Evening star., 1902-02-27
LOW LEVELS FLOODED
Cellars in City Buildings
Filled With Water.
THE UPPER POTOMAC
LARGE AREA SUBMERGED AND
TRAFFIC INTERRUPTED.
Serious Local Overflow Believed to
Have Been Averted by Work
of Harbormaster.


two days to a level about four feet above
Its usual mark. Many wharves and a
great number Of cellars between the Bo-
tanical Gardens and the post office build
ing have been flooded. Beginning at about
y O'Clock 1t rose steadily in both sewer,
and Easements until shortly before I
O'Clock this afternoon it was within five
inches OF the gutter level at 9th and r
streets. Water In the conduits stopped
traffic on the Anacostia and Potomac 9th
street, City and Suburban and Alexandria
lines for something over an hour in the
middle Of the day. 1t is the opinion OF
those who experienced the floods OF 1877,
1881 and 1889 that if the waters in the
upper Potomac continue to rise a flood of
Pennsylvania avenue and several cross
streets between Sd and 18th streets is more
than probable. AT = O'Clock the river had
fallen an inch with the ebb tide.
In order to prevent recurrence OF the
hoods OF twelve and twenty years ago
Harbermaster Sutton and fleet of fouf
tug boats equipped with ice plows have
been engaged six days in clearing the cham
mel of solid ice and breaking through the
ice gorges, which had formed between the
AGueduct bridge at Georgetown and White
Stone Point, which is about eighteen miles
below the city. This work has proved to
be so successful that the vast quantity Of
broken ice, tree trunks, old telegraph poles
the channel has SO far passed into the open
river without choking anywhere. In the
Judgment OF the river men the water would
surely have flooded Washington more dis
aStrously than in 1889 if the ice had been
allowed to gorge the river at the Long
bridge.
Situation This Morning.
Even with a channel kept free from
large floats Of ice the situation this morn
Ing was very precarious. In the past seven
days the river has risen beyond all its
previous records as far back as 1888 and
now flows just under the Long bridge and
about on level with the 9TH street wharf.
AT many places the wharyes are under
water, particularly at the foot of Sth street,
where the American Ice Company has its
store houses, the Weems line steamers take
on freight and boats unload cargoes for
Carter & Clark, Johnson Brothers and
Johnson WimSatt. This morning the
Weems liner which was scheduled to leave
Washington today for Potomac river land
fngS and Baltimore. apparently a con-
siderable distance out in the river, but was
actually tied up at the end of Stevensons
wharf WOrkmen built an extemporaneous
footwalk to the steamer and the loading of
freight continued. Further along the slip
toward the Arsenal grounds the water has
blocked the sewers which drain the con-
duts Of the 7th street car line, that the
officials Of that road have been anXiously
pumping away water all day But the real
danger that the conduts may fill up cam
not be obviated by any pumps, the
water would simply back up from the river
into the conduits and by flooding the cur
rent rails make it impossible for the cars
to obtain motor power.
The oyster wharves at 11th and Water
streets were about half submerged The
usual number of oyster boats now lie at
the wharves and are all accessible, so that
unless the flood continues 20 make river
navigation dangerous for something more
than a week il is thought to be not likely
h.lr he l...n1 nN-Cr for f.,I
At the Wharves.
All the steamboat wharves are protected
from the main river channel and fed
with water from the tidal basins near the
monument There the ice has not yet
broken but is so rotten that large pieces
of it drift with the current to the cul-
verts near the Long bridge. The flow at
this point equals any previous record. The
culverts are filled. not with ice or floating
timber-which are kept away by barrier
of piles-but with the overflow from the
basins. AS long as the culverts are kept
free it is thought the river level at the
wharves will not rise suddenly. So FAR.
said Commodore Sutton, this morning, not
single wharf nor single vessel has been
injured.
In 1859 the water just passed under Long
bridge. and it was necessary to weight the
structure with heavily laden freight cars To
keep 1t in place. No such precautions are
thought to be necessary at this time. But
the water is only about two feet below the
girders of the bridge, and Is very near the
top of the piers. Large ttmberS, such as
telegraph poles, would strike the bridge in
passing except that a powerful suction at
each pier draws them well below the sur
face of the river.
Georgetown Inundation.
Georgetown has suffered the greatest in
undation. Practically every wharf the
river front has been flooded and many Of
them are two or three feet deep. That of
J. E. Libbey & Son is covered with valuable
lumber In order to prevent this timber
from being washed away with the outgoing
tide this afternoon, ropes and chains Were
fastened to the largest trees and to heavy
tree trunks set into the ground. and were
then carried over the lumber piles. This
wharf was recently reconstructed.
and is four feet higher than formerly, but
was still covered with water this morn
ing.
Club House Under Water.
The Potomac Boat Club house was inun-
dated The lower floor was under two or
three inches and the water spread from
the door Of the club house toward the
buildings of the American Ice Company
and the Brennan Construction Company,
nearly to Water street. Many of the boats
in the building were removed and placed
in the open air, including several eight
oar shells. At the boathouse of the George
town University the water had just reach
ed the floor level at 10 o'clock this morn
ing and was slowly rising. The current at
the Aqueduct bridge estimated to be
between five and six miles an hour.
The flood in the city is due to the fact
that the sewers south of Pennsylvania
avenue and between the Peace monument
and the White Lot are below the present
river level. The water has consequently
backed into the city and now hangs I'm the
sewers. 1t has risen steadily since z
o o'clock this morning when 1t first oozed s
through the sewer walls into the base
ments of the 9Th street section
Easements Flooded.
At . o'clock this afternoon nearly every
cellar and basement In that vicinity had
been fIooded. The Howard House kept its
basement clear by having the employees
dip the water into barrels as it came In.
Most of the other buildings were permitted
to fill up. SO that at high tide all were
foot or more under water
At 1850 O'Clock gauge kept at 1ltA and