THOUSANDS DROWNED.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 67, 27 March 1913, Page 5

THOUSANDS DROWNED.

THE BIG FLOOD IN OHIO.

THE BIG FLOOD IN OHIO

A TOWN OVERWHELMED

(By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (United Press Association.) Indianapolis, March 25. Thirty feet of water covers the streets of Dayton (Ohio). Ihe city is in darkness. Scores of lives are reported to have been lost. The water is still rising. All communications have been cut off. Fort Wayne, Logansport, Terreliaute and other small towns are inundated. The loss of life is unknown. It is believed to be heavy. Frantic appeals for help are being received. It is reportd that a reservoir at Hamilton broke, and that the rush of waters overwhelmed the town. A large part of the population, numbering a thousand, were drowned. Confirmation is impossible, owing to the disorganisation of communication. Seven thousand are known to be homeless.

Nineteen were drowned at Delaware, Ohio, by the overflowing river. At Olentagy scores of people are marooned in trees and on housetops. All the bridges in the neighbourhood have been destroyed.

The country bears the appearance of a battlefield.

Bodies are floating down the Miami river, which is almost choked with the wreckage of houses. Unconfirmed reports assert that 60 were drowned at Abong Levees, and thirty thousand are homeless at Dayton and the surrounding country. The Lewiston reservoir broke after a terrific storm, flooding the city. The damage to property is incalculable. The local authorities of the town of Peru, Indiana, telephoned to Indianopolis at midnight, asking for the despatch of 600 coffins. A relief train hae Peen sent. A MELANCHOLY STORY. STREETS A MASS OF SWIRLING WATERS. OVER 2000 DROWNED. New York, March 26. The latest message from Dayton states that two thousand people are reported to have been drowned. The chief streets are a mass of swirling waters. Down town the hotels and buildings are submerged to the third storey. People are refuging on the roofs. A school which contained 400 children before the flood became entirely submerged. It is presumed all perished. The entire Ohio National Guard has been called out. Many people escaped in a W yoming street by hanging to telephone wires and lowering themselves into a boat, wherewith rescue work was continued until daylight. The estimates of the dead are unreliable.

HARROWING TALES OF SUFFERING. SPENDING THE NIGHT IN TREES. ENTIRE CITY SUBMERGED. (Received 12.5 p.m.) New York, March 26. The area hounded by Lake Erie and the Ohio river, on the Indiana boundary and Pennsylvania, is suffering from Hood.

Two hundred thousand people are homeless.

Harrowing tales are percolating through. I The stricken people are spending the nights in the trees and the housetops, falling in the water when exhausted by cold and wet.

Communication is completely shut off.

At Dayton and Zonesville reports state that fifteen persons were drowned.

Conservative estimates make the death roll at Dayton 400, Sydney 20, Delaware 50, Hamilton 20, Piqua 200, and the surrounding villages raise the total to a thousand. The worst ravages are at Peru, the entire city being submerged. The bodies were borne off by the swirling waters, and none have been recovered. Neighbouring States are organising relief, but there is great hardship in consequence of the lack of railway transportation. The water is now subsiding.