Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-03-26
STORIES FROM DAYTON.
Waters of Miam; River lnundates
City-Disaster Follows in Wake.

Cincinnati, Ohio, March 25.-The
waters of the Miami river are, today.
rushing, deep and muddy. through
the downtown streets of Dayton.
At the corner of Third and Ludlow.
where stand the Algonquin Hotel,
large church. the Young Mems Chris
tan Association building and the At
las Hotel. the water is several feet
deep and tratfc is possible only by
beat. The principal corner of the city,
Third and Main streets, is three ieet
under water and the courthouse STANDS
like an island in a sea of mud.
The Mad and saltwater rivers are
swelling far beyond their bands and
they have hurled their walls of water
into the rapidly rising. always fever
ish, impetuous Miami
The first break in the levee came at
o'clock this morning. at Stratford
avenue. according to the interrupted
despatch This was followed by other
breaks at East Second street and
Fifth. Wolf creek flowing into the
Miami from the northeast. early got
out of its banks and added to the
heod, flowing over the floors OF the
Williams street and Edsewater ave
nue. bridges.
Mad river, in the northern section,
also got over it's banks early. All or
North Dayton. save the extreme up
lands is inundated. The Miami Is more
than a mile wide below the city. ana
thousands of acres are under water.
-Four companies of the Third Regi-
ment, Ohio National Guard, spent the
oft "
cuing families in the flooded districts.
Telephone and railroad service is inter-
rupted in every direction.
Post office officials here declared II
would be impossible to get any mail
into Dayton, today. because of bridges
, and railroad beds being washed out
The great levees. designed to hold
back any flood have given way in many
places and through these gaps the wa
ter is rushing in torrents. The whole
central portion of the city is flooded
the beautiful residences lying east of
the exclusive boulevard district is a
"Venice."
street car service is practically sus-
pended The Keowee street bridge over
! the Mad river threatens TO fall.
Riverdale and Edgemont. low-lying
levees that. dyke-like, rise far above
the streets, are many feet deep in wa
ter.
Hundreds of homes are filled with
floating furniture The citizens, used to
slow creeping Hoods of other years. are
paralyzed by this sudden, hurting
seething flood, that seemed to spring
during the night from the clouds that
lpv
their seas Of water into the rivers that
converge in the very heart Of Dayton.
Rising floods, bearing tons of debris,
are hurtlng their weight against the
magnificent concrete bridges that span
the Miami Trains are at a standstill
for many miles of tracks are under
water,
Below the city the acreages are seas
of yellow. The farms are lakes and the
roads raceways Telegraph service Is
MANNED, all sorts Of communication well
nigh impossible and if the stream, urged
on by the still falling and seeming inces-
SAINT rain continues to rise, Dayton VIII
have experienced its first great, city,
wide disaster.
Three rivers. the Miami, Saltwater and
Mad. and Wolf creek conioin right in the
heart of Dayton. AS the city particular
, ly North Dayton and a north section call
| ed Riverdale. lies almost on level with
the four streams. ii is protected from
| high water by levees % feet high. which
guide the stream through the city from
it's northern to its southern end.
! North Dayton is generally first to suf-
fer during high water 1t is a manutac-
turing and residence district. Riverdale
is a residence district
: If the levees of Mad river, the most
, dangerous Of the four streams, swinging