Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-08-04
HEAVY DAMAGE
DONE BY STORM
Continued From First Page. ]

minute to leave and in several cases
the families still refused to seek sare-
ty. Four blocks on either side OF the
stream, including State tsreet. the
main business artery fthe city were
covered with a depth of from six
inches to five feet.
The Leemeigen Wagon Works and
the Wilson Machine shops, each oc-
cupying nearly half a block, were the
largest structures to be swept away.
The Jarecki and Lowell Wood Work.
ing plants, two of the largest manu-
facturies in the city, were covered with
fifteen feet of water. Early this morn
ing gas mains all over the city were
cut off and telephone, street car and
electric lighting service were para
lyzed.
Rescue forces of police, f1remen and
life savers were augmented during the
day by civilian volunteers and prepa-
rations were made to work by arthclal
light during the night.
The immense piles of wreckage form
barriers from fifty to seventy feet high
in the mile course of the Hood through
the city's business section and the task
before the workers Is a tremendous
one. Some buildings were totally de-
molished, while others were tossed Vlr-
tually intact upon the nils between
which the torrent rushed. The bodies
OF some OF the victims were found a
mile from the spot where they were
caught by the rush of water and 1t is
considered likely that some were car
ried out into the lake.
A systematic canvass of the city for
persons reported missing was begun by
the police at noon.
Erie citizens responded generously
to the calr for funds for the suffering
and homeless issued by Mayor Stern.
The mayor announced that thorough
investigation of the disaster will be
made. calling attention to the fact that
warning of the danger from Mill creek
had been given in 1898 when 1t over
flowed its banks and caused some loss
of life.
Hundreds Sheltered
The charitable societies, the armory,
hotels and hastily organized shelter
clubs gave refuge to hundreds VINO
saved but their own lives and a few
meager belongings. The darkness, the
danger of broken electric wires and
the twenty-five mile current of the
flood made the work of rescue ex-
tremely perilous and even details of
the drowning of quarter of a hundred
thought lost in the flood were OBJ
scure The body of John Higgins
washed up at Sixth and German streets
was the only body recovered at day
light. The life-saving crews from the
bers of the naval militia started the
search for others known to have been
swept away.
The narrow escape of Fire Chief
Mcmahon with four firemen after
their successful attempt to rescue
three women led to the report of their
death. but they jumped to safety from
second story windows as the house
was washed away from under them.
Only three serious accidents had
been reported at the hospitals up to
an early hour this morning. Two
would-be rescuers were struck by
floating debris and sustained broken
legs while a third was nearly drowned
when the Fourteenth street bridge
was swept away,
Dozen Trains Stalled
The washout of the main line OF
the New York Central and the Penn
sylvania railroads stalled a dozen or
more passenger trains here with no
prospect of their departure for a cou-
pie days. One crowded train bound
for New York was brought to a stand
on the viaduct forty feet over the
path of Mill creek and those on board
for hours watched houses and house
hold goods swept down in the torrent
The rush of the water down State
street flooded nearly every store on
the thoroughfare and floating wreck
age adueQ 10 the damage by Smashing
hundreds of display windows.
Debris Piled High
Throughout the night the torrent
of rain continued with only brief in
tervals of clear weather. Only the
wide mouth of the creek at the lake
shore prevented a much more serious
devastation. Piles of debris in the
streets intersecting the path of the
flood were heaped up fifteen feet high
in some cases and similar filth washed
into homes along the course of the
stream caused perhaps the greatest
items of damage. A dozen of the
largest plants in the city will be closed
down for ten days or two weeks until
the machinery in the first floors can
be cleared away. Stretches of Mill
creek had been covered over in sew
eral places and homes and factories
had been built over the ordinarily
quiet stream. Wreckage lodged in
these culverts and caused the water
to back up until it spread far over
each bank. Early this morning as de.
tails of the disaster began to collect
the story of Firemen Sherry and Bates
stood out among the scores of heroic
acts. Taking girl from her home
on the creek bank, they started dowr
the telephone pole which had en-.
abled them to reach her, when the
house fell against the pole and ali
three were swept into the swift cur.
rent. A block farther down the tric
were pulled from the stream by the
almost superhuman efforts of other
| firemen.