THE FLOOD IN NORTHERN OHIO
YOUNGSTOWN AND GIRARD--CLEVELAND AND ITS SUBURBS--AKRON--MASSILON,
FREMONT AND TIFFIN.
No section of the country suffered more extensively from the flood than
Ohio, of which state no part seemed to escape. In the northern counties
the loss of life and damage to property were quite as extensive as in
many other parts.
Fed by incessant rains, the Mahoning River rose at the rate of
seven-eighths of an inch per hour until it reached a stage of
twenty-five feet, which was ten feet higher than ever before recorded.
Every large industrial plant in the city was flooded and fully 25,000
workmen were out of employment.
The financial loss to the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, Republic
Iron and Steel Company, Carnegie Steel Company and other plants easily
reached $2,500,000, while the loss in wages to men was extremely heavy
because of the fact that weeks elapsed before the industries were again
able to operate at full capacity. Fully 14,000 workmen employed in
various industries of the city are thrown out of employment as a result
of the high water.
At East Youngstown the Mahoning River was nearly half a mile wide and
the Pennsylvania lines through the city and for a number of miles east
were entirely submerged. The Austintown branch bridge of the Erie, which
crosses the Mahoning River, was weighted down with a train to prevent
its being washed away, the water having already reached the girders.
Every bridge was guarded by policemen.
But one pump was working at the water-works pumping station. The flood
was the worst experienced by Youngstown since October, 1911, when
millions of dollars of damage was done.
Two hundred families were temporarily homeless, but the Chamber of
Commerce with a relief fund of $10,000, attended promptly to their
welfare.
Youngstown's only water supply during the flood was from the Republic
Rubber Company, pumping 3,000,000 gallons a day, and the Mahoning Valley
Water Company, which turned 4,000,000 gallons a day into the city mains
from its reservoir at Struthers.
At Girard, northeast of Youngstown, Mrs. Frank Captis, who was rescued
just before her home was swept away in the flood, gave birth to a baby
boy at the home of a friend, where she was taken. The baby was named
Noah.
CLEVELAND AND ITS SUBURBS
At Cleveland scores of families were driven out of their homes by the
greatest flood in the city's history. Many narrow escapes from drowning
were reported from all over the city, where people were being
transferred in rowboats by police and other rescuers.
One big bridge, in the heart of the city, used by the New York Central
lines, went down. The steel steamer, "Mack," moored to it was unharmed.
All traffic was kept off the bridge and no one was hurt. The loss
exceeds $75,000. Other bridges were in danger. Boats broke from their
moorings and battered the shore. Dynamite was used to open a way for the
water into the lake. Great damage was done all along the Cuyahoga River
through Cleveland, where hundreds of big manufacturing plants are
located. Fifty thousand men were idle. The telegraph companies were
crippled and many lights were out throughout the city, as the
electric-light plants were partly under water. All the suburbs suffered
severely.
All railroad traffic in Cleveland was suspended because of washouts and
no trains entered or left. The Lake Shore Railroad tracks along the
shore of Lake Erie were thought immune, but that road suffered along
with the Big Four, Pennsylvania and Wheeling and Lake Erie.
Boston, Ohio, and Peninsula, Ohio, between twenty-five and twenty-eight
miles south of Cleveland, on the Cuyahoga River, were submerged.
The dam of the Cleveland and Akron Bag Company went out at four o'clock
Thursday morning, March 27th, dropping thousands of tons of water into
the valley in which the two villages, with a total population of about
four thousand five hundred, are located.
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING DANGEROUS RESERVOIRS IN OHIO]
AKRON
The big state reservoir three miles south of Akron, which supplies water
for the Ohio Canal, broke Tuesday afternoon at two o'clock, sending a
flood of millions of gallons of water which swept away farmhouses and
other buildings from the banks of the canal and damaged several million
dollars' worth of property.
The huge volume of water which had been gathering in the three
hundred-acre reservoir caused a report that there was danger of the
concrete walls bursting. Most of those living near the canal sought
refuge in Akron.
When the heavy rain continued over night the dam began to show signs of
wear. Cracks in the concrete appeared. All during the night horses were
kept saddled to carry the news ahead if the danger became imminent. When
the masonry showed flaws Thursday morning the riders were sent out. They
started several hours before the dam collapsed, and warned everybody
near the canal in time for them to escape. The rush of water from the
broken dam struck the city within a few minutes after the break.
Most of the bridges in the county were swept away. The city was in total
darkness at night, and telephone and telegraph connections were
destroyed. A few bodies were seen floating down the canal. Many houses
were swept away.
MASSILON, FREMONT AND TIFFIN
At Massilon five known dead, three thousand homeless, half the town
inundated and heavy property damage was the toll of flood water from the
Tuscarawas River. The town was without light and gas. Citizens raised
$11,000 to aid the sufferers.
The effect of the flood at Fremont was very severe. The water in Main
Street was fifteen feet deep. Wires were down and buildings collapsed.
Several lives were lost.
Death and intense suffering marked the great flood which swept clean the
Sandusky valley. Tiffin became a city of desolation. Every bridge went
down, and half the city was under water. Many were carried to death in
the treacherous currents.