The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1913-03-28
Towns of Ohio Suffer
Worst Loss of Lives.
Cities, Towns and Villages in Number
of States Submerged--Burstina
of Many Dams Adds to Hor-
ror of inundation.-Sit-
uation Serious

Dayton, March 27.--Dayton is moth
ing less than a seething river three
miles wide, a mile and a half on each
side of Main street. its principal thor
oughfare
Estimates Large.
1t is estimated that from 1000 to
5000 people have persisted
The Algonquin hotel is submerged
IN water up to it's third story and
above this level in the downtown dis
trict Office buildings, hotels and bust
ness houses are places of refuge.
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 ascertained, all of the little ones
met watery grave.
No Estimate of Dead.
Except for its most remote suburbs,
the city is covered with water from
to 20 feet. Any attempt to estimate
the loss of life is hopeless.
1t is sure to run into the hundreds
and very likely into the thousands.
The property loss will total millions
of dollars.
The flooded district comprises a
practical circle with radius of mile
and half and in no place is the wa
ter 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 may be seen in the flood
ed district, but out OF reach of the
fire fighters.
Most of the business houses and
nearly all of the residences have oc-
cupants.
Unable to Go Home.
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 occupants,
have been washed away. The number
of drowned cannot be estimated un-
I'll the flood subsidies.
Hospital Washed Away.
ST. Elizabeth hospital with 500 pa
tients 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.
The electric light plants were put
out of business early in the day and
total darkness. coupled with torren-
tial downpour, added to the horrors of
the nigh.
Famine also became an immediate
possibility. All of the supply and
grocery houses are in the submerged
district and at midnight it was said
there was not enough bread to last
the survivors another day.
John H. 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
medicine.
Three thousand homeless were
housed in the Cash Register buildings.
There are no boats in Dayton which
can breast the current and those on
the outside early gave up any at
tempts to reach the business section
impossible to Estimate.
How many houses have been swept
away and how many occupants were
carried to their death cannot be
learned until the waters recede
At Wyoming street, on the South
Side, where the National Cash Regis
ter company centered its efforts at res
cue, many saved their lives by creep
ing on a telephone cable, a hundred
feet above the flood
A lineman crept along the cable car
rying two ropes to which the fiat bot
toned boats were attached When the
flood became so fierce that the boats
no longer were able to make way
against it, men and women crept along
the cables to safety. Others, less dar-
ing, saw darkness fall and gave up
hope Of rescue.
General Report.
Chicago, March 27.-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 scat
tered sources. The most serious of
these were:
An unconfirmed report from Spring
field, Ohio. that 500 are dead at Piqua.
A report, apparently more fully au-
thenticated, that from 200 TO 800 had
been drowned at Peru Ind.
A message received at Phoneton, o..
that the reservoir at Hamilton had
broken and that 1000 persons had
been drowned.
The Western Union Office in Chr
cage reported that its Cincinnati Of
flee had worked with the Western
Union Office at Lindenwald, one mile
south of Hamilton. At that time no
mention was made of such disaster
and continued efforts at verification
were futile.
An unconfirmed but persistent ru-
NOR from Marion, Ind, that the grand
reservoir at Salina, o.. had gone out
causing an unprecedented flood in the
Wabash valley.
Latest reports from Delaware, o.,