FLOOD MENACE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 28 April 1937, Page 5

FLOOD MENACE

RIVER POTOMAC RISING i PLIGHT OF PITTSBURGH MONTREAL-CHICAGO TRAIN WRECKED [United Press Association— By Electric Telegraph—Copyright! NEW YORK, 27th April. The waters began a slow recession at Johnstown (Cumberland), and the danger is believed to be past unless there is more rain. At Pittsburgh the menace has increased, and now it is expected that there will be thirty-six to thirty-eight feet of water during the day. The Potomac River is rising at Washington and the water is lapping the sea wall at the Lincoln Memorial and there is a foot of water around the famous cherry trees. At Wheeling the situation is unchanged. The worst flood for forty years caused 6000 persons to evacuate their homes at London (Ontario), where the Thames river is thirty feet above normal and rising at the rate of six inches an hour.

A train en route to Montreal from Chicago was derailed by a washout at Woodstock (Ontario), killing the engineer and fireman. Dr. MacDonald, the health officer, was drowned when flood waters swept his motor off a bridge while he was en route to the train wreck. Gales and floods lashed Virginia, causing six deaths and huge damage to property and crops. Fredericksburg was in darkness after the swollen Rappahannock flooded the power plant.