The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-03-26
SETTLING WATER
COVERS DAYTON
MANY hl!ls;; ,;;;:iP :;EIP s; ;;;:iP sI:P
Accurate Estimate Of
Loss Of Life Now Is
Impossible.
DOZEN FIRES ARE
COMPLETING RUIN
Many Residences Swept Away
With Occupants, While on
Roofs of Buildings Are Gath
cred Helpless Men, Women
and Children-Famine
Is Threatened.
Water Now Falling
Dayton, March 26 $3.50
A. M.).-The crest was
reached about midnight,
md the water now is fall
ing half an inch an hour.
IBy Associated Press.

Dayton, Ohio, March 25-Dsytop
except for Its most remote suburbs,
Tonight uns covered from eight to
twenty feet with sccthinR flood of
water. Any attempt to entimute the
loss of life tx hopeless.
II In sure to run into tho hundreds,
and very likely into the thousnnds, the
Mayor placing the figures mt 5000. The
property loss will total millions Of dol
lars.
The flooded district comprises prac-
deal circle. with n radius of mile
Rnd n half. md In no place In the wa
ter less thnn sIA feet deep. In HIain
street, In the downtown section, the
water Ia twenty feet deep.
The horror of the flooded disnster is
heightened by more than n dozen fires,
which can bc secn In the flooded dis
trict, hut which nre out of reach of
fire fighters.
Most of the busInes. houses md
nearly nli the residences have occu-
PANTS. Dountown the Offices are filled
With men-fathers unable to get hom G.
In tile upper noors aud on some OF
the roofs of the residences are helpless
women and children. Hundreds of
houses, substantial bulldogs in the
residence districts, many of them with
helpless occupants, have heen washed
away.
The number of drowned cannot he
estimated until the flood subsides.
ST. Eiizaheth's Hospital. with 500 pa
ffcnts, WAN reported to have hecn
washed Hwny. The building was known
Ia be In mnny feet of water, md indi-
cntions arc that tho report may prove
true.
The electric light plants were put out
of husincss early In the day, and total
darkness, coupled with "a torrential
downpOur. added to the horrors OF the
night.
Famine also became an immediate
possibility.
All of the supply and grocery houses
midnight II rnid there uns not
enough bread to last the survivors an
other day.
John II. Patterson. president OF the
National Cnsh ItcEister Company, who
headed the relief work In tho south
end OF tho city. sent out an appeal for
food supplies and for doctors and
medicine. Tonight 5000 homeless
were housed in his company's offces
fire. which started from an cx-
piosion In the Meyers Ice Cream Com
pnny. near Wyoming street, spread
and burned the block South Park,
about block from Wyoming. AN.
burned downtown block.
City Without Water.
hrcnkinE of the Tarleton reser-
voir, which supplies sne drinking wn-
ter, left the city without water, and
physicinns declared there wns great
hood water.
There are no bonts In Dayton which
can breast the current, and those ON
the outside early gave up any attempts
to reach the business section.
At Wyoming Street, on the noutb
side, where the National Cash Register
Company centred Its efforts at rescue,
many snved their lives by creenine on
cable 700 feet nbovc the Hood.
At first lfnemcn worked their ust
along tho cables. carrying tow ropcs
to which the hat-bottomed boats were
attached. When the food became so
fierce that the boats no longer were
able to prevail against II, men and
women crept along the cables TO safety.
Others, less daring, sau darkness fall
and Enve UP hope of rescue.
Those willing to risk their lives I'm
the attempt TO rescue found themselves
helpless In face of the water
Seventy thousand of Dnyton'S non
ulntton, IL In reported. are homeless
The National Cash Register plant, on a
nigh htIi, ofers the only haven in the
south end. Three women became moth
erS In the halls or It's office building
Tonight.
In Midst of Furious River.
night nothing less than seethine.
river three miles wide, "A mile and n
hnif on each side of Main Street, Its
principal tbOrouEhfare. while II Ia
estimnted that from 1000 to 1000 peo-
pic have pcrished.
4 school building that was known
TO hnvc housed no less than 400 school
children shortly before the water rushed
In that direction. Ia entirely sub
mersed, and na for ms ens he. ascer-
taircd NIL of these little ones met a
watery grave.
Thousands of those who were foKssI-
nate enough tn have escaped the first
rush Of the waters are heinR fed to-
night on short rations.
The Union Railroad bridge that nd
mits nll except one Of the railroads
Continued on Sixth Paga0
Ss219 fo r.eI,So,rs.