Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-07-25
More Than so Lives Claimed
by Floods and CIoudbursts.
BIG SECTION is HARD HIT
Damage to Homes and Industries
Cannot Be Estimated.
MINERS GREATEST SUFFERERS
Fifteen Drowned in One Mine. While
Many Have Narrow Escapes.
Wires Down.

PITTSBURGH. Pa. July 25-More than
sixty lives were claimed Wednesday by
hoods and cloudbursts In southwest Penn
sylvania and West Virginia and hundreds
or homes and business houses destroyed
Uniontown, Pa, leads the list of known
dead with fifteen
At Wheeling, W. Va. three were
drowned: at Lemont, Pa. four drowned:
at ELenwood, Pa, three drowned. and
thirty-six lives are reported to have been
lost in other towns OF the two states
Cnfontown, Lemont. Mount Braddock.
Connellsv1lle and Dunbar Pa. were In
undated. In Turtle Creek valley the
damage is enormous. and scores OF fami-
lies are homeless in the upper youghiogh-
eny valley. Railroad traffic through =
great territory is demoralized especially
so at Cnfontown. where the tracks OF two
railways were torn from their founda-
tions
Several towns are without railroad
mail. telephone and telegraph connec-
lions.
West Virginia Wires Down.
From West Virginia cities no reports
can be obtained because telegraph wires
are down.
II will be several weeks before the COM
plete loss of life is known
Work of clearing up the wreckage was
begun today.
Fifteen lives We're snuffed out In Su-
perba mine. No. 2. near Uniontown. sew
enty-five miners narrowly escap ping death.
while from many other sections come re-
ports of lives lost by the mountain tor
rents rushing into mine slopes.
Hundreds OF families deserting 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 chill
dren, gazed over a scene of desolation In
| the upper Youghiogheny valley. and
the waters receded upturned dwellings.
| shattered buildings and crumbled piles OF
mortar We're held in a conglomerate mass
| by a railroad bridge trestle. or the
| progress of the debris had been impeded
by some larger and stancher building.
| After Midnight When Water Re
1t was long after midnight before the
waters began to recede. Rain had ceased
to fall some hours earlier, but the heavy
beds of mountain streams veritabe
cataracts
Floods i'm these regions are OF an an
nual occurrence, for which preparation
is made, and comparatively little dam
age is done: freshets caused by heavy
summer rains occur several times a sea
son, but the heavy waterfalls are carried
away with but little damage. The cloud
burst OF yesterday. however. came be
| fore the district had recovered from
| more than twenty-four hours OF torren-
dial rains Sunday, and with every stream
bank full soon all We're out Of their
| banks
This morning as the waters clear away
the stricken community gazes at the
power of the elements Heavy rocks
have been split. heavy railroad iron has
been lifted from almost solid beds ana
dropped into rivers. while all sides
deep scars mark the surface of the earth
where the crowding waters have made
new courses for themselves.
Dunbar. near Conneilsville was inuu-
dated. The waters ragged through the
main streets, upsetting massive struc-
lures and endangering the lives OF hun
dreds. A cloudburst was the cause. al
though 1t is thought dam broke.
Crops Blotted From the Earth.
The. Turtle Creek valley was visited
by disastrous flood and the damage is
enormous. Crops were blotted from the
earth. Railroad traffic through a great
territory is demoralized. With four con
nections into Uniontown the Pennsylvania
was unable to get passengers into the
city early today. Several railroad bridges
of that system and the Baltimore and
Ohio We're torn from foundations thought
impregnable and hurled into the madden
ed waters.
Hundreds are homeless Thousands are
suffering. Towns cut of from rail-
al ND tafn n
nections and are in darkness and are
without fuel.
In the city the storm created havoc
but while streets were flooded and traffic
delayed. the damage was not heavy
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 all suffered great damage
The greatest loss OF life was due to the
flooding of the Superba mine al Evans,
nine miles from Uniontown.
Three Missing at Lemont No. 1.
Three miners are missing among the
$50 employed at Lemont No 1 mine OF
the H. c. Frick Coke Company, whose
nine-foot vein underlies that of the Su-
perba workings.
This estimate of lives sacrificed through
what appears nothing more than unavoid-
aoie accident was given Dy mine experts
at daybreak. and Will doubtless total all
the casualties from Wednesdays almost
unprecedented performance OF the ele-
ments in the coke region.
Mine Foreman W. A. Gamer of Su-
perba No. ., who was first reported lost.
but who narrowly escaped being caught
by the thrush OF water in the workings
while spreading the alarm TO the fated
men. this morning said that in addition
to the fourteen names OF those missing,
for whose safety there could be no raw
OF hope, an unknown foreigner who came
to work at the mine only two days ago
cannot be found.
An American miner employed at Su-