Opening the text

History of the Johnstown Flood: Including all the Fearful Record; the Breaking of the South Fork Dam; the Sweeping Out of the Conemaugh Valley; the Over-Throw of Johnstown; the Massing of the Wreck at the Railroad Bridge; Escapes, Rescues, Searches for Survivors and the Dead; Relief Organizations, Stupendous Charities, etc., etc., With Full Accounts also of the Destruction on the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers, and the Bald Eagle Creek.Johnson, Willis Fletcher

History

History of the Johnstown Flood: Including all the Fearful Record; the Breaking of the South Fork Dam; the Sweeping Out of the Conemaugh Valley; the Over-Throw of Johnstown; the Massing of the Wreck at the Railroad Bridge; Escapes, Rescues, Searches for Survivors and the Dead; Relief Organizations, Stupendous Charities, etc., etc., With Full Accounts also of the Destruction on the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers, and the Bald Eagle Creek.

Name: History of the Johnstown Flood: Including all the Fearful Record; the Breaking of the South Fork Dam; the Sweeping Out of the Conemaugh Valley; the Over-Throw of Johnstown; the Massing of the Wreck at the Railroad Bridge; Escapes, Rescues, Searches for Survivors and the Dead; Relief Organizations, Stupendous Charities, etc., etc., With Full Accounts also of the Destruction on the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers, and the Bald Eagle Creek.
Author: Johnson, Willis Fletcher

Johnson, Willis Fletcher

Floods -- Pennsylvania -- Johnstown (Cambria County)

H. M. Bennett and S. W. Keltz, engineer and conductor of engine No. 1165
and the extra freight, which happened to be lying at South Fork when the
dam broke, tell a graphic story of their wonderful flight and escape on
the locomotive before the advancing flood. Bennett and Keltz were in
the signal tower awaiting orders. The fireman and flagman were on the
engine, and two brakemen were asleep in the caboose. Suddenly the men in
the tower heard a roaring sound in the valley above them. They looked in
that direction and were almost transfixed with horror to see, two miles
above them, a huge black wall of water, at least 150 feet in height,
rushing down the valley. The fear-stricken men made a rush for the
locomotive, at the same time giving the alarm to the sleeping brakemen
in the caboose, but with no avail. It was impossible to aid them
further, however, so Bennett and Keltz cut the engine loose from the
train, and the engineer, with one wild wrench, threw the lever wide
open, and they were away on a mad race for life. It seemed that they
would not receive momentum enough to keep ahead of the flood, and they
cast one despairing glance back. Then they could see the awful deluge
approaching in its might. On it came, rolling and roaring, tossing and
tearing houses, sheds and trees in its awful speed as if they were toys.
As they looked, they saw the two brakemen rush out of the caboose, but
they had not time to gather the slightest idea of the cause of their
doom before they, the car and signal tower were tossed high in the air,
to disappear forever. Then the engine leaped forward like a thing of
life, and speeded down the valley. But fast as it went, the flood
gained upon it. In a few moments the shrieking locomotive whizzed around
a curve, and they were in sight of a bridge. Horror upon horrors! ahead
of them was a freight train, with the rear end almost on the bridge, and
to get across was simply impossible. Engineer Bennett then reversed the
lever, and succeeded in checking the engine as they glided across the
bridge. Then the men jumped and ran for their lives up the hillside. The
bridge and the tender of the engine they had been on were swept away
like a bundle of matches.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.