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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)

The storm that filled Conemaugh Lake and burst its bounds also wrought
sad havoc elsewhere. Williamsport, Pa., underwent the experience of
being flooded with thirty-four feet of water, of having the Susquehanna
boom taken out with two hundred million feet of logs, over forty million
feet of sawed lumber taken, mills carried away and others wrecked,
business and industrial establishments wrecked, and a large number of
lives lost. The flood was nearly seven feet higher than the great high
water of 1865.

Early on Friday news came of the flood at Clearfield, but it was not
before two o'clock Saturday morning that the swelling water began to
become prominent, the river then showing a rise averaging two feet to
the hour. Steadily and rapidly thereafter the rise continued. The rain
up the country had been terrific, and from Thursday afternoon,
throughout the night, and during Friday and Friday night, the rain fell
here with but little interruption. After midnight Friday it came down in
absolute torrents until nearly daylight Saturday morning. As a result of
this rise, Grafins Run, a small stream running through the city from
northwest to southeast, was raised until it flooded the whole territory
on either side of it.

Soon after daylight, the rain having ceased, the stream began to
subside, and as the river had not then reached an alarming height, very
few were concerned over the outlook. The water kept getting higher and
higher, and spreading out over the lower streets. At about nine o'clock
in the forenoon the logs began to go down, filling the stream from bank
to bank. The water had by this time reached almost the stage of 1865. It
was coming up Third Street to the Court-house, and was up Fourth Street
to Market. Not long after it reached Third Street on William, and
advanced up Fourth to Pine. Its onward progress did not stop, however,
as it rose higher on Third Street, and soon began to reach Fourth Street
both at Elmira and Locust Streets. No one along Fourth between William
and Hepburn had any conception that it would trouble them, but the
sequel proved they were mistaken.

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