Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-07-27
FATALITIES OF
PENNSYLVANIA
FLOOD ARE HIGH
Number of Drowned Totals
81 and Destruction of
Property Will Aggregate
An Immense Sum.
SCORES OF TOWNS
SWEPT BY TORRENTS

Cloudburst at Time When
Rivers and Greeks Were
Full Following Rains.
Pittsburgh, Pa, July 25.-Death and
desolation spread broadcast over the
southwestern counties yesterday and
last night, through cloudbursts and
Overlooking streams. Three score or
more lives are the toll, while the
damage to homes and industries can
not be estimated.
Fifteen lives were lost in Superba
mine No. 2, near Uniontown; seventy
five miners narrowly escaped death,
while from many other sections come
reports Of lives lost by the mountain
torrents rushing into mile slopes.
Hundreds of families deserving homes
In a mad rush for safety on the noun
tain sides sought shelter beneath i'm.
provised shacks and tents, toward the
construction of which every available
piece of debris was turned to account
At daybreak shivering women and
children gazed over the scene of DESC
lation in the upper Youghiogheny val
ley and as the waters receded upturned
dwellings, shattered buildings and
crumbled piles of mortar were held in
conglomerated mass by railroad
bridge or trestle, or the passage of the
debris had been impeded by some
larger and stauncher building.
During the night meager reports
filtered in that, If later verified, will
run the list of fatalities up to sixty
one The places and number reported
to have been drowned at each are as
follows:
Uniontown, Pa.-Fourteen drowned.
Smock, Pa. located in Redstone val
ley-Fourteen reported drowned.
Grindstone, Pa.-Fourteen miners
missing and reported drowned.
Linn, Pa.-Two miners reported
drowned.
Wheeling, w. va.-Three drowned.
Lamont. Pa, mine-Four miners re-
ported drowned.
Fleetwood, Pal. L. King, wife
and child drowned.
New Martinsville Six reported
drowned.
Monongah, w. Va-One drowned.
Fairmont, w. Va.-Two drowned.
OF this list of sixty.one fatalities 1t
has been possible to account definite
" for twenty-three Those who are
known to have met death are at
Uniontown, Wheeling. Fleetwood,
Fairmont and Monongah.
Admittedly the death list will not
be known for many days.
1t will take months to clear some of
the mines Of water.
1t was long after midnight before
the water began to recede. Rain had
ceased falling some hours earlier, but
the heavy precipitation soon made the
usually dry beds of mountain streams
veritable cataracts
Floods Were Expected.
Floods in these regions are of an
nual occurrence for which prepare
tons are made and comparatively lit
tie damage is done; freshets caused
by heavy summer rains occur several
times season, but the heavy water
falls are carried away with only little
damage. The cloudburst of yesterday,
however, came before the district had
recovered from more than twenty-four
hours of torrential rains on Sunday
and with every stream bank full, 80
all were out of their banks.
This morning as the waters cleared
away, stricken community gazes
aghast at the power Of the elements.
Heavy rocks have been split, heavy
railroad iron has been lifted from al
most solid beds and dropped into
rivers, while on all sides deep scars
mark the surface of the earth where
the crowding waters have made new
courses for themselves.
Dunbar, near ConnelsviIle, was in.
undated. The waters ragged through
the main streets, upsetting massive
structures and endangering the lives
OF hundreds of persons. A cloudburst
was the cause, although it is thought
q dam broke.
The turtle creek valley was visited
by disastrous flood and the damage
Is enormous. Crops were blotted from
the earth.
Railroad traffic through great ter
ritory is demoralized. With four con-
nections into Uniontown, the Pennsyl-
vania was unable to get passengers
into the city early today Several rail-
road bridges of that system and the
new Baltimore and Ohio were torn
from foundations thought impregnable
and hurled into the maddened waters.
Hundreds are homeless. Thousands
are suffering. Towns are cut off from
railroad mail, telephone and telegraph
connections and are in darkness and
are without fuel. From West Virginia
no reports can be secured by the
weather bureau for almost every wire
from that state is down. In the city
the storm created havoc. but while
streets were flooded and traffic de-
layed the damage was not heavy.
Coke Regions Hit Hard.
1t was in the coke regions that the
fury of the storm seemed to have been
spent Uniontown, Dunbar, Lemont,
Mount Braddock, Connellsville. All
were inundated and great damage was
suffered. The greatest loss of life was
due to tn. flooding of the Superba
mine at NvaIs, zine miles from Union