Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1911-10-06
WATER AND FLAMES SPREAD DEATH
AND RUIN OVER TWO PENNSY TOWNS


in 1889, so might n similar cry that
rang into the ears of Margaret Decker,
stenographer for the Bayliss Pulp e
Paper Co, have saved scores of lives
here.
For Gods sake warn the town, the
dam has burst" was the cry that
came over the telephone to her as sho
sat in the Office of the mills. But
Margaret Decker laughed after the
manner of young woman that thinks
she Is being made the butt of prac-
tical joke.
Warn the town, the dam has
burst" came the cry again.
Once more the girl laughed and as
no further words came over the wire
she hung up the receiver. But she
told a clerk. In an instant he had
called up the car shops mile away
and its whistle a second later gave
brief blast OF warming Almost be-
fore its echoes had ceased to rever-
berate between the hills Of the Allie
| ghenies, the torrent from a collapsed
dam, 5OO,00O,0OO gallons of water, was
swirling through the town carrying
| all before 1t.
Scores Are Cremated.
Fire, which following the flood
swept ruins, continued undated until
a heavy downpour of rain ended the
danger from that source. Scores of
bodies have been cremated in the
flames that licked large blocks of the
piled up wreckage. The identity of
any particular set of bones will never
be known. Their names will simply
be among the missing.
Austin is desolate, and where for
morely lay town four blocks wide
and mile long between green hills
there is only ruin. The larger area
of the town is swept as clean and as
fiat as a football field, for Austin was
built without cellars. All about the
barren center, along the hillsides and
at one end, where the hills narrow
until they become a gulley, debris is
piled high.
Costello is another Austin on a
smaller scale. 1t is nestled with its
500 inhabitants in the Sinnemahoning
Valley, just a few miles below the
bigger town. 1t is no more. 1t looks
as though some gigantic force had
picked up the town and carried il
away bodily and strewn rubbish on its
site. The number of dead there is
not yet known.
With the rush of water past and the
fire peril removed by the rain starva
tion and exposure stares the stricken
towns of Austin and Costello in the
face.
Doctors and Nurses Arrive.
Austin depended on natural ga:
piped from Roulette, four miles away
both for fuel and light. The main:
!, are gone and the few houses tha
remain on the hills have reverted
to the candles and lamps that can bt
found.
The state department of health has
taken charge of the wrecked town
} A large force of doctors, nurses ant
sanitary officers are here and plans
are being perfected to remove tC
: places of comfort all the resident!
: not needed in the work of salvage
!; The sanitary officers will remain tt
combat any epidemic.
A regular system for the distribu
tion of food was devised later. TIL,
survivors of the flood had thrown thei
, homes and their tables open to al
who had lost their worldly goods, bu
after "a hours all was exhausted
, Every store in town except the post
Office had been swept away. Basket
filled with chicken, ham, roast bee
/ and Clipped beef sandwishes, fresl
) milk, eggs and bread and butter wer
r sent to all the surviving women ant
t girls. The men and boys were order
r ed to report to the Odd Fellows hall
: When they arrived each was serve,
3 with sandwiches, steaming hot coffe
t and other nourishing food.