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.
"You are through all right, I see," said one man in the line to an
acquaintance who came up this morning.
"Yes," said the acquaintance.
"And how's your folks? They all right, too?" was the next question.
"Two of them are--them two little ones sitting on the steps there. The
mother and the other three have gone down."
Such conversations as this take place every few minutes. Near the
Post-office is the morgue for that part of the city, and other lines of
waiting people reach out from there, anxious for a glimpse at the
contents of the twenty-five coffins ranged in lines in front of the
school-building, that does duty for a dead-house. Only those who have
business are admitted, but the number is never a small one. Each walks
along the lines of coffins, raises the cover over the face, glances in,
drops the cover quickly, and passes on. Men bearing ghastly burdens on
stretchers pass frequently into the school-house, where the undertakers
prepare the bodies for identification.
A little farther along is the relief headquarters for that part of the
city, and the streets there are packed all day long with women and
children with baskets on their arms. So great is the demand that the
people have to stand in line for an hour to get their turn. A large
unfinished building is turned into a storehouse for clothing, and the
people throng into it empty-handed and come out with arms full of
underclothing and other wearing apparel. At another building the
sanitary bureau is serving out disinfectants.
The workmen upon the débris in what was the heart of the city have now
reached well into the ruins and are getting to where the valuable
contents of jewelry and other stores may be expected to be found, and
strict watch is being kept to prevent the theft of any such articles by
the workmen or others. In the ruins of the Wood, Morrell & Co. general
store a large amount of goods, chiefly provisions and household
utensils, has been found in fairly good order. It is piled in a heap as
fast as gotten out, and the building is being pulled down.
About the worst heap of wreckage in the centre of the city is where the
Cambria Library building stood, opposite the general store. This was a
very substantial and handsome building and offered much obstruction to
the flood. It was completely destroyed, but upon its site a mass of
trees, logs, heavy beams, and other wreckage was left, knotted together
into a mass only extricable by the use of the ax and saw. Two hundred
men have worked at it for three days and it is not half removed yet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account