The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1913-03-29
HUNDREDS OF LIVES LOST
IN FLOOD IN MIDDLE WEST
DAMAGE AND NUNoATIoN VAST BETWEEN
ALLEeAENEs MISSOURI
Western Newspaper Union News Service.
Where Flood Took Heaviest Toll.

Western Newspaper Union News Service
Where Flood Took Heaviest Toll.
U.verified reports from the food
swept cities estimate the dead In Ohio
from l.5Oo 70 $500. and I'm lndian.
from 1900 to 1000. ..
Property loss. s:O.0ooo'Ooo' 1oo'o0o
Dayton, o.-Dam above city broke;
sixty feet of water over some streets;
10000 homeless; 500 to 1000 dead.
ands driven frfom ruined homes; i'm
.ss Piauap p'SpA 6p'@Aundreds injured; $40
Peru. Ind.-5oo dead. .,.
pslawaTs, 9;1Mayor ,nS drO%ned; %ssS city
St. Louis. Mo.-Many driven from
homes; l dead.
Youngstown. o.-Mahoning river and
mills flooded, $4,000 men made idle.
Indianapolis Ind;-suburbs flooded;
Fort Wayne, Ind-st Joseph, Mau-
sh,ns sh he plant ia aI Destroyed rHs CIT City in dark
Columbus, ,o.-Bridges over seioto
river washed away: railway traffic
Marion, Ind.-Leyee breaks. driving
500 families to hills.
Lima. o.-Ten solid miles of rail-
road ID, trains ineluding hundreds OF
washouts.
Akron. ,o-Dam breaks; hundreds of
farmers in valley warned in time to
Larue. .o.-City inundated; great
Rokomo. Ind.-Southern half of city
Middletown, O.-15 missing; city in
darkness.
Crest Reached at Dayton.
Dayton, Ohio. March 26.-The crest
was reached about midnight. The we
ter is falling half an inch an hour.
Chicago. March 27.-Daybreak upon
the desolation wrought by floods
throughout Ohio and Indiana opened
with slight hope that the estimates
of the loss of life of the night before
might be somewhat reduced when
GAVIN revealed more fully the situa-
tion Of the stricken cities.
The first ray of comfort from Day
ton came with reports Of refugees ar
irving at Xenia that the death list,
which had been estimated as high as
5000 drowned, would range from 500
to 1000. A silimar reduction in the num-
ber of victims was reported by the re-
ports from Peru to South Bend, Ind.
the earlier figures of from 200 to 500
drowned dwindling to 60. although
report from Warsaw, Ind, still esti-
mates that 250 persons had lost their
lives.
In contrast to the slight hope held out
of possible reduced death list in the
cities named, the possibility that 9TH
er places not yet mentioned as hav-
ing been visited by disaster had suf-
fered, was indicated in early reports.
Miaimisburg town of 1000, twelve
miles below Dayton, was reported to
have been washed away, but no news
as to the casualties among the inhab-
itants had been received.
Large business blocks in the cen
trail part of the city were undermined
and threaten to fall Scores of per-
sons perished when the Leonard build
ing opposite the city hall collapsed.
Dayton has been placed under mar
tial law, and three companies of the Ma
tional Guard are preserving order.
Relief is being rushed to Dayton
from all sides.
SluClIludll OulO, MdICh So.- CN
thousand persons lost their lives; s.
900 in Dayton, Ohio, 1000 in Hamilton.
Ohio; 500 in Peru, Ind; $50 in Piqua,
Ohio rs in Delaware, Ohio, with prop
erty loss of scores of millions of dol
lars, in unprecedented floods that
swept four states yesterday.
1t was the most horrible disaster
that ever has visited the Miami val
ley. 1t is impossible at this time to
more than estimate the number of
lives which were snuffed out, but it is
conservatively placed at 10000.
1t was known that the levees at
Piqua had given way and that a num-
ber of lives had been lost there. 1t
was hoped that this break would re-
lieye the pressure somewhat.
The great power plant reservoir
north of Dayton was full to overflow
ing and was carefully watched. Sud-
denly, with hardly a moments warn
ing, the big dam cracked under the
enormous pressure, then with q smash.
which could be heard for miles went
out and the millions of gallons of wa
ter in a white crested wave ten feet
high, swept like very demon of de-
struction down the doomed valley, car
rying horses, cattle and hundreds of
human beings on its foaming crest.
There was not time for the people of
the lower part of Dayton to escape.
Hundreds of them were caught in the
swirling waters which had soon turned
tn estreets into rushing, murderous,
corpse-laden rivers.
For four days a steady pour Of rain