The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1936-04-16
FLOOD CRISIS MADE NEW HEROES
Backage Scenes Revealed Courage and Reorceun of Relief
Workers in Rescuing Sufferers

their dwellings and spent the better
part of day stalking service stations
and sheds in mid-stream. The forti-
tude Of these people was remarkable.
They had lost everything. yet they
could joke about their ''strays' {.
A section of Winchendon, Mass, was
Isolated when a wooden bridge was
shaken loose and flOated down-river.
Residents of the section took to boats
and chased the bridge, gaining slowly
but surely. Bank watchers hooted en-
enlargement. The bridge was caught,
towed back and moored over its foun-
datiOns. When the water receded IL
dropped into place so accurately that
traffic Immediately crossed
Two residents of Wheeling, w. Va,
are dead. They contracted pneumonia
while engaged in rescue work. They
volunteered their services to aid the
plight of their neighbors, these men !;
and paid for their heroism with their
lives. The desolation of flood must
also be reckoned in terms of its after
math
THOUSANDS NEED HELP
With flood crests receding, loss to the
individual family becomes more appar-
ent. 1t is no longer colored by excite
ment, by terror. There may be some
thing almost majestic about a house,
immersed to its gables, CALAMITY
straining against raging torrents. But
a home has a ghost-like, a half buried
high-and-dry look when the water has
drained away.
Furniture is warped and broken.
Mud and silt are piled feet deep over
once choice belongings. Plaster has
faxed away, pyramiding the soggy
mess below. Walls have buckIed;
plumbing and electrical fixtures must
be relocated to the junk pile. Tho
home is dead with its mouth agape,
and its window eyes have been poked
out, and it is no longer home at all.
Small wonder that flood sufferers with
out resources must be helped to face
the future. The Red Cross reports
that in Wheeling alone, 5000 families
will require some form of household
goods or home repair assistance q.
An expectant mother at Powhatan
Point, Ohio, was in desperate need Of
essential supplies. She lay on a mat
tress in a dance hall in the midst Of
IS other refugees. Lamplight fiickered
dimly and couples moved about the
f1oOr-nOt in the dance but TO keep
warm. The Point was practically iso-
lated.
Somehow a relief truck fought
through from Wheeling carrying the
essentials for the stricken woman. A
little later she gave birth to child.
both. lives doubtless saved by the
logged persistence of relief workers
who traversed impossible stretches Of
what had once been roads
The United States Coast Guard res
cued 10000 persons from Wilkes-Barre
and Kingston homes. The Susque-
hanna loops here, and flood waters
spilled across at right angles, closing
the loop. There resulted some Of the
swiftest and most treacherous currents
ever encountered by small craft.
The Red Cross chapter at Wilkes
Barre, Pa, established a first aid
station in a trolley car placed at the
end of the Market street bridge. This
made light and heat possible. Ply
sicians were in charge, aided by Red
Cross nurses and the Chapter First Aid
crew of 45 men. AS Coast Guard boats
brought refugees to the bridge. they