p. 72 | Floods in the East

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 8, 1883

Floods in the East.

The weather in the East may well be called phenomenal. The most intense cold has prevailed, and still prevails in many places, and the latest news is to the effect that large portions of country are being devastated by floods. Bridges have been carried away by the score, and many railroad accidents, with loss of life, have happened in consequence. On many lines travel is entirely suspended. The following brief dispatches will show the condition of things:—

BRADFORD (Pa.), February 4.—Bradford was visited on Saturday night by a disastrous flood which inundated about 500 homes. The lower part of the city was submerged in some cases to a depth of ten feet. The flood was caused by the rain of Friday and Saturday and the melting of the snow on the mountains. Five bridges were swept away, and several houses along the bank of the creek badly damaged or totally destroyed. Eighty-five families on the flats, living in one-story houses, had to flee for their lives when the ice-gorge broke, leaving all their effects. Many of the houses were swept away.

OHIO.

COLUMBUS, February 5.—Reports from all parts of central Ohio show the highest water by from six to twenty inches ever known. The Scioto in this city was fourteen feet higher than ever before, and the damage here is enormous, mostly by inundation. On the west side over one hundred families had to quit their houses.

AKRON, February 5.—Fuller information increases previous estimates of flood losses. The bridge on the Cleveland and Akron and Columbus Railroad broke just as a crowded express train had passed over it. At Canton a hundred houses are under water.

ORRVILLE, February 5.—Mill Creek is higher than ever before known. Houses are flooded and live stock drowned.

YOUNGSTOWN, February 5.—The river is still rising. People living on the flats escaped from second-story windows on rafts and boats. Many families were saved in boats from upper parts of houses. Extensive damage has been done. An ice-gorge is forming in the river and several bridges are threatened.

INDIANA.

INDIANAPOLIS, February 5.—The greatest floods ever known here prevail—farms are flooded, fences, outhouses, and lumber are washed away. Travel in the country is suspended, the pikes being under water. A portion of Shelbyville is several feet under water.

CONNORSVILLE, February 5.—The river is the highest ever known.

RICHMOND, February 5.—The river is the highest in fifteen years. Bridges are swept away.

At last accounts the floods were abating, but much suffering was experienced on account of the cold.