Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-08-04
DAMAGE TO PROPERTY
PLACED AT 100000
Wall of Water Ten Feet in Depth
Sweeps Through
Streets.
FAMILIES HOMELESS
Mills and Factories Likely to Be
Idle for Weeks-Destruction
in Other Sections of
Country.

ERIE, Pa, August 4.-Day-
light here broke over food
stricken city, with its business
streets running rivers Of water.
The estimated loss of fifty lives,
property damage estimated at
$3,0O0,O00, scores of homes and
dozens of factories swept away
and the distress of homeless hun
/ dreds were the effect. of an un-
precedented storm which struck
Erie and the immediate vicinity
last night.
Coroner D S. Hanley shortly
before noon today estimated that
fifty persons perishel. Mayor
Stern, at 10 o clock, said the num-
Der probably would not exceed
| twenty-five, but after survey Of
the debris and checking over a
list of missing, Coroner Hanley
raised the estimate to fifty.
After almost an all-day rain a
heavy thundershower eliminated
in cloudburst. For an hour resi-
laents slang the course OF Mill
creek, through the east center of
the city, watched the slow rise of
the stream, due to a rainfall of
nearly three inches in six hours.
At 8::45 the Glenwood dam,
three miles above the city, burst,
and huge wall of water swept
down through the city, carrying
with it the homes of those who
had waited until the last minute
to leave, and in several cases the
families still refused to seek
safety.
! Recovery of Bodies.
| With the coming of daybreak Erie
turned to the task of recovering the
bodies of victims Of the cloudburst and
flood, and at o'clock fourteen had
been placed in the temporary morgue.
The food. caused by the overflow Of
Mill creek following the bursting of
the Glenwood dam, swept through
section Of the city a block in width
and a mile long.
| The identified dead are:
| Emma Osborne, forty-four years old.
i of Parade street.
| John Donovan, city fireman.
l.. Sweeney Anderson. sixty years old, of
fEast 9Th street.
| John Higgins. forty years old,
James Higgins, seventeen years old,
son Of John Higgins.
| Mrs. John Higgins and infant.
Mrs. Cora Anderson Nase m Main: i1..a, twenty
| Katherine E. Carroll.
Thomas Langdon.
| Mayor Stern has made a request for
| company of the 18th Regiment of the
| Pennsylvania National Guard to patrol
| the ruined section of the city.
Police and Firemen Work All Night.
The police and fire forces of the city
| worked throughout the night on the
ruins, recovering the fourteen bodies
| from an area that included approx
mately one-half of the devastated dis
trict. The men worked under the di-
| rection of Mayor w. J. Stern and the
four members of the city council. The
district swept by the flood extends
| from 26th street and French street, In
the uptown business section. to 10th
and State streets, a distance Of about q
| mile.
The release of the water held back by
the dam sent huge wave hve feet
high toward the city. and by the time
>tI A..t hyvty NvNo
street 1t was crested with, mass of
debris that acted like a huge battering
ram on everything in its path.
Danger from falling hish-tension
after dawn, and the authorities threw
a heavy guard of police and volun-
teers around the flooded section. Many
poles, weighted with wires and under
mined by the flood, dropped into the
streets.
Four Blocks Submerged.
| Four blocks on either side Of the
stream. including State street. the main
business artery of the city. were COW
cred with a depth from six inches to
five feet.
The Loemhuis wagon works and the
Nelson machine shop. each occupying
nearly half block. were the largest
structures to be swept away. The
| Jareckl and Lowell wood working
plants. two of the largest manufac-
| tories in the city, were covered with
| fifteen feet of water.
Early this morning gas mains all
over the city were cut of and tele-
phone, street car and electric lighting
service was paralyzed.
The charitable societies, the armory,
hotels and hastily organized shelter
clubs gave refuge to hundreds who
saved but their own lives and few
meager belongings. -
The darkness, the danger of broken
electric wires and the twenty-five mile
current of the flood made the work of
Irescue extremely DertloQs, and even de-
lCtptinued on Ninth Page.l