[Newspaper]
Publication: The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati, OH, United States
vol. 40, no. 53, p. 4
THE RIOTOUS RIVER.
The Ohio Increases Its Rampageous
Encroachments.
Taking Within Its Grasp Great Tracts
of Local Territory,
Flooding the Whole South-Western Part of
the City, Together With Front,
Water and Other Streets.
The Paris of America Changes Its
Title to That of Venice.
Millcreek Overflows All of the Low
Country, Turning Hundreds of
Acres Into a Vast Sea
A Cold Wave Has a Beneficial Effect,
and the Swollen Stream
Begins to Fall.
Hundreds of Buildings Inundated — Boats
In Great Demand — Cattle
Drowned.
Great Damage to Railroads — Trains
Suspended on Two Routes.
Ohio and Mississippi Passengers
Transferred From Aurora to This City
By Steamer.
The Tale Continued Throughout the
Country — The Father of the
Waters on a Terrible
Tear.
Destitution in This City and the
General Country Certain to Follow.
The rampageous Ohio made a wonderful struggle yesterday to outraise its best depths on record, those of 1832, and, although it expended itself to a remarkable width, seized upon great sections of the city’s territory, and buildings of every description, it weakened about noon, falling to reach Fifty-nine feet. Still, the people afflicted are perfectly content with the present disagreeable state of affairs, and, although it would be quite an honor for this generation to be able to say that they had seen it in its greatest glory, as there has been a general surfeit of this style of booming. It is only the strictly oldest inhabitant that witnessed the deluges of 1832 or 1847, and he seemed yesterday to take extreme delight in standing on the Public Landing near high-water mark and scoffing at the exertions of the waves to touch the coveted spot. He told, with frequent sarcastic references and derisive laughter, how the waters in those years had swept over street and alley far beyond the boundaries of the modern flood, and had hidden from sight scores of structures that now were high and dry. Although his recitals were given with due scat and coloring, they did not seem to interest his auditors, who stood by with blanched cheeks and watched the angry waves as they lashed up against the signs on their buildings or flowed at their leisure through the windows in the same.
The river continued to rise slowly during the night and forenoon of yesterday, until at half-past eleven the gauge at the Water-Works showed fifty-eight feet six inches. This was practically its dying effort, as for the next five hours it did not exhibit an ascent of an entire inch. The enormous rush of water from the Miami continued to act as a sort of a dam to the riotous Ohio, and this, aided by a strong westerly wind, served to back up the latter, cutting down its velocity to about ten miles an hour. Had the swollen stream been running at its regular rate, the damage to shipping and the property within its rebellious grasp must have been considerable.
Standing on the Suspension or Newport bridges the scene was truly a grand one. On every side were the tossing, boiling waters; a vast expanse of rolling, splashing waves. Here and there were slowlly moving masses or drift-wood, huge tree trunks, lumber of all kinds, young trees, many or which bore with them large patches of earth, allowing how they had been torn from their positions by the unruly waters. Every thing imaginable had been collected in these vast stretches of driftings.
On each bank, if such a thing were to be found, to the right and to the left, were evidences of the encroachments of the maddened waters. On the Cincinnati side stood the immense wharf-boats and steamers, the great black smoke-stacks of the latter towering up in grim defiance over the buildings, subdued by the waves on whose turbulent bosom they rested rather uneasily. Numerous large structures, surrounded by me yellow and ruffled waters seemed like fortresses of old, and one could imagine the bristling cannon protruding from their windows or could hear the measured tread of the sentry on his monotonous beat on the battlements. Again, numerous row-boats were to be observed passing through the submerged streets, transporting passengers, furniture, &c., and for the time being the Paris of America had become the Venice of America.
In a trip from the Water-Works out to Millcreek the best idea can be gained of the remarkable extent of the deluge. Front and Water streets for the whole of their length, with few exceptions for the former, are held entirely by the water. It is well up in the first stories of the buildings thereon, and the occupants have entirely removed their property or changed it to the upper stories. All the business houses in those thoroughfares have necessarily suspended all traffic and yielded gracefully to the inevitable. The merchants holding perishable material have had it moved to places of safety. The loss, therefore, will not be quite so great as if the rise had come all of a sudden.
The scenes to be witnessed in these inundated streets are often quite ludicrous. In many, at intervals, are floating planks of timbers, on which the daredevil young Americans paddle about from house to house. People with heads extending from second-story windows watch anxiously the ebb and flow of the liquid visitor. A reporter of the EQUIRERER indulged in a skiff ride through those streets. Going alongside the evacuated houses, the water was found to be several inches deep in the parlors and other apartments. Every thing, however, had been taken out, and the intruding river had naught to conquer but barren walls. Such was the case in the warehouses, commission houses, &c. People had devoted the whole of the night when it appeared certain that the invader would soon give them a call to preparing for the visit, and all articles were out of the way when it came.
That part of the city within the boundary of the Whitewater Canal is practically at the mercy of the flood. There are a few elevated sections that are dry, but that portion near the river is at least in seven feet of water. The only means of communication with terra firms is by boats and rafts, and every thing of the shape of the latter is being used. All of the possessions of the Big Four, including tracks, engine-houses and repair shops, are submerged, and they have been abandoned. Large numbers of cars, both freight passenger, are standing in water up above their trucks, and it is at least ten feet deep in the canal itself. The locomotives had all been drawn out of the engine-house during yesterday, and quite a number of the cars. The freight-house and property of the Ohio and Mississippi were in the same condition, Several teams succeeded in making their way to the former structure and carried away considerable freight. Boats were being used in moving bugs of grain from the surrounded cars, and lumber, piled into great rafts from the same was floated ashore and safely moored. Several of the cars were filled with lime, and as the water reached the bottoms of them, the contents began to stack rapidly, creating great heat. Men were at once set to work either to throw the lime into the water or remove it by the boats. One car was badly burned before it could be emptied.
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AT COVINGTON.
There is no material change in the situation, with the exceptions of the people in Lewisburg and those residing in the lower portion were all compelled to move, but found temporary comfortable quarters. The loss at Hemingray's Glass-Works is variously estimated. Some place it as high as $20,000. The Milldale Distillery closed operations yesterday. A number of bridges over small streams in the county have been swept away by the water, causing considerable damage and a detriment to travel.
A small house of one room floated down the Licking yesterday.
The Morgan House, at the foot of Greenup street, is covered on the first floor, and the occupants took shelter in the second.
Suborg's Dairy has been abandoned and the stock removed to a place of safety.
The ice-houses of John Seiler, on the banks of the Licking, are full of water, but no damage will result as they were empty.
About 8,000 bushels of coal at Blick's elevator is under water.
Over fifty families have been compelled to move.
John Ostick, who resides at the corner of Third and Bullock streets, died yesterday morning. The undertaker was compelled to get to the house by means of a skiff, as the house where the corpse lay was surrounded by water. The body was packed through the water and carried into the second story of the house.
A number of dairymen residing in Ludlow and West Covington are unable to supply their customers with the lacteal fluid on account of being cut off by the high water between Covington and Ludlow.
Licking River receded one inch between five and six o'clock last night.
The old frame house at the foot of Greenup street has stood the siege of floods, including that of 1832. A portion of the building was washed away yesterday.
The coal merchants report no losses of barges or floats in this city, and have them all properly secured.
The stopping of the West End Ferry causes considerable inconvenience to the laboring class of people in the West End.
Walsh & Kellogg's distillery had a narrow escape from the deluge. A few inches more, and they would have been compelled to stop.
Both bridges did a land office business in the passenger line yesterday, They were crowded all day long with visitors. The blustering weather prevented them from tarrying long.
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