FLOOD DISASTERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15056, 27 July 1912, Page 7

FLOOD DISASTERS.

SIXTY PEOPLE DROWNED.

BURSTING OF A RESERVOIR.

FOURTEEN MEN TRAPPED IN A

MANY MEN SWIM TO SAFETY.

FIVE MINES FLOODED.

By Telegraph.—Tress Association—Copyright. New York, July 25. The .disaster at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, yesterday, following the bursting of a reservoir, was much more serious than was at first supposed.

The number of lives lost is 60.

The 14 men who lost their lives in the Superba mine, through the flooding of the shaft, were drowned like rats in a trap When the flood entered the mine the men were cut off 4000 ft from the shaft and were drowned in the. inner workings, where they ran seeking to escape. In other mines many men escaped by swimming through the galleries. While the water was pouring in the wives and mothers of the miners working in one mine frantically tried to prevent the water entering the mine by throwing sticks, stones and rubbish into the hole. The women then tried to enter the mine and give warning, but the overseers stopped them, fearing that they would be overwhelmed. Five mines altogether were flooded. Several small towns were swept by the flood. Great difficulty is being experienced in recovering the bodies.

- Umontown, which is 44 miles from Pittsburg, has a population of between 7000 and 10.000.

THE TELEPHONE SAVES HUNDREDS.

A TOWN UNDER WATER.

PEOPLE FLEE IN THE NICK OF

TIME.

STORY OF A BROKEN DAM.

New York, July 25.

A dramatic story is told of a storm that has occurred in the West Virginian town of Dunbar. A clerk working in the quarries two miles distant was warned by telephone that a great flood was coming, a dam containing the town's water supply having burst. The clerk telephoned to a friend in Dunbar to warn everybody.

The latter rushed through the streets calling on the residents to flee for their lives.

Instantly the people, numbering several thousand, fled to the hills, escaping in the nick of time. The water swept the. town,, submerging the streets and doing much damage to buildings, but no lives were lost.

The railway bridge was carried away, and the telephone lines arc down.

If the warning had not been given hundreds of people must certainly have nerished.