The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-03-28

and artificial, very largely for
heating, and almost exclusively
for cooking. The hardship work
ed by the failure of the gas sup
ply can easily be imagined es-
pecially when those rescued from
the flood districts were so sore
ly in need of hot food and bever-
ages.
ESTIMATES ON DEATH TOLL
Estimates on the loss of life
place it all the way from 1000 to
5000, but as a matter of fact
there is no way to accurately
tell what the death toll will be.
It will be a week before the true
loss can be fixed. The first at
tention must be given to the liv-
ing. That the officials feel it
will be very large is shown by
the call sent out to all undertake
ers in surrounding towns.
The property loss will be mill
ions in Dayton alone. 1t is esti-
mated that fifteen thousand re-
sidences have been destroyed en-
tirely, while nearly all the build
ings in the flood district, which
was three-fourths of the city,
were seriously damaged. Those
who manned the rescue boats
said that the currents on all the
streets were swift, so there may
be hundreds of buildings under
mined to the point of unsafety.
The loss to the municipality for
river levee, bridge, sewer, street
and sidewalk Improvements will
be enormous. An official of the
city government said that a mil
lion dollars worth of bonds will
be floated at once, the money to
be used for cleaning the city.
Then there is the enormous loss
to business interests. Not a
down town business house es-
capped. All suffered from the
water and many by fire. Build
ings did not burn singly, they
burned by blocks.
The net loss in Dayton will be
greater than in many other cit
les visited by calamities in late
years for the reason that there
was practically no property in
surance against loss by water. In
some ways property owners
whose buildings burned are bet
ter off than without the fire. The
buildings were already ruined by
the flood, and the fire making
complete the destruction, gave
to the owner some insurance mo-
ney with which to rebuild. 1t was
reported that some had fired
their buildings when they saw
they were to be ruined by the
flood.
UTILITIES BROKEN DOWN.
Every public service corpora
ton is completely disabled. Not
a street car has moved since the
flood set it, not a telephone has
been used, no electric lights have
been turned on, and gas has been
cut off since Wednesday night.
The equipment of all these COM
panies has been wrecked and it
will be a long time before Dayton
will have anything like adequate
service from it's public utilities.
The great power plant of the
Ohio Electric Traction company,
which operates electric interur-
ban cars on all lines out of Day.
ton except one, is under water,
it's fine machinery and dynamos
water soaked beyond use.
If Dayton RECEIVERS sufficient
ly to think of amusement next
summer even in this the city will
be Handicapped. White City, the
big amusement park, which bor-
dered on the river, has been en-
tirely destroyed.
Many are no doubt asking the
question how could it all happen
in a modern city like Dayton.
Not only, how did the water
spread as never in the city's his
tory, but how did so many fall
victims before it.
An abnormal rainfall-almost
a cloudburst of hours duration,
coupled with the breaking of the
levee along the Miami river &C
counts for the volume of water.
The topography of the city's bus
mess and residence district, the
same being a low level river val
ley, accounts for the breadth of
the water.
DID NOT HEED WARNING
While the loss of life is the
same old story of all such disas-
would not heed the