Evening star., 1927-11-08
WTNESSP|CTURES
RUIN IN FLOOD AREA
Former Capital Man Writes
Graphic Story of Raging
Waters in New England.

A graphic description of the angry
swirl of waters in the Winooski River
and their destruction near Burli,S
ton. Vt. the old home town of Mrs.
Calvin coolidge. is contained in a let
ter written ny Edward Moves, former
ly of WASHINGTON. TO his parents her",
Mr.. and Mrs T. +. Noycs. 5525 Fifth
street.
Under the date of Friday. Novem-
her 4. Nr. Moves writes: 1T seems
that | have been transpla MED to the
time Of long ago for ! am writing hN
candle light > To say the least /
have lived through many new expert
ences during tho last IS hours and eX-
pect to have Il few more before | am
much older. There has been no elec-
tricity i'm the hotel today, as the pow
er house supplying this half of Burl-
inCtnn went out of commission last
night with the food
Il arrived in town about : o'clock
wednesday afternoon and about $50
1t began to rain-not just mild
ram, hut a downpour that did not
stop until about an hour or two
ago There were IS hours of good
solid rain. und uhtcdly the most
have ever seen ut one time.
Transportation Crippled.
IL intended leaving early this morn
ing. but upon arriving in the dining
room found that all means of travel
We're stopped. Railroad and highway
bridges had been washed away all
around us, the ferry to New York
State had stopped because Lake
Champlain was too dangerous, so
I'm stll here.
ITO pass the time l bundled up,
put on ruhherS and went to see the
frantic efforts of two cities trying TO
save the one bridge between them
Burlington and Winooski.
The bridge was across The Winooslti
River. Il pcaceful little stream that is
now an exact duplicate OF Great Falls.
The first sight was that of a barn
floating down the torrent. a tre.
mendnus one. which. when ii struck
the upper dam. turned end over end.
smashing to pieces and throwing it's
burden If seasons precious hay
upon the water to be carried away as
so much match wood. This was not
the only one to pass out of sight in
that manner. for all day long houses.
stables, barnes. bridges and whatnot
have been passing. steady stream of
splintered beams, roofs. doors, etc.
Cattle 60 Over Dams.
Cattle. too. have passed over the two
dams and through the gorge into the
fats. Some are lucky enough to have
been rescued alive ~ frantic farm
ers down on the floats. while another
group of men on each bank We're
shooting those that were drowning or
were headed for the rocky drop. just
beyond the bridge, to put them out of
misery.
''One farmer alone lost IS cows. IS
h IS, Il horses and innumerable
chickens, besides his barns, stables
and ether build sy.
rom the tir- | arrived until
Left, matter Of or 6 hours. the
wet II re somewhere around II or
Is feet. There are four mills at the
bridge. what is holding one IA grst
mild up is matter of speculation.
for when the water carried away the
powc: wheel it took all but ) square
feet of the foundation. 1t sways.
but is still standing.
Another has the water pouring out
OF the third story. while the others
are better off. only being submerged
of timber has been carried away and
a buck powerhouse and engine room
Of one of the mills crumbied and fell.
The abutment on the Burlington
side Of Winooski caved in this morn.
ing and to. save it every truck in
town was drafted to carry granite
from the quarry to be dumped in. |
That was surely an endless chain of
trucks. The 7iount of granite
poured into that hole is just matter
Of speculation, hut. If each truck car
carried a ton, which l am sure it. did. |
til re must have been at least 200
tons dumped there.
Bridge Topples Into Stream.
THE center pier received some ter
ri'jie punishment during those hrs
ard when the water succeeded in eat
ing the end abuttment loose the cen
ter gave way and the large iron strNc.
ture toppled into the stream, almost
without a sound. If it moves 50 or co
feet 1t viii probably take with it one
O. e mills.
q read of floods in the papers,
bu. we really have no idea what they
ar like until we have been in one.
After this expert nee I am going to
make it nnlicy to contribute by s. or
So to aid the peor lie in food stricken
c ;1,muniti anc do it willingly; they
n d it.
THE rain turned to snow and hail
this afternoon and the old timers pre-
dict that the ground will be covered
with snow by tomorrow night. /
think il will freeze tonight"
sat-~- .fr ~tasta as nI-~