The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-08-22
FLOOD DAMAGE IS
 MANY THOUSANDS No Estimate Until Storage Cellars Are Emptied of
 Accumulated Water

Damage to the streets of Birmingham
 caused by the heavy rainfall Friday
 will amount to at least s25,ooo, .accord-
 ing to estimates made by Commissioner
 H. P. Burruss after a survey had been
 made of all the principal streets yes
 terday.
 This amount does not include the
 thousands of dollars damage to the base
 ments of many large buildings of the
 city. Officials of the Birmingham trunk
 factory alone estimated that SS0O0 dam
 age was done to the stock of their store
 by the water. which rose eighteen inches
 above the surface of the floor.
 Easements of the Tutwiler hotel, Hill
 man hotel. city hall, Loveman, Joseph x
 Loeb and Woolworth's store were com
 pletely filled by water. As result
 damage that can hardly be estimated
 was done to the stock and machinery
 kept in them.
 Seeing the plight that some of the large buildings were in, Commissioner Taylor early Friday night rendered the services of the fire department to use in pumping out the water. A big 1,2o0-gal- lon Seagrave pump was soon assigned to the task. It was soon demonstrated that frement put out water as we'll as fire, the water being pumped out of the basements at the rate of 1000 gallons per minute
 The fire department worked Friday night and yesterday pumping water out | of the basements of the flooded bulldE l ines In the 50xS0-foot apartment of the Tutwiler basement water stood six feet deep when the big Seagrave pump be- gan operations
 A street gang was at work yesterday replacing the wooden block surfacing on Twentieth street The blocks were r1 out of oliQDrnapt bV the water which seeped in under them FIREMEN AT WORK Members of the fire department worked until late yesterday afternoon in an effort to pump the water out or the basements of the different business houses of the city which had become flooded as a result of the heavy rains Friday afternoon.
 Nearly ten feet of water was pumped out of the basement of the Tutwiler hotel Six feet of water was pumped out of the big basement of Loveman, Joseph X Loeb, the water reaching such a hieh water mark upon the boilers that it was though for awhile that if the water rose any higher that the boilers would explode.
 , Word was passed around to get everyone out of the building as quickly as possible, and automobiles ran up on the sidewalks and hauled the people away through the high waters. The Birmingham Trunk factory, 3lb North Nineteenth street sustained heavy damage due to the flooding of the store. Percy Rosenburger, mana ger of the trunk factory. stated that the loss would probably run as high as $10000 for he stated that several hundred of the most expensive trunks l in the store were almost completely ruined by the water.
 No estimate has been made as yet by the officials of ]. Blach & Sons and the F. w. Woo1worth five and ten-cent store as to the exact amount of the damage that was done by the water. The water measured eight Inches deep on the first floor in J. Blach X Sons store. and In Woolworth's five and ten-cent store 1t is stated that a large stock of goods in the basement was almost completely destroyed. Officials of both stores say that IL will be several days yet before they can make an estimate as to the exact amount of the damage done by the l high waters, but every merchant is hoping that another rain like the one that occurred on Friday afternoon will | be long time in coming.