The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1908-02-17
Some Damage and a Great Deal
OF Inconvenience
CAUSED BY HIGH WATER
Groton Suffered Considerably from Slide
Of Snow--Barre and Montpelier
Streams Rose Rapidly Satur-
day Night.

The Saturday night freeze came just
IN time To prevent one Of the worst
freshets central Vermont has experienced
in great many years. As it was, the
water and ice caused much damage and
inconvenience on Saturday afternoon and
evening. The streams were raised bank.
lfull BY the melting Of the snow, and
then the chick ice gave way and swept
downward. The water in Stevens
branch and its tributaries in this city
went on a rampage late in the after
noon, and Gunner brook in the north
end Of the city has rarely ever acted so
badly as ont Saturday night
The channel was not big enough for
this ambitions stream, and the water
began to food the territory about Brook
and Laurel streets and i swept com.
pletely over the main highway bridge
near Whitcomb Bros machine shop and
iigged riotously~ down Main street to
the river, completely cutting of that
section Of the city BY way OF Main
street and stopping electric car traffic
as well The street was covered with
cakes Of ice
The electric railroad had other trou.
bles on the AdTich fat, and the terri
tory about the base ball grounds was
ore big lake Huge cakes Of ice were
driven ont Of the river channel across
the field and over the electric railroad
track and the highway. so that the
railroad employees had to hew a path
through the Accommodations in order to
get a ear past after the water had sub
sided To-day the lowlands are covered
With ice.
The waters rose very quickly, but
most Of the people had taken warning
from previous treacherous manifesto.
tions Of the Stevens branch and moved
valuable property to higher locations.
But on Elnlolc street. in the south end
OF the city, they were not SO prompt
and nearly lost some livestock. John
Lllie had two COWS and a pig in the
basement OF his barn on thar street.
and when he GOT them to safety the
water WAS nearly To his shoulders John
il. Dix rescued horse from harm
near the Straiton granite plant just in
time.
The merchants expect an annual sous.
ing and had their goods out Of the
cellar. as rule. Some Of them got
q foot or two OF mixed mud and water
in the basement Water got into The
blanchard building cellar for the first
time. That there was not more water
in all the cellars OH Main street was
due to the prompt work ii chupping tile /
ice jam which formed against the Barre /
railroad bridge and threatened dire re-
suits. The men in the Syrian colony
who have Il corner on this Job, were set /
to work and filey cnt the jam before Il i
could do much damage. However, the I
ice was almost humping the bottom OF I
the bridge One Of the Syrians who was
out on the jam cut the ice out from
under himself and plunged into the wa
ter. As he swept down the stream he |
grasped the bottom Of the bridge and /
thus saved himself
A number OF big logs were swept down
from Phelps mill on The Jail branch and
are probably humping their way through /
to Lake Champlain. A hen-house on
the bank OF the local river got away
from it's moorings and swept down II
ike i house of cards when ii
struck the Barre railroad bridge, of
street.
The Results in Montpelier
In Montpelier, there was even more
than IN Barre, although
there was little damage actually done,
The meadow sections were inundated,
and the ice was swept over the bank of
the N'inOoski 50 that is shipped of
four electric light poles on Berlin side
and piled up OH che banks The water
was SO high that the tumbling Ice
scraped the bottom Of the new Main
bridge. Below Montpelier, the foot bridge
from the road to The Junction road was
,arried out, and the carriage road was
completely under water. When the wa
.er subsidized it left great aecumulations
II ice directly III the road. It was neces-
AIRY for Street Supt. Roberts to put a
yang of men To work before the process
ion from Mrs. =. a. Bishops funeral
,ouId get through to Green Mount cemes
cry. After channel had been cut,
he road was danked with ice banks
several feet high.
There was no lam OF ice below Mont
,elieF and so the water did not set back
IS usual. At the Bolton Falls plant Of
he Consolidated Lighting company, the
ecerd height Of water went over the
lam Saturday night, there being llla
eet on top OF the dam. The water got
nto the new station and put out the
Tres. The power from this plant was
hut of about midnight.
Rousseau Lost a Wagon
- 81 49,. ..,~f.l 4. a., -.