The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-03-26
Revised Estimates of Death Toll in
Flood Swept Ohio and Indiana
Are Placed at 1000
Early Reports Indicate That Instead of 5000
the Death List at Dayton Might Be
- Reduced to 500

Chicago, March 26-Day broke upon
the desolation brought by flood
throughout Ohio and Indiana with a
loss of life of the night before might
be somewhat reduced when search
revealed more fully the situation of
the stricken cities.
At daybreak- only partly verified
reports from the flood swept cities in
the two states showed the following
revised estimates of the loss of life,
based upon an apparent revision of
the figures of the day before. accord
ing to refugees:
OHIO
Dayton, 500 to 1000
Piqua Gumored) $40
Delaware so to 100.
Sidney, % to So
Middletown, so to 100
Hamilton, II.
Tippecanoe City, to 5.
Scattering, Is.
Total Ohio, 1,194 to 1885
INDIANA
Peru, so to $50.
Newcastle, 3.
Lafayette 2.
NobIesVil1e, 2.
Scattering, 5.
Fort Wayne 2
Total Indiana Is to ESQ.
The first ray of comfort for Day
ton came with the reports of refugees
that the death list which has been
estimated as high as 5000 drowned
would range from 500 to 1000 A sim
liar reduction in the number of vic
time was reported by telephone from
Peru to South Bend, Ind, in the
early figures of from 300 to 500 drown
ed down to 50, although a report from
Warsaw, Ind, still estimated that $50
persons had lost their lives
In contrast to the slight hope held
out of a possible reduced death list
in the cities named the possibility
that other places mot yet mentioned
as having been visited by disaster
had suffered was indicated in early
reports.
Mianisburg, a town of 1000 souls,
to have been washed away but no
news as to the casualties among the
inha bitantS had been received
At daybreak increased anxiety in
Indiana conferred about Brookville and
Connorsville from which frantic ap-
peals for aid were made, last night.
The early rumor of a death list of
$40 at Piqua, O., was still uncontra-
dicted at daylight, though no further
confirmation of it had come to hand.
Throughout the night the most
strenuous efforts for relief were being
made. The governor of Ohio had or
dered out the entire state militia to
aid in the work of rescue in the vari-
Gus cities and official appeals for help
were sent to neighboring states. A
relief train sent to several towns, last
night, was expected back, early today
Preparations were made by the state
legislature at Column bus to appropriate
$25O,006 for the relief of sufferers.
At daylight it was seen that the
nj low in
motorboats since ordinary small row.
boats stood small chance of breating
the current. Greater, however, than
the problem of rushing in supplies
both at Dayton and other places, was
the work of rescuing thousands OF
persons from positions of peril to
which they had chung all night with
faint hope of immediate hope
In Dayton, the office buildings in
the business districts sheltered in
their upper stories crowds who had
rushed there from streets where wa
ter ragged to depth of from nine to
20 feet.
At the National Cash Register
plant, on high ground, thousands were
taken in and in outlying residence dis
tricts.
In every city and throughout the
flood districts the fear at daybreak
was that the death list had been in
creased during the night by the con-
slant dropping of exhausted persons
into the waters. The utter inability
of ordinary boats to reach people
clinging to dismantled houses, trees
and surrounding objects made the
work of rescue everywhere practically
impossible. There was hope, how
ever, of a gradual subsistence of the
flood which had reached its crest at
Dayton at midnight and began slow
~ to fall.
One pressing need at Dayton, next
to the rescue of imperilled persons
was the supply of food, the stores be-
ing in the inundated district. The
water supply for drinking purposes
had also been cut off and physicians
feared a possible typhoid epidemic
from the use of the flood waters
In both states the train service was
in a dem oralized condition but every
effort was made by the authorities tc
reach the districts most in need OF
help. individuals and relief trains
striving to reach Dayton were unable
during the night to penetrate the city
which remained utterly isolated save
possibly from the north, where fur
Their efforts were made to enter al
daybreak.
The floods practically tied up rail-
road transportation on eastern lines
running through Indiana and Ohio
today, the condition being consider
ably worse than heretofore.
Railroad officials declared that the
situation was the most serious in 81
years and they were unable to say
when service would be restored.
--=-COEUMBUs DEATH LIST.