The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-07-25
Immense Damage Done to
Homes and Industries
AS Result of CIoudbursts and
Overlooking Streams.
CROPS BLOTTED FROM EARTH
A Wide Area Devastated in
Western Pennsylvania.
Railroad Traffic in Vast Terri
tory Is DemOraIized.

Pittsburg. July 25.-Death and DESC
lation spread broadcast over the south
west counties yesterday and last night
through cloudbursts and overflowing g
streams. Three score or more lives
are the toll, while the damage to
homes and industries can not be esti-
mated.
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 mine slopes. Hun
dreds of families deserting homes in a
mad rush for safety on the mountain
sides sought shelter beneath impro-
NlSed ShackS and tents, toward the con-
StructOn 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
crumb1ed piles of mortar were held in
a coEglomerated mass by a railroad
bridge or treStle or the prOg-
ress of the debris had been impeded
by some larger and stauncher building
1t was long after midnight before
the waters began to recede. Rain had
ceased falling some hours earlier but
the heavy precipitation soon made the
usually dry beds of mountain streams
Ner1table cataractS. Floods in these
regions are of annual occurrence for
which preparations are made and
comparatively little damage is done.
Freshets caused by heavy summer
yrdl1lS occur several times a season b1lt
the heavy waterfalls are carried awav
with only little damage. The cloud
DurSt OF yesterday, however, came be-
lore the district had recovered from
more than "a hours of torrentiaI rains
on sunday and with every stream bank
1ull, soon all were out of their banks.
Power of the Elements,
rms morning as the waters cleared
away, a stricken community gazes
aghast at the power of the elements.
Heavy rocks have been split heavy
railroad iron has been lifted from al
most most solid solid beds and dropped into /
rivers while on all sides deep scars |
marx the surface of the earth where |
the erowding waters have made new /
courses for themselves.
dunbar, near Connellsville, was in
undated. The waters ragged through
the main street, upsetting massive
structures and endangering the lives
OF hundreds of persons. A cloud |
thought a dam broke. The Turtle /
Creek valley was visited by a disas-
trous flood and the damage is enor-
nous Crops were blotted from the
Railroad traffic through a great ter
ritory is demoralized. With four con-
nections into Uniontown the PennsyI-
vauia was unable to get passengsrs
into the city early today.
Several bridges of that system and
the b. & Q. were torn from founda-
tions thought to be impregnabIe end
hurled into the maddened waters.
Hundreds are homeless. Thousands
are suffering, towns are cut off from
railroad, mail, telephone and tele-
graph connections and are in dark
ness and are without fuel From West
Virginia no reports can be secured bv
the weather bureau for almost every
wire from thai state is down.
MANY Towns Flooded
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, Connells-
vile, all were inundated and great
damage was suffered.
The greatest loss of life was due to
the flooding of the Superba mine at ;
Evans. nine miles from Uniontown.
Fifteen miners are now accounted
lost Three are missing among the
employees of mine No. 1 of the H. c. ]
Frick Coke company, whose nine foot :
vein underlies the Superba workings ,
This estimate will doubtless total all !
the casualties from Wednesdays per-
fornance of the elements. .
Those who have penetrated the Su- ,
psrba mine came out with reports of
almost indescribabIe ruin.
''It looks in there as if there had
been an explosion of terrific force"
said Frank Taggart, who accompanied
Mine Foreman Cancer. '"The water
simply ripped up the tracks and twist
ed and bent the rails in all sorts of
shapes, in some places forming an al
most impossible barrier. Supports
were torn out, water filled the heading
to the r&Sf.
Cancer said the mine was filled to a
point about 1900 feet from the sur ;
face opening. Beyond that the work.
inRs extend in various directions about
3.10O feet and about 60 or 20 acres !
of openings are under water which
contain the bodies of those unac-
counted for in checking lists at the
i