The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1913-03-28
People Perish In the Seething
River; Terrible Disaster
PROPERTY LOSS VERY HEAVY
Estimated That Millions OF Dollars Have
Been Swept Away; Stream Three
Miles Wide

Chicago, March 26.--Reports con.
corning the appalling nature OF the
floods in Ohio and Indiana, which in
most instances it was impossible to
verify, were received from widely
scattered sources. The most serious
Of these were:
An unconfirlned report from Spring.
field, O.. that 5000 lives had been lost
At Dayton and 500 at Piqua.
The mayor of Peru, Ind, reports
from 200 to 500 dead at that place and
asks Governor Ralston for provisions,
clothing and collins.
A message received at Phoneton, o.,
that the reservoir at Hamilton had
broken and that 1000 persons had
been drowned.
telephone message from Dayton
to Phoneton that the vast plant OF the
National Cash Register company at
Dayton was on fire.
An unconfirmed but persistent ru-
mar from Marion, Ind, that the Grand
reservoir at Salina, o., had gone out,
causing an unprecedented flood in the
Wabash valley.
Reports May Be Exaggerated.
Latest reports from Delaware, O.,
said seventy.hve to one hundred were
dead, but more conservative figures
cut sthsss- reports IA hal =
The telegraph companies in numer-
GUS instances made unavaiiing efforts
to confirm many OF these rumors, but
in few cases were able to trace them
70 definite source.
Dayton, O., March 26-Dayton is
nothing less than a seething river
three miles wide, mile and half OH
each side OF Main street, its principal
that from two to five thousand people
have persisted.
Gloom reigns supreme. The Algon.
quin hotel is submerged in water up
10 its third story and above this level
in the downtown district Office build
ings, hotels and business houses are
places of refuge.
A school building that was known
TO have housed no less than 400 school
children shortly before the waters
rushed in that direction is entirely
submerged and as far as can be ascer-
tanned all of those little ones met
watery grave.
The property loss will total millions
OF dollars.
Water Twenty Feet Deep.
The flooded district comprises a
practical circle with a radius of a
mile and half and in no place is the
water less than six feet deep. In
Main street, in the downtown section,
the water is twenty feet deep.
The horror of the flooded district is
heightened by more than dozen fires
which can be seen, but out of reach
OF the fire fighters.
Most of the business houses and
nearly all OF the residences have oc-
cupants. Downtown the offices are
filled with men, who are unable to get
home, and on the upper floors and
some of the roofs OF the residences
are helpless women and children.
Hundreds of houses, substantial
buildings in the residence districts,
many of them with helpless occu.
pants, have been washed away.
The number of drowned cannot be
estimated until the flood subsidies.
ST. Elizabeth hospital, with 600 pa
tents, was reported to have been
washed away The buildings were
known to be in many feet of water
and indications are that the report
may prove true.
Famine became an immediate pos
sibility.
Threatened With Starvation.
All of the supply and grocery houses
are in the submerged district and it
was said there was not enough bread
to last the survivors another day.
John Fl. Patterson, president of the
National Cash Register company, who
headed the relief work in the south
end of the city, sent out an appeal for
food supplies and for doctors and medi-
cine. Three thousand homeless We're
housed in the cash register building.
A fire which started from an explo-
sion in the Meyers Ice Cream COM
pany near wyoming street spread and
burned the block on South Park,
about a block from Wyoming. An,
other big fire is reported to have
burned a d. yntown block.
The breaking of the Tarleton reser-
Continued on Page Two.