FLOOD.

Floods of any sort and in any locality
are disastrous but it would seem that a
Vermont food lays over and above any
thing in that line which can be produced
in any other locality, in its wild tumultuous
picturesqueness, the perfect abandonment
with which it demolishes and scatters
property and the varied characteristics it
presents upon each successive appearance.
The one which threatened on Saturday
and which reached its height on Sunday
evening was no exception to the rule, be-
ing unlike any of its predecessors in its
varied demonstration and leading all
others in its destructiveness, in the
amount and value of property wreck and
in the selection of its victims.
What is remembered as the "big flood"
Of two years ago which came upon the
business men and householders like
thief in the night and with the suddeness
of the clond burst, distributed the loss
among the many, while the present loss
will . S';-:io1 omong a few, the city
being the chief loser in the damage done,
which, it is estimated will overrun the
$780, 900 mark.
The waters in the Winooski and North
Branch streams rose steadily until a late
hour on Saturday night until they were
up % the high water mark. The ice kept
firm, and for this reason the streams
were watched with great anxiety by large
numbers until early Sunday morning.
The waters entered the Easements of
the State street business section in con
siderable quantities. filling more on the
southerly side than on the northerly.
Ray OrdwaysRho had that evening
just opened lunch room in the basement
of I. S. Brophy & Co, IS store, was forced
to abdicate as soon as he had gotten to
doing business. Kinney & Viau, the
BARRIERS, were forced to give up business
at about nine O'Clock and moved their
fittings to the office of B. B. Bailey on
the second floor of the Union block,
their shop is again in shape. These
places were filled to depth of from two
to three feet.
During the night the waters fell so
that during Sund y forenoon the streams
were two feet or more lower than on the
night before. Main street Easements
were less affected than those on Sta
street, although the Pastime bowling
alleys were under water to a depth of
from two to three feet.
Liveryman Welch and A. S. Sparrow
transferred the horses in their stables to
safer quarters and the steam pumps in
the Langdon buildings easily kept those
cellars from suffering from the flood.
On Sunday morning it was reported
that the Central Vermont railroad bridge
at the mouth of Dog river was in danger.
Superintendent of Streets Roberts with
force of men attacked the ice jam there
with dynamite and finally after tedious
fight, broke up the jam so that early in
the afternoon this stream cleared and also
the Winooski cleared as far as Middesex.
State street from its junction with
Bailey avenue was impossible because of
the overfowing of the stream as far as
Thomas Moriarty's residence so that the
Sunday papers had to be brought to this
city from the Junction on hand car
Barre cleared its streams of ice by
its way to this city as far as the Marvin
farm when jam was formed which un-
doubtedly saved this city from the great
est catastrophe from water it has ever ex-
perienced. This jam also crippled the
electric road the ice and water covering
the highway and tracks and adjacent
meadows to great depth from point
Just south of r. G.. Robnson's new resi-
dence where the Montpelier and Berlin
town line is drawn to the residence of F.
H. Andrews just beyond Dodge bridge.
A car was kept running at both ends and
the few through passengers were forced
to "hoof itn as best they might between
ways. One party of four or five men did
not desire to make the longer trip through
the fields at Benjamin's and attempted to
pick their way over the ice foe but when
one of their number sank in the water up
to his neck they gave up the scheme.
The car at the other end got off the iron
near Dodge bridge in the afternoon and
caused delay
All this area and below, as far as the
car barn, was one wild expansive sea of
seething ice and water to which add a
cold and heavy rain and oppressive fog
and you have a rival to Dante's Hades.
The waters were so high at the Pioneer
village that the only trace of the consol-
dated lighting company's dam that could
be discerned was a little wavelet line
across stream at that point.
From the dam to point just below the
electric railroad bridge, the stream ran
free and then again took on the ice chok-
ed condition, overfowing its banks and
piing them with ice The Columbian
Granite Company's plant is located near
this section. On Sunday afternoon
Charles f.. Ryle, one of the members of
the firm with one or two friends visited
the plant, and as the waters were alter
nately rising and falling throughout the
day the men were caught in the shed by
the rising waters before they were aware