Evening Star Newspaper, January 23, 1937, Page 7

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ISLAND PEOPLE RIDE OUT STORM Wheeling Residents Move to Upper Floors, Defying Police Order. By the Assoctated Press. WHEELING, W. Va,, January 23.— Residents of the populous “island” residential section of Wheeling moved to higher floors in their homes today, determined to “ride out a flood.” Lights gleamed in thousands of dwellings throughout the night, while rescue crews and relief workers moved about the streets in boats. Police had ordered evacuation of the “island,” where 10,000 persons live in midstream, but residents, hardened to flood dangers, refused to leave. Many, too, refused to leave even last March when flood waters reached a stage of 54 feet, carried away island homes and wrecked buildings, in- cluding one big tabernacle. Business District Hit. ‘Waters of the swollen Ohio, sweep- ing the island from end to end, swirled also into the lower sections of the Wheeling business district today. Two blocks from the river’s edge, 4 feet of water raced along Main street, one of the two major business thoroughfares. The flood had climbed to 442 feet at 2 a.m., and rivermen predicted from one to three feet more. Flood stage is 36 feet. A block further from the river, refugees straggled into the market auditorium, where 400 men, women and children were cared for. Others found shelter in the Y. M. C. A. and public buildings, all thrown open for relief work. Field Kitchens Arrive. From Charleston came field kitchens of the National Guard, on orders of Acting Adjt. Gen. William L. Hornor, to take over the task of preparing meals for homeless. The State De- partment of Public Assistance also sent supplies of food and clothing from the capital. National Guard tents were provided for a refugee camp if needed. An unidentified body of a man was found floating in the speedy waters of the Ohio across the river at Bellaire, ©Ohio. There flood waters have climbed into the residential section and police estimate 3,000 homes were inundated. NURSES JOIN RESCUERS. HUNTINGTON, W. Va., January 23 (/).—A squad of volunteer nurses re- cruited from all parts of Cabell County went into action today to aid an esti- mated 5,500 homeless flood refugees in Huntington. They reported to Dr. James Klump, director of emergency relief, to work side by side with rescue crews and city employes speeding to evacuate still more persons from homes surrounded by the swirling tide in river front dis- tricts. Trucks splashed through water up to their axles, boats chugged along city streets in the West End and Guyandotte sections, taking families from their homes—some through upper-floor windows. 62-Foot Top Predicted. For 10 miles up and down Hunt- ington’s water front the muddy Ohio river swept over the first two or three blocks and threatened to climb even higher. Rivermen predicted a top of 62 feet, seven feet above flood stage. An exclusive residential district, too, was threatened by rising waters of Four-Pole Creek, pushec out of its banks by the backwaters cf the Ohio River. In the business section waters lapped over one main thoroughfare and threatened to climb into other streets. Merchants operated their stores by candle light or the dim glow of oil lanterns, despite assurances of the power companies that there was no danger of an interruption of light and power service. Many merchants #aid they shut off electricity in a voluntary move to conserve current for relief agencies and homes. Point Pleasant Isolated. Upstream, Point Pleasant was vir- tually isolated. Only one telephone line still provided contact with the little river town at the junction of | the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers. Wa- ters there have halted all business and climbed toward second stories of some buildings. At Parkersburg, Mayor H. R. De- bussey ordered a vacant five-story | business building thrown open for emergency shelter of families driven from their homes. The Red Cross, W. P. A, and C. C. C. joined ir fur- nishing equipment. An abandoned city hospital and other buildings had proven inadequate to care for the growing number of refugees. Floods (Continued From First Page.) unteers around the threatened area and issued “no smoking” orders. Station Under Water. Opposite Spring Grove and Arling- ton avenues the 1,000,000-gallon stor- age yards of the Standard Oil Co. was under water. Tank after tank tore away from foundations, releasing the tuel. It was there Friday that fuel oil escaping from a tank was ignited by the heat of burning coal cars. Fire- men “whipped” those flames out with strong vapor streams before they could spread to the escaping gasoline. “A tiny spark and Milicreek bot- toms, in places a mile wide, will be a mass of flames from the Ohio River to Cummingsville,” the fire chief said. “We are hoping such a thing dces not happen. When you realize the gasoline, kerosene and fuel oil is reaching even inside flooded buildings, some idea of the danger can be pic- tured.” +56,500 Homeless in City. The Red Cross estimated that 56,500 persons were homeless in the metro- politan Cincinnati area alone. Nearly 75,000 were quartered in schools, halls and other places along the river's 300- mile course on Ohio’s eastern and southern borders. Police reported the avalanche of ealls for aid had dropped off sud- denly, indicating the flood situation apparently was well in hand. Persons in immediate danger had ' been moved to safety. Forty-eight hours of ceaseless work . had enabled officers under personal charge of Police Chief Eugene T. wall. fire and police said they were un- aware of it. They declared their concern now was with the food and fuel situation and finding a solution to the problem of how to get supplies to the thou- sands still in homes unreachable ex- cept by boats. Streets were flooded that never be- fore had felt flood waters. Citizens who in former years were flood specta- tors found themselves flood refugees. Unlike seasoned flood refugees who usually suffer little, the “first timers” were caught unprepared, with insuffi- clent food in their homes. Wilmer Carmichael, veteran police reporter of the Cincinnati Times-Star, informed his office today that a “shoot down looters” order was passed orally along the river front police lines. Health Conditions Good. The river had risen only one-tenth |of a fogb since 6 am. From that time to 8 o'clock it remained seem- ingly stationary at 72.6 feet, but by 9 hourly reading at 10 a.m. Dr. F. K. Harder, acting health commissioner, reported general health conditions good. “I don’'t believe there is any dan- ger of an epidemic here,” he said, | adding that the State health depart- | ment had sent a consignment of | typhus vaccine. “The water supply in Cincinnati is pure and water that comes from the faucets may be used with safety,” Harder said. “Any one who drinks water taken directly from the river should be sure to boil it first. As a general health precaution, every one should try to keep dry and avoid ex- posure.” Temperatures this morning ranged around 19 degrees. Streets slippery from a heavy snowfall that turned to ice hampered rescue work. | Flood supplies were reported ade- | quate for the time being but in sub- urban Dayton and Bromley, Ky., the Red Cross and Salvation Army ra- tioned refugees to two meals a day. Dayton’s Speers Hospital had 6 feet of water in the basements. Its boilers were not operating. Electric heaters were placed in patients’ rooms. Reporting plenty of food on hand, hospital officials said no operations could possibly be performed. At Marietta, the river was rising two-tenths of a foot an hour from a crest of 46.8 feet at 8 am., which was six-tenths of a foot higher than the crest of the March, 1933, inun- dation. R. P. Powell, Parkersburg weather forecaster, predicted a flood crest at Marijetta Sunday of 50 feet, 8.7 feet under the 1913 crest. Snow which followed the rain left a 4-inch blanket on Marietta and the surrounding countryside. The cold failed to keep water from rising rapidly in the business district. Portsmouth Isolated. One hundred miles up the mighty Ohio, Portsmouth was isolated except for uncertain wire and radio com- munication. More than 13,000 of the city's 45,000 residents were homelees and dwindling food supplies—believed adequate for two days—added to con- cern. Mayor D. H. Bowling of New Boston, a Portsmouth suburb, appealed for food, declaring that 3,500 of the 6,000 residents were homeless and that facil- ities were practically non-existent for treating several new cases of influenza. Crippled transportation facilities and forlorn refugees, many of whom had lost nearly all their belongings, told the outward story of brownish waters’ toll in the rain-soaked Ohio Valley, which recorded an average cf more | than 6 inches of fall in two days. Cincinnatians were advised to draw | emergency drinking water supplies to prepare for a possible shortage. Sand- | bags held back water around the city’s pumping and electric light plants. In Darkness 45 Minutes. Western Hamilton County (Cincin- nati) was without lights for 45 minutes early today before a burned out trans- former was repaired. Light stations at Dayton and Springfield—50 to 70 miles north—helped maintain Cincin- nati’s supply. ‘The gas supply was shut off in Ports- mouth’s flooded business district as & precaution against explosions of water- weakened mains. Other river cities, including . New Richmond, Ironton, Gallipolis, Pomeroy, Marietta, Martins Ferry, Steubenville, East Liverpool and Zanesville, were affected to a greater or less extent. “Water is pouring into the basement of the City Hall and jail,” Bud Smith, reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer, said by telephone from isolated New- port, Ky., where 80 city squares or approximately one-third of the city of 30,000 was under water, with 10,000 homeless. “The fires are out and 40 prisoners are howling from cold. Police Chief Leo Livingston lectured them and told Weatherly and Fire Chief Barney J. Houston to ferry thousands from | flooded homes. ! Many were standing in water on second floors when taken out. I temained in flooded them ‘many are worse off outside’ but they still howl.” As rescue workers toiled on and on at their seemingly unending tasks, tall, gray-haired Forecaster Devereaux, and his overworked assistants said \ it hit 72.7, where it remained at the | The waterfront streets of Portsmouth, Ohio, became raging torrents when waters tumbled over the 60-foot flood wall there, even though flood gates were opened to relieve pressure on the waters here had climbed above theo previous high of 71.1 feet set in that disastrous month of February, 1884. The swollen Ohio’s crests, he pre- dicted, “would exceed all records” from Cincinnati to Cairo, Il Damage Estimate Mounts. Estimates of the total damage mounted. Devereaux said Cincinnati’s would total $5,000,000. Unofficial esti~ mates have placed Portsmouth’s loss at over $1,000,000. Other cities dot~ ting the Ohio’s banks counted their damage at thousands. A 3-inch snow snarled automobile traffic here and busses and auto- mobiles stalled on the city's seven hills, which saved the homes of at at least 700,000 of the metropolitan area’s 750,000 residents. “Oh, the despair on people’s faces,” exclaimed Miss Ruth Elder, registered nurse relief worker, as she returned from a day’s duty in Newport, across the river. *“One can't imagine it—how forlorn, wornout and bedraggled the victims are. It was all some of them could do to say ‘thank you.’ Some of them didn't, but just nodded.” Relief forces mobilized to fight dis- ease and hunger—feared twin com- panions of disasters. The Ohio Ad- jutant General's Department ran out of cots for the homeless. Cincinnati's schools were ordered closed to their 65,000 pupils and 75 were made avail- able for relief work. It will be at least a week, Devereaux said, before the stream will return to its banks. FOOD SHORTAGE ACUTE. Four Inches of Snow Adds to Hard- ships at Portsmouth. PORTSMOUTH, Ohio, January 23 (#).—Hunger, cold, sickness and. the cries of hundreds of marooned per- sons plagued flood-besieged Portse mouth today. Half of Portsmouth was covered by flood waters that were 11 feet deep in the business district. Four inches of snow and freezing temperatures added to the hardship of the 25,000 forged to evacuate their homes in Greater Portsmouth. The Ohio River stage at 7 am. was 66.3 feet and rising two-tenths of & foot an hour. The Scioto also poured & muddy flood tide over the city from the west. City officials described the food and milk shortage as acute and sought help from the outside. Physicians were called throughout the night to care for children in refuge centers. Crews of rescue workers laboring desperately to evacuate all homes in the flood zone under the direction of Fire Chief Robert Leedom, who re- ported that several hundred persons were begging to be rescued. Lack Sufficient Boats. Leedom said a shortage of boats made rescue work difficult. Those families trapped in their homes had sought safety on second floors, but they underestimated the rapid rise of the flood waters, Heavy pressure of the debris-laden brown tide undermined at least 10 houses, Leedom said, throwing a score of persons into the cold waters when they collapsed. Leedom was advised that all had been rescued. High waters closed all fire depart- ment houses except one in the Hilltop district. Firemen mounted a fire en- gine on a barge to be ready to com- bat any fires in the inundated bus- iness district. Appeals for bed clothing were sent out by relief workers, who reported that 50 children slept on the floor of a fire engine house at Sciotoville last night without blankets. Ten Miles Under Water. A 10-mile-long stretch from the west section of Portsmouth, where the Scioto pours into the Ohilo, east to ‘Wheelersburg was covered by water back to where the hills begin. An estimated 70,000 persons live in Portmouth and the other affected towns of Sciotoville, New Boston and Wheelersburg, and officials said at least 20,000 of them were homeless. Churches, schools, hospitals, garages and even voting booths were crowded with shivering refugees. Portsmouth officials were advised that trucks of food were stranded miles outside of the city, unable to get through flood waters. All available boats were being used in rescue work here and none could be spared to meet the trucks. Supplies laid in by householders and refugees in advance of the river’s ascent into the business district dwindled with alarming rapidity. ‘Wholesale grocers informed City Manager Frank Sheehan, grim gen- eralissimo of the city's defense, that food stored in upper floors of their buildings would last for about two days. Boat crews began getting out the staple goods even as they labored to rescue hundreds of persons who had remained in their homes. Not expect- ing the river to reach them, old-time residents, who have seen many a minor flood, refused to leave when first warned. Gas Is Shut Off. Thelz plight was made WiEs En route, Evansville, Ind., to Nashville, Tenn., this Louisville & Nashville passenger train was wrecked near Henderson, Ky., as the result of a track washout caused by the flood waters of the rampaging Cumberland River. Wreckage of the track can be seen partly submerged in water. Four persons were injured. This was a street scene in Hazelton, Ind., yesterday as water from the flood-swollen White River filled virtually all streets, homes and business houses. In a vacant Louisville warehouse, with their meager household goods surrounding them, this group of refugees sorrowfully listen to reports over the radio of the continued rise of the flooding Ohio River. LAWRENCERURG WEATHER HAMPERS RESCUE EFFORTS | NASHYILLE END OF MATOR THREAT SEEN FOOD SHORTAGE PERILS 13,000. S IETTA CINCINNAT N e ASgyin Q \0% COYINGTON . HUNTINGTON o / — RED CROSS SEEKS A 2 MILLION FOR AID / - WATER MENACES 2500 CONVICTS —Copyright, A. P. Wirephotos. = ) L) PRILABELPNIA, i\ S o 45" . CUNBERCI REUN V== —_— 3 PYASHINGTY il Five hundred residents of the town fled to the hills when a levee broke. 7 CUMBERLAND EYES RISING POTOMAC Residents Fear to Sleep, but Flood Danger Is Be- lieved Passed. BS the Assoclated Press. CUMBERLAND, Md., January 23.— Cumberland residents, after their sec- ond flood scare in two weeks, kept a wary eye on the Potomac River today, but felt that much of the danger of a flood had passed. About 10 o'clock last night the river rose to 13 feet—4 feet from the flood stage. Wills Creek was 17 feet deep— 2 feet from the flood stage. However, lster reports from the headwaters of the Potomac were to the effect that the waters were not rising, in spite of heavy rains in Thomas, W. Va., where the river has its head. The creek dropped an inch shortly before midnight. Mayor Thomas W. Koon announced that in case of another rise, a brew- ery here had agreed to sound its whistle six times to warn residents In low-lying areas to move. He kept in communication with nearby towns and with the Western Maryland Rail- road, which was receiving reports from its stations along the upper stretches of the river. As the river rose last night many persons gathered along the banks or on the Cumberland bridges to watch the waters. Lights shone late in many of the houses as residents feared to sleep with the waters so high. Red éross (Continued From First Page.) il —- CITy ) \\“g s St <Cmrnnoeer_f-- s ATLANTS PARALYZED, <¥f|WATER SUPPLY CUT il Ivl — ~ Map showing the Midwestern flood situation as it stands today. perate by lack of food and the shutting off of gas in all flooded areas. Gas company officials said they feared that mains, weakened by the steadily lapping water, would burst and thus lay the basis for a disastrous explosion. The State highway patrol and high- way department reopened tentatively one circuitous highway into Ports- mouth, hoping to be able to get in necessary supplies over it. Trucks, tractors and other equipment were placed at the numerous “worst” spots in the belief that they would be able to haul the essential traffic through. A Columbus company sought means of transporting 3,900 gallons of milk to allay distress. Aide Acted for Cornwallis. It was not Cornwallis who surren- dered at Yorktown. Gen. O'Hara of the British Army handed over his leader’s sword to Gen. Benjamin Lin- coln, appointed by anflwn 1o re- peive the submission. K & FINED FOR HIS “SPITE” Pays $100 for Planting Garden Fork With Tines Exposed. CHICAGO (#).—Antone Jordan, 42, planted & garden fork in his lawn so that only the 10-inch tines were exposed. Police said he did it to prevent school children from riding bicycles over his yard. Justice of the Peace Martin Mc- Grath said: “Deliberate spitefulness.” Then he fined Jordan $100. Deplores Wrestling Peril. COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (A).—In the interests of public safety Police Chief Elmer Lane has ordered ring- side seats at wrestling exhibitions moved at least 8 feet from the ring. “The way they throw those rasslers out of the ring, some one killed if the sgats are not City Wet and Dry, With Much W ater, But Ban on Liquor BY the Associated Press. MARIETTA, Ohlo, January 23.— This city, pioneer settlement of the Northwest Territory, was paradoxi- cally wet and dry today. Ohio River waters, expected to reach a 48-foot crest, swirled in the streets, but there was not a drop of liquor to be had. The State Liquor Department closed its store, and bars followed suit. “The barred and boarded up win- dows. make every business house look something like s jail,” observed one internally-arid gentleman, “but there’s sure nobody ‘In’ for drunkenness.” State liquor stores also were closed st Pomarcy snd ¥e the operations used after last Spring’s floods. More than 50,000 tons of food were destroyed at that time because it had come in contact with flood waters contaminated with sewage. The Food and Drug Administration, he said, maintains laboratories and staffs at Cincinnati, St. Louis and Kansas City that will be used for the emergency check-up. Canned goods and other sealed prod- ucts usually can be salvaged by a washing in a chiorine solution and re- labeling, Dunbar said. Raw fruits and vegetables—except leafy ones—also may be treated this way, he explained. Grains, flour, coffee, nuts and simi- lar commodities in bulk or pasteboard containers must be destroyed if sub- merged, he said. Last Spring National Guardsmen and local officials watched to see that condemned food actually found its way said. He reported that in handling more than 1,385 carloads of foodstuffs and drugs only 10 court actions were re- quired. Chairman Whittington of the House Flood-cantrol Committee meanwhile took the lead in demands for action to reduce future fiood dangers. “This emphasizes the imperative ne- cessity of adequate appropriations to carry out the provision of the ($300,~ 000,000) omnibus flood-control act passed by the last Congress,” he told reporters. He sald the situation also demon- strated the need for completion of projects authorized in the Mississippl flood-control act of 1936, including the Eudors Floodway in Louisiana and the control works in the Yazoo River system af Missighippt. KENTUCKY HARD HIT BY FLOODS 30,000 Already Homeless as Cold, Snow and Sleet Adds to Suffering. B3 the Assoctated Press. LOUISVILLE, Ky., January 23.— Forty thousand Kentuckians were de< serting their homes today before the worst Ohlo River flood in history, Thirty thousand already were homee less. Water isolated cities and towns, fouled their drinking water, stopped their power and destroyed property running into millions. Snow and sleet pelted the refugees, many of whom lacked food, clothing, shelter and medicine. The cold wave slowed up the rise of creeks and rivers, but it brought help only after the Ohio, Misssisippl, Green, Kentucky, Big Sandy, Licking and Salt Rivers had neared or exceeded their all-time high records, which were set in the disastrous flood seasons of 1913 and 1884. Six thousand of Louisville'’s 330,000 people were homeless, quartered with friends, kinsmen or by charity, when the Ohio River went to 50.85 at 9 a.m. A rise of 2 feet more was predicted. Guardsmen Patrol Areas. National Guardsmen patrolled the flooded areas and furnished cots and clothing to hundreds of the refugees. The 52-foot stage would inundate a third of the city, accorging to a Gov= ernment map of city levels. Already several square miles are submerged. to incinerators and dumps, Dunbar | Boats ride the current in streets that were the heart of the great wholesale district. Buildings through which ine dustrial commerce flowed to two mile lion persons sheltered the craft, which took shelter from the raging current In midstream. Water backing up in sewers threate ened at any moment to close Fourth street at York. Only one route was open to.the highlands and the west end was almost completely cut off. Theaters and schools closed. Two churches suspended tomorrow’s serve ices. A foot and a half of water in the basement caused evacuation of the Jewish Hospital. Louisville’s waterworks was drowned out. Until further notice the people will be restricted to two hours’ service a day, drawn from the reserves, Suffer Power Shortage. Power was short today. A 50,000« kilowatt line from Cincinnati no longer served this city, having been diverted by the flood-stricken Ohio metropolis. Mayor Neville Miller ordered adver~ tising signs turned off and urged citizens to use no more lights than necessary. Miller ordered gasoline filling stations closed, to conserve fuel essential for relief—which the isolated city may run short of. The gas supply was only two-thirds normal, but with closing of many businesses a smaller demand was noted. Street cars could not reach many sections of Louisville. The only truck highway passable out of Louisville led to Lexington. Citizens were urged to stay off of it. Rail service to South, East and West was stopped, except when routed through Indiana. Planes were grounded. Appeal to Hopkins, Kentucky Works Progress Adminis~ trator George H. Goodman wired Nae tional Relief Chief Harry Hopkins that help was needed for 50,000 pere sons. The Coast Guard station, worke ing day and night moving refugees, appealed to its Buffalo headquarters for surf boats. Across the Ohio River, New Albany, Ind., police appealed over the radio all night for power boats to save marooned persons. All night, too, the radio appealed in vain for communication from Car- rollton, Ky., a town of 1,000 lying at the confluence of the Ohio and Ken- tucky Rivers, which was badly flooded as early as Wednesday. Both rivers are higher than ever before. West Point, Ky, was almost iso- lated. United States soldiers from Fort Knox, relieved from other diities when the Government suspended shipping gold to its treasure vault at Fort Knox, evacuated West Pointers, Water stood in the streets at Ash- land, Hopkinsville and Carrollton. At Carrollton all communication facili- ties were broken down and the city was entirely cut off by road and train. Water Supplies Low. Bardstown faced a water shortage when four reservoir dams broke. Water inundated the west section of Cadiz and Campbellsville was isolated. The 2,000 patients at the Western State Hospital at Hopkinsville were rationed water today and Dr. E. L. Busby, superintendent, said there was about one day's more supply on hand. The pumping plant was drowned out yesterday. In Washington, Kentucky members of Congress appealed to relief au- thorities for Federal aid to the flood- ravaged Bluegrass State. Acting Gov. Keen Johnson urged the people of the State to remain calm and ordered all department and institution heads to use all their re- sources to aid the suffering. Richmond reported the Lexington road closed at Clay's Ferry, but traf- fic was being routed through Wine chester. Valley View, near Riche mond, was under water. At Boonesboro the Kentucky start- ed falling today and between 7 and 8 a.m. dropped one-tenth of an inch. The crest last night was 30.6 feet. A heavy rain that started yester- day stopped at Richmond this morn- ing after 1.5 inches had fallen during a 24-hour period. Rail Service Suspended. Downstream, floods lashed further into Henderson County, and cause¢ suspension of all rail service out of Owensboro. Paducah prepared for ite “worst” flood, where hundreds of families already have fled to higher ground. Newspapers at Paducah and Mays- ville temporarily suspended publica- tion. Frankfort, with the Kentucky pour- ing out of its deep gorge and threat- ening to sweep away the capital's historic bridge, was one of the hardest hit communities in the State. The Capitol Building was used to house refugees. Approximately 1,500 fami. lies there evacuated their homes. Special guards were ringed about the State reformatory where water rose in cellblocks housing 2,900 con- victs. Plans to ask for military rule temporarily were postponed. The Red Cross’ Kentucky-Indiang flood relief headquarters at Evansville Ind., estimated nearly half of Ken. tucky's 120 counties were ravaged by floods from a half dozen streams. The figures were announced by Jobn Maney, Red Cross oficial

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