The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-05-01
FATAL OHIO RIVER FLOODS
Lives Lost Amid Ice FIoes as
ToWboat Sinks.
Railroad Bridge Swept Away in Penn.
sylvania, Precipitating Freight
Train Into Rushing Waters.

Pittsburg, Pa. - In one of the
greatest river boat disasters in re-
cent years two lives were lost and a
score threatened on the Ohio River.
and eight others are known to have
been drowned in other places On the
river and it's tributaries.
The spring floods promise to be the
worst since 1873.
The dead, besides John Kennett
and a deckhand named Session, lost
in the boat wreck, are Lloyd Weyant,
Of Bakersville; William Beard, Jones
Mills, and ANNA Shute, Of Hastings.
Three men drowned, a railroad
bridge washed away, a county bridge
in danger of following the railroad
bridge into the Allegheny River. and
an engine and five cars in the water
are the first results of the rapid rise
during the night of Deer Creek, near
Harmarsville, on the West Penn
Railroad.
A freight train east-bound entered
on the bridge about 5 o'clock a. m,
but had not gone further than the
second pier when the pier suddenly
gave way. Before the engine driver,
fireman or a brakeman on the front
part of the train could realize what
had happened the bridge went down,
carrying the engine, trainmen and
Eve freight cars with it.
So rapidly had the Deer Creek
risen during the night that it had at
tanned a height Of sixteen feet in
stead of the normal, from four to six
feet. So great, too, was the force of
the current that one of the five
freight cars, heavily loaded, was car
ried down the creek a distance of
over a quarter of a mile before its
progress was stayed. The fireman,
engine driver and brakeman had not
the slightest possible opportunity of
escaping, but were Immediately
dragged into the roaring current and
drowned.
About ten miles below Pittsburg at
8 o'clock p. m, the great tugboat
Cruiser, of the River Coal Trust, went
down after striking the abutment OF
! Government dam.
Twenty otherDersons were plunged
Into the icy water. Captain Harry
Swaney, of the Cruiser, met his
brother at the pilot-house door. They
swan out together into the stream,
holding to the same bit Of ~wreckage.
One mile down the river they were
rescued by Joseph Mcdonald, who,
from his residence, saw the lights OF
the Cruiser disappear and jumped
into a yawl. He took the captain and
pilot to shore, and started across the
river to where the steamer Valiant
lay with steam up.
Dispatches from all sections of
Western Pennsylvania report heavy
aims. Connellsville streams rose at
an alarming rate. Dunbar Is inun-
lated and Oakdale, Ingram, Carnegie,
Wilmerding, Sharpsburg and Turtle
Creek borough were already under
water. At the latter place many
were rescued from houses by skiffs.
Pittsburg rivermen prepared for a
aood stage of twenty feet.
Cincinnati, Ohio. - Heavy rain
storms throughout the Ohio Valley
did much damage in the Mill Creek
Valley and other suburban sections.
Lancaster, Ohio.-The worst food
since 1873 swept Lancaster. The
police and fire departments are work
ing to rescue people from the second
stories of their homes in the west
and south ends and the Hooking Val
ley tracks are washed out for more
than a mile.
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