Evening star., 1924-03-30
Cumberland Under
Water, Hundreds
Flee to Hills.
BRIDGES COLLAPSE:
DEVASTATION HEAVY
Scores of Homes Swept
Away In Deluge; Trains
MarOOned.

MarOOneO.
Nine persons are reported dead
many others are believed to have
lost their lives, Cumberland and sew.
eral smaller cities in western Mary
land and West Virginia are either
wholly or partially inundated anc
property worth millions Of dollars
has been destroyed in a flood thai
rose with staggering suddennes:
early yesterday and was sweeping
down the Potomac valley last night
with undiminished fury.
Scores of homes have been washed
away, half dozen railroad bridges
Z are known to have collapsed-one
with a train on it-live stock has been
drowned and hundreds have fed to the
mountains for their lives, while the
crest of the flood is reported to be
roaring eastward on it's mission of
death and devastation.
Crack Train Marooned.
The Capitol Limited, crack western
train of the Baltimore and Ohio rail-
road, was caught by the swirling wa
ters at Green Spring Junction, few
miles this side of Cumberland, and
marooned. Its passengers, however
are reported safe. Half dozen other
trains We're trapped so suddenly that
the water was racing through the
hnf h oh
reached and the passengers forced TO
flee into the hills.
With depressing rapidity messages
from marooned sections in the flood
areas late last night brought more
and more reports of families caught
in the swirlng vortex and fear that
they may have perished before reach
ing the safety of mountain heights.
Several automobile parties, tourists
en- route to and from Cumberland,
were said to have been trapped. Their
fates are unknown.
Darkness added its terror to the
horror of the situation. All gas and
electrical plants in the water covered
areas went out of commission early
in the day and when night fell the
entire section was left without light
of any kind except for those supplied
with lamps or candles. Confirmation
of dire reports from the midst of the
inundated countryside was difficult,
assistance to the stranded impossible.
Family of Six Missing.
The deaths thus far reported from
oil n have
occurred at Cumberland and McCoole,
the latter a small town about four
teen miles west of Cumberland. There
a family of six was reported to have
been washed out into the violent
swirl of the Potomac river when
their home was caught by the water
and torn from its foundation. News
of the tragedy was obtained over the
only telephone into the town re-
naming open.
The other three fatalities are said
to have occurred when the Western
Maryland railroad bridge. spanning
the Potomac river at Cumberland,
collapsed. A heavy train, loaded with
limestone, had been backed onto the
bridge to help hold it down as the
food continued to pound at its
foundation A second before the big,
three-span structure was seen to
careen and crash into the river three
men were observed making their way
over it.
Many See Bridge Fall.
Residents of Cumberland, marooned
in their homes or Offices along the
river bank, witnessed the collapse Of
the bridge and said they were cer-
tain the men, possibly members of
the train crew making their way to
safety when they saw the big span
was doomed. could not have reached
the river bank before the crash.
Their bodies would have beer washed
miles downstream in n minute and
confirmation of the tragedy can not
be obtained for several days, at least.
At McCoole another bridge was de-
stroyed a scant minute before a pas
senger train, we'll filled, would have
crossed it. The train was brought to
a stop on the very brink of the gap.
but the water rose before the en-
gineer could back to higher ground
minute. The passengers rushed
through the last coach and found
questionable shelter in nearby houses
before both train and houses were
completely surrounded.
Other Bridges Crash.
Two more western Maryland
bridges near Western Port, Md, were
crushed by the flood, bridge for
vehicular traffic spanning the Potomac
at Piedmont, w. Va, went early yes
terday afternoon and the Cumberland
and Pennsylvania railroad bridge near
the same place was destroyed stimuli
taneously. So terrific was the force
of the on-rushing flood that as it
destroyed one bridge it carried the
debris on it's crest to the next, there
to use it as a battering ram against
that structure.
Half of Cumberland. the second
largest city in Maryland and a thriv-
ing manufacturing center, was under
twenty feet of water at midnight
Although the food appeared to have
stopped rising at that hour and re-