The True Story of Our National Calamity of Flood, Fire and Tornado

by Logan Marshall

The Devastation of Columbus

THE RISING FLOOD—MOST OF THE CITY DARK—GREAT AREAS UNDER WATER—THE MILITIA IN CONTROL—THE RELIEF OF THE VICTIMS—THE EXTENT OF THE DISASTER—STORIES OF THE HORROR—ORDERS TO SHOOT LOOTERS—RECOVERING THE DEAD—GOVERNOR COX INDEFATIGABLE—HUNGRY REFUGEES SEIZE FOOD—INCIDENTS OF HEROISM—SCENES OF PATHOS—LOSS BY DEATH AND OF PROPERTY—THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION.

At Columbus, on Tuesday night, March 25th, darkness settled down on a swirling flood that covered large areas of the city. Thousands of persons were separated from members of their families and were frantic because they were unable to get into communication with their homes.

THE RISING FLOOD

Hundreds of fathers, sons, brothers, sisters and daughters had left their homes on the west side of the city in the morning to go to work, before the Scioto River had reached a flood stage. Rising suddenly, the water cut them off from their homes and when night fell they only knew that their homes were flooded and that the members of their families were dependent for food and shelter on more fortunate neighbors.

Because the city was in darkness, only meager details of the condition of the flood-marooned inhabitants were obtainable.

Wringing their hands, weeping and appealing vainly for help, scores of girls crowded in as close to the water's edge in the darkness as state troops and policemen on duty would allow them, but there was no chance to cross the stream to their home district.

MOST OF THE CITY DARK

Owing to the high water, electric lights in the flooded district and a part of the business section of the city were out, and the water supply was cut off. The supply of gas was also cut off, with a view to preventing explosions.

In Columbus the west side was practically wiped out, and the reported loss of life ranged from a half dozen to 200. Houses were floating down the river with people on their roofs. Several fires in the submerged district added to the horrors. Refugees slept in public buildings, while militia helped the police patrol the streets, which were in total darkness.

It was estimated that over 10,000 persons were homeless on the west side as a result of the flood and that at least 15,000 were living on the second floors of their homes. Only about ten per cent of the street cars were able to operate and steam railroad and suburban lines were tied up.

Damage amounting to $30,000 was done by fires in the west side during the afternoon, which for a time threatened greater damage owing to the water supply being cut off. Even had there been water, most of the fire-fighting facilities were on the east side of the city and unable to reach the section affected.

GREAT AREA UNDER WATER

Bridges connecting the west side with the eastern portion of Columbus were swept away shortly after noon. Dozens of smaller bridges went down. Hundreds of men were marooned in factories on the west side, and police and National Guardsmen were making rescues in boats where it was possible. All street car traffic was abandoned. Fifteen hundred homes were flooded.

With a great roar the levee at the foot of Broad Street let go shortly before eleven o'clock, sending down a deluge of water that swelled the Scioto River and covered a great area. Several small buildings collapsed. Just before the break the police ordered all persons in the lowlands to leave their homes quickly and flee for high land. All fire and police apparatus assisted in the work. The residents were told not to stop for clothes or valuables.

The Sandusky Street levee also collapsed, permitting the water to wash out a railroad embankment and pour into all the low districts between the river and Sandusky Street. With water to the hubs, a horse-drawn wagon galloped out West Broad Street filled with police, who shouted as they went a warning to all to fly to the hills.

While being swept down the channel of the swollen Scioto River just as darkness was gathering late in the day, a man, woman and child were rescued from the roof of a house that had been torn from its foundation by the flood. Two other children of the same family fell into the water and were drowned.

THE MILITIA IN CONTROL

State troops at the order of Governor Cox patrolled the streets in the flooded sections of the city and scores of automobiles were busy carrying the suffering to higher ground.

Meantime, the rain which began Sunday night continued, at times moderately and at other times in torrents. The fact that the water had already destroyed several bridges and broken a levee gave cause for the alarm that other levees might break and further damage result.

Because of the proportions of the flood, which washed out nearly every bridge of steam and electric roads leading out of Columbus, nearly all train service was annulled.

Floodgates were closed against all trains coming in or going out of Columbus on all roads except the Norfolk and Western. A train on that road practically swam into the Union Station at 9 P. M. after having crept along through high waters for most of the run from Portsmouth to Columbus.

During the day several trains on roads from the East were detoured through Columbus over the Norfolk and Western, but this was discontinued because of washed-out bridges between Columbus and Pittsburgh and other points. Norfolk and Western officials said they had no assurance that they would be able to operate any trains from here.

Ten solid miles of Pullman and other trains, including the Twentieth Century Flyer, on the Pennsylvania Railroad, extended from Lima to Lafayette, held up by a wash-out. Repairs allowed the trains to move on about eleven o'clock.

In taking charge of the relief work Governor Cox issued an order directing Adjutant-General John C. Speaks to call out the entire National Guard of the state for duty in the flooded districts.

BRIDGES SWEPT AWAY

Bridges were swept away, barring those who would have fled to places of safety. The rush of waters caught hundreds in their homes, and as the darkness fell the scramble to escape became wild and foreboding. Those who were able to do anything sent their appeals for aid to outlying cities before the wires had absolutely failed.

Added to the terrors of flood and darkness was that of fire. In the wild rush for places of safety that followed the first warning of the danger from the bursting levees, lamps were toppled over, electric wires were crossed and soon flames were mounting high in many sections of the city.

Representative H. S. Bigelow introduced a bill in the legislature to appropriate $100,000 for the flood sufferers in Ohio, the money to be handled under the direction of the Governor.

With no change in the number of reported dead in this city, estimates on Wednesday placed the probable dead at from one hundred to one hundred and fifty. Columbus was still being drenched and torn by flood waters of the Scioto and Olentangy Rivers. The scene of devastation on the west side was partly made visible to residents of other sections of the city for the first time in two days. The isolation of the western section again became real when the last remaining bridge gave way before the torrents.

Numerous persons who were considered conservative asserted that they saw scores of bodies float down stream and dozens of persons carried away in their houses.

Miss Esther Eis, rescued from her home on the west side, said she saw the house with George Griffin, wife and seven children collapse and disappear, and another house containing John Way, wife and five children, break up in the flood.

Besides the actual tragedies that were enacted in connection with the flood the most exciting incident occurred at the announcement that the storage dam, several miles north of the city, had broken, sending its great flood to augment that of the Scioto River.

The scene that followed was one of wild panic in all parts of the city. Patrolmen, soldiers and citizens in automobiles, tooting horns, ringing gongs and calling through megaphones a warning to every one to seek safety in the higher parts of the east side, sent thousands in flight, while many, stunned by the supposed impending disaster, collapsed from fear or gave way to hysteria.

It was more than an hour before the report was officially denied. Police officials assert that the report was made to them by persons connected with the military end of the patrols.

City officials said that the storage dam was holding fast against the millions of gallons of water that were being poured against it, and they expressed confidence that it would continue to do so despite the great pressure upon it.

The Governor telegraphed the War Department at Washington, asking that 50,000 tents and 100,000 rations be made available for use and distribution by the Ohio National Guard.

Governor Cox also sent out appeals for aid to the Governors of all the border States of Ohio, including Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky. Tents and provisions were badly needed, according to the Governor's appeal.

After working all night in the Adjutant-General's office in the State House, officers of the Ohio National Guard reported that they had succeeded in assembling 3,500 militiamen, ready for service in the flood districts.

Mobilized at all points of the state, companies and regiments of the Ohio military force started at daybreak on Wednesday for the stricken cities and towns as soon as arrangements for their transportation, the most serious problem confronting the militia headquarters, could be arranged. The relief which they carried was held back by the lack of railroad facilities everywhere.

THE RELIEF OF THE VICTIMS

Howard Elting, president of the Chicago Association of Commerce, telegraphed Governor Cox that citizens of Chicago were raising a relief fund for flood sufferers.

"I am pleased to state," the telegram said, "that $100,000 will be placed at the disposal of Ohio through the American Red Cross Society."

The Senate passed the Lowry Bill making appropriation for the relief of the flood sufferers, but increased the amount to $500,000.

The action was taken in response to the following message from the Governor:

"The flood disaster that has befallen our state is of such magnitude in loss of life and human suffering that I respectfully urge upon your honorable body the importance and propriety of making an appropriation for the succor of those in distress.

"May I further suggest that it be of such size and made with such dispatch as to reflect the great heart and resource of our commonwealth?"

THE EXTENT OF THE DISASTER

On Thursday it was apparent that the part of the city between Central and Sandusky Avenues was almost wiped out, and estimates of the death toll of the flood in this city ran into the hundreds.

It was not until Thursday when the waters began to recede, and after two nights of horror, during which hundreds of people clung to the housetops, while others sought safety in trees, that the fact dawned upon the inhabitants that their city had been visited by as great a calamity perhaps as that which had fallen upon the Miami Valley.

The bodies of 200 persons lay huddled in the United Brethren Church on Avondale Avenue, according to O. H. Ossman, an undertaker, who explored the flood district in a rowboat.

He said this report was made to him by a man who said he had been able to reach the building and look through the windows. Police who sought to confirm the story were unable to reach the church because of the current.

Ossman said nineteen bodies had been taken to his undertaking rooms and that he has been asked to be prepared to care for sixty-nine other bodies. He said he counted fully two hundred bodies in wreckage on West Park Avenue.

Members of searching parties who were able to explore the west side of the city, south of Broad Street, for the first time reported that that section was a scene of vast desolation for a great area, much of it being still under water.

The names of more than a half hundred persons were placed under the caption "known dead," while the list of probable dead was too great to be collated at that time. The number of missing and unaccounted for, it was said, would reach far into the hundreds.

An Associated Press operator, who was marooned for hours in the flood after it broke early Tuesday, reached the Columbus office Thursday after having traveled by a circuitous route covering more than forty-five miles in order to get into the main portion of the city.

He saw more than a score of bodies washed through the flood, and said that house after house was carried away in the flood. Many of the small frame cottages were wrenched to pieces by the currents and their occupants thrown into the water to be seen no more.

It was believed that many bodies would be found at the Sandusky Street bridge or lodged against such part of it as was left in the river at that point. Further exploration of that part of the west side was begun Thursday afternoon.

Because she had no home after she was rescued from the flood district, Miss Florence P. Shaner and William G. Wahlenmaier were married. They had intended being married in May. The girl was rescued by Wahlenmaier. Her mother was drowned and their home swept away.

STORIES OF THE HORROR

Other men who had ventured into the flood district told corresponding stories of awful loss of life. To add to the horrors of the situation reports reached the State House that the buildings in the flood-swept district were being looted by men in rowboats. To meet this emergency and to better patrol the west side, which is under martial law, Governor Cox ordered Troop B of the National Guard to patrol the ruined section of the city. It was believed the cavalrymen could cover more territory than foot soldiers.

As the waters receded the militia guarded the west side under arrangements made between the Adjutant-General's department and Chairman Nass of the Columbus Relief Committee.

Hundreds of people were still marooned in flooded homes, their rescue up to that time being impossible because of the swift current of the river. Rescued people in dire straits were brought to the City Hall in a stream all day, where people by the hundreds waited to obtain news of missing relatives and friends.

Families were separated, and men, women and children stood night and day at the edge of the water waiting for the flood to subside that they might reach abandoned homes.

The body of a man was suspended in a tree near Glenwood Avenue, beyond reach of the rescuing parties. Other bodies were among debris washed up on the edge of the waters in the southwest end of the city. Near this debris were two submerged street cars.

Many of the refugees were in state institutions on the high ground at the west end. The water fell several feet and some of the streets inundated could be traversed, but in the lowlands, where it was feared the greater number of dead would be found, it was several days before a thorough search could be instituted.

Many of the refugees were in a pitiable condition when rescued. They were benumbed by the cold and suffering from hunger and exposure.

FOUR BORN AS OTHERS DIE

Colonel D. N. Oyser, an attache of the city sanitary department, reported that two truckloads of bodies were removed from one point on the west side.

The cold wave which struck the section Wednesday night caused many to freeze, lose their grip, and drop into the water.

Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. Part of the residential section of Fremont, Ohio, flooded. The water reached to the second story of the houses

[link to high-resolution image]

Copyright by George Grantham Bain. Carrying on the work of rescuing Dayton flood sufferers from their houses in the boats made for the purpose at the National Cash Register Factory

[link to high-resolution image]

With military glasses rescuers standing on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad near Center Avenue could see several dead forms lying on the roof of a building to the east.

Four babies were reported to have been born in a school house on the hilltop.

According to those who invaded the stricken district, the churches, big state institutions and storerooms in the hilltop section were crowded with refugees. They tell stories of indescribable horrors.

Former Mayor George S. Marshall, who was in telephone communication with Cecil Randall, his law partner, said that Mr. Randall estimated the death toll at several hundreds. Throngs of excited groups of people from the flood-stricken section of the city who were crowded into the temporary rescue quarters asserted that the estimate of Mr. Randall was not exaggerated.

Neither the extent of the awful tragedies enacted during the sweeping away of homes nor the exact death tolls could be known for days until the mass of wreckage, houses and uprooted trees which were strewn on the level lowlands south of the city were uncovered. This mass of debris was under several feet of water, with swift currents running in many directions.

Many of those rescued told of escaping from their homes by fractions of minutes, just before the rushing waters swept their homes away and crushed them like eggshells against bridges. Scores of entire families, these people assert, were swept down with their houses in the swift current.

Every available inch of space in the Columbus State Hospital for the Insane and Mt. Carmel Hospital on the hilltop was occupied by refugees.

Fire Chief Lauer, who was marooned on the hilltop beyond the flooded section, reaching that point of safety in his automobile just before the waters swept the lowlands, said that he saw scores of people standing on their porches as the waters swept down and that he could not see how scarcely any of them escaped.

After two nights of horror, during which hundreds clung to housetops calling for help until their voices gave way, while dozens perched in the branches of trees, many were still beyond the reach of rescuers.

ORDERS TO SHOOT LOOTERS

J. W. Gaver, Justice of the Peace at Briggsdale, swore in several deputies and armed them, with instructions to shoot down all looters.

Relief trains from Marysville and London, bearing food and clothing, relieved the situation in the refugee quarters on the hilltop, where hundreds of homeless were waiting news from relatives.

Relief work was directed toward rescuing two hundred and fifty from the marooned plant of the Sun Manufacturing Company, where they had been imprisoned for two days without food or heat. One boat which got within hailing distance before it was stopped by the swirling current was informed that conditions were terrible.

With a blinding snowstorm and the temperature falling, gnawed by hunger and suffering from the cold, the thousands of flood sufferers of the state faced the uncertainties which the freezing temperature was adding to their plight.

Although some of the early morning reports said flood waters were receding slowly in some of the flooded sections there was scarcely a perceptible change in the flood height. In other places, even though receding, the water was still of such height as to maroon the sufferers, many of whom were suffering from exposure which followed their clinging throughout the night to some points of vantage above the murky waters. All were facing the chilly winds, blinding rain, sleet and snow.

Governor Cox issued a proclamation declaring a holiday in all districts flooded in Ohio for the next ten days. This was done to protect negotiable paper that might be subject to presentation.

Hundreds of the refugees harbored in the various relief stations and in private homes just outside of the flooded district were separated from relatives, and many of them believed that lost sons or daughters, fathers or mothers had perished.

The authorities were fearful of looting in the flood district and the militia, under strict orders, in several cases arrested rescue workers and interfered with their work, suspecting them of looting. A large quantity of supplies was transported to the flood district by automobile and rail, and the refugees were made comfortable as fast as they could be released from the grip of the waters.

RECOVERING THE DEAD

Thursday's bodies were recovered from jams of driftwood that had piled up along the shallow shores of the flood. All of them were badly mutilated and in several cases identification was difficult. The authorities organized a squad of men to cover the entire inundated area in the search of bodies. Up to date fifty-one known dead had been reported.

Hundreds of those whose homes were in the flooded district, but who were marooned in the business section of the city, away from their families, were able to get to the flood section Thursday by a circuitous route about twenty-five miles long. All manner of vehicles and pedestrians crowded the road throughout the day, and at the end of the way pathetic reunions of families separated since Tuesday took place in the muddy, flood-swept streets.

Daniel A. Poling, general secretary of the Ohio Christian Endeavor Society, issued an appeal to the 160,000 Christian Endeavorers in the state, urging them to forward contributions to state headquarters.

West Columbus remained virtually under martial law. Militia companies on duty were ordered to shoot looters on sight. Thousands of curious people and those with friends and relatives in the flooded districts were kept out of the west side by police and troopers. The city relief station, at the city hall, and the newspapers maintained and compiled lists of the rescued, as well as lists of the dead.

By Friday order was being rapidly evolved out of chaos, and missing loved ones were being accounted for by hundreds. Ample shelter and food were being provided for the thousands of homeless.

Flood waters drained off from the devastated districts, railroad service was slowly resumed and telegraph and telephone wires were being restrung.

MAP SHOWING ONE OF THE CIRCUITOUS ROUTES BY WHICH NEWS OF THE FLOOD WAS CARRIED TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD

[link to high-resolution image]

GOVERNOR COX INDEFATIGABLE

For three days Governor Cox tirelessly accomplished the work of a dozen men, laboring from daylight to long past midnight to aid the unfortunates of Ohio. His hand guided everything done in the work of rescue and on Friday he turned his attention to new problems of preventing epidemics, safeguarding life and property, relieving the sufferings of surviving flood victims and the care of the dead.

The hero of the Dayton disaster, John A. Bell, the telephone official who, marooned in a business block had been keeping Governor Cox informed every half hour of conditions in the stricken city and delivering orders through boatmen who rowed to his window, called the State House at daybreak and greeted the Executive with a cheery "Good morning, Governor. The sun is shining in Dayton."

But sunshine gave way to a blizzard like a snowstorm later in the day and the reports coming from Bell were less cheering as the day advanced.

On Friday the Governor seized the railways to insure passage of relief trains and to keep sightseers and looters away from the afflicted municipalities.

The entire military force of Ohio was on duty in the flooded districts, which included practically the entire state. Because of the interrupted communications headquarters had not been able to keep fully in touch with the movements of all the troops. The officers in command in most cases had to determine routes and procure their own transportation. Under the most difficult conditions they uniformly showed both energy and ingenuity in reaching their destination.

Estimates of the flood death list in Columbus continued to range from fifty to five hundred, although these figures represented largely opinions of officials on duty in the flood zone. The efforts of the authorities were directed almost entirely to relieving the suffering of those marooned in houses in the territory under water, and until all of these had been rescued the search for the dead did not begin in earnest. The waters receded slowly on Friday and the swirling currents abated a trifle, allowing the rescue boats a wider area of activity.

ORGANIZING RELIEF

George F. Unmacht, civil service clerk, connected with the quartermaster's department of the United States army, stationed at Chicago, arrived in Columbus Friday to assist in directing the distribution of supplies. Rations for 300,000 arrived together with tents for 20,000 persons; 100 hospital tents, 400 stoves, 29,000 blankets, 8,900 cots, 100 ranges.

Officers at Columbus were ordered to report at Fort Wayne, Cincinnati, Youngstown and Hamilton, while a hospital corps was sent to the Columbus barracks.

The Governor's attention on Friday was devoted largely to organization of the work of relief. He received telegrams notifying him of collections of more than $250,000. A New York newspaper had sent $150,000 subscribed to a fund it raised. Word was received that the Chicago Chamber of Commerce had raised $200,000, half of which had been forwarded to Ohio. Judge Alton B. Parker subscribed $5,000 and James J. Hill $5,000. A thousand dollars was sent from Walkerville, Ontario.

Governor Dunne wired that a bill appropriating $100,000 for Ohio flood sufferers had been introduced in the Illinois Legislature, while Governor Osborne telegraphed that the Michigan Assembly had appropriated $20,000.

Colonel Myron T. Herrick, of Cleveland, Ambassador to France, cabled his deep anxiety over the Ohio disaster, and Governor Cox in reply asked him to call a meeting of the Ohio Society in Paris and wire funds, saying the losses exceeded the San Francisco earthquake.

The Ohio Society of Georgia wired the Governor it was sorry and it too was invited to show how much it was sorry.

HUNGRY REFUGEES SEIZE FOOD

The need for relief was indicated when a company of telephone linemen working outside of Columbus had their supplies taken from them by hungry flood refugees.

Governor Cox recalled some of his former comments on the need of expenditures for the National Guard. "The National Guard," he said, "has saved itself. Its efficiency has been a revelation to me." In the organization so promptly effected by the Governor the moment the floods came, his most efficient aid came from Adjutant-General Speaks and the National Guard officers, and with the Guard the work of rescue and of maintaining order was made possible. The officers and men performed every duty faithfully.

Martial law prevailed in most of the stricken cities and the soldiers prevented the looting of the abandoned houses and cared for the refugees.

Colonel Wilson, of the Paymaster's Department, was made financial officer as well as treasurer of the relief funds. Under his direction and the Governor's supervision the Ohio relief commission prepared for a War Department audit, as is required by the Red Cross Society. The Governor demanded that there should be but one relief committee in the state, and to that end the local committees formed were subordinate to the state commission.

INCIDENTS OF HEROISM

The work of rescue brought out many striking incidents of personal heroism.

From two o'clock Tuesday afternoon until nearly nightfall Wednesday Charles W. Underwood, a carpenter of this city, held two babes in his arms while he clung to the branch of a tree near the Greenlawn Cemetery, where he had been carried fully a mile by the current. One babe was his own, the other belonged to a neighbor, and as he clung to them he saw his own twelve-year-old daughter on another limb of the same tree weaken from exposure and die, her frail body swaying limply as it hung over the branch. He also saw a woman refugee in the same tree weaken and fall into the swirling waters. Underwood and the babes were finally rescued.

Two hundred and thirty-three souls marooned in the building of the Sun Manufacturing Company succeeded in sending out a note by messenger, praising the work of John Brady, who, with a skiff, after his home was swept away, rescued two hundred men, women and children and brought them to the Sun plant.

"Track out at Columbus because of floods," was the message that Albert E. Dutoit, a Hocking Valley Railway engineer, read when his train was stopped Wednesday at Walbridge, near Toledo. His heart gave a bound, for he knew his family must be threatened. He detached his engine from the train and started on his race with death. Like mad he shot his engine across the country between there and Columbus. All night Wednesday he tried to get through the military lines and succeeded on Thursday. He induced men in motor boats to rescue his family. In a few more moments, he had his eight-months-old baby in one arm with the other around the waist of his wife. The reunion brought tears of sympathy to the eyes of the rescuers.

Mrs. Emil Wallace, living southwest of the city, in the lowlands, ran toward a hill when she saw the onrushing waters. She reached safety just as the water was up to her neck. Her home was submerged.

A street car was washed a quarter of a mile away from the track. The conductor and half a dozen passengers were drowned like rats in a trap before they could get out of the car.

Two unknown men lost their lives while trying to save a twelve-year-old girl from a raft floating near Greenlawn Avenue. On horseback the men fought desperately against the swift current of the flood until at last they were carried away.

Nearly one hundred babies were born in the flood district and in the refuge camps between Tuesday morning and Saturday. In the majority of cases neither the mothers nor the babies received any medical attention. Many of the babies died from exposure.

As the sun broke through a fringe of clouds Saturday morning it looked down upon scenes of utter devastation in the stricken west side of this city, where a mighty torrent of water had rendered what was a prosperous and happy community of 40,000 souls into a place of death, want and disaster.

SCENES OF PATHOS

The scenes were full of human pathos. Torn bodies, disfigured almost beyond recognition, were being dug from debris. Whole families, marooned for four long days and nights in the upper stories of houses that had escaped as if by miracle, many of them without food or water and in fear of constant death by flood or flame, were being reached by rescuers.

Many of those rescued were in a critical condition from the long hours they had spent in the bitter cold—their clothing soaked by the incessant rainfall of three days and nights and no fuel or bedding with which to combat their fearful condition. The water was subsiding materially and the work of rescue was thus made easier.

The work of the searching parties in the flooded district increased the list of bodies recovered from the water to sixty-one. All of these were lodged in the temporary morgue, and most of them were identified.

Accurate estimates of the dead were still impossible. Safety Director Bargar said not more than one hundred had been drowned. Coroner Benkert asserted that the loss of life would reach 200, while former Mayor Marshall, commanding the rescue workers in the southern end of the flooded district held that both estimates were too high.

Of the sixty-one bodies recovered twenty-seven had been identified.

Estimates placed property loss at from $15,000,000 to $30,000,000. But no one seemed to care about the monetary loss. The city was staggered by the weight of human suffering.

Governor Cox received a telegram from D. T. McCabe, vice-president of the Pennsylvania Lines, offering to transport free of charge all relief supplies to points in the flooded area of the state if properly consigned to the relief authorities. The Governor also received a telegram from Governor Ralston, of Indiana, saying that ten carloads of supplies had been started for Ohio points by Indiana relief organizations.

Approximately one thousand persons, refugees from the Dayton flood, arrived in Columbus on Saturday, most of them having made their way by automobile and trains. As if pursued by tragedy, it fell to them that their landing place in this city should be within the radius of the recently-flooded hilltop district of the west side. The arrival of the refugees was unexpected and no arrangements had been made to care for them. Adjutant-General John C. Speaks was notified and said that the state would do the best that could be done to provide them with food and shelter. General Speaks said that the local relief committees were being sorely taxed, but that he had been advised by the Columbus relief committees that they would give all possible assistance in housing and feeding the Dayton arrivals.

Scores of transfer wagons traversed the inundated streets carrying relief to the hundreds marooned in the upper stories of houses. An element adding to the difficulty of the situation was the refusal of hundreds to leave their homes in the submerged district. This despite the fact that they were compelled to live in damp upper stories, with little heat or cooking facilities and in the face of threatened illness.

"We've saved our bedding and furniture, and that's all we have," said one of these. "We are not going to take any chances of losing that."

City Health Officer Dr. Louis Kahn ordered an immediate cleaning up. The health authorities also called attention to the necessity of boiling all water for drinking purposes.

Miss Mabel Boardman, head of the Red Cross Society, reached Cincinnati Saturday night. She came to confer with Governor Cox. The Governor again asserted that the property damage caused by the floods in Ohio would aggregate $300,000,000, and that this amount would be increased by the high water in the Ohio River.

With the water fast receding in Columbus and the danger stage passed, the food problem promised on Sunday to become the most serious for the relief workers to solve.

Mayor Hunt, of Cincinnati, had been sending food to Dayton and other places, but on Saturday as the flood descended upon his own city from the upper reaches of the Ohio River, he put an embargo on further exports of provisions. Though fifty-five carloads of provisions consigned to the state were in Columbus last night, and supply trains were headed for Ohio from Chicago, Washington, New York and other places, Governor Cox was by no means reassured that the relief in sight would be sufficient.

All of the people in the marooned district were reached and those willing to leave their homes were brought over to the east side of the city and cared for in hospitals, private homes or temporary places of refuge. Boats and other contrivances were in constant use carrying provisions and fuel to those who could not leave their homes. Eight more bodies were recovered.

A majority of the rescued presented a pitiable sight, some hardly able to stand on their feet and others, thinly clad and benumbed by the cold, trembled as they were lifted into the boats. The hospitals were crowded with people dangerously ill from days of exposure.

The morgues, hospitals and places of refuge were constantly besieged by people looking for lost relatives. Those received related tales of horror and heroism unparalleled except in great disasters like the Titanic or Johnstown.

A year-old baby, wrapped in a blanket, was washed ashore in front of the gates of the state institution for feeble-minded. Although chilled by the water the child was soon revived. Pinned to its underclothing was a piece of paper, upon which the name, "Walter Taylor," was written. The boy was restored to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Taylor, twenty-four hours later. The family had been penned in its home for two days. As the water rose gradually the parents moved to the second floor and then to the attic. Finally the father was forced to hold the child for hours above his head. Climbing out to the roof as a last resort, the baby was swept away and the parents had given it up for dead.

Governor H. D. Hatfield, of West Virginia, arrived in Columbus at seven o'clock Sunday night on a special train from Charleston. The train brought supplies, motor boats and skiffs. The motor boats and skiffs were later taken through the different sections of the city to rescue hundreds who were marooned. The local military company took charge of the rescue work and pushed it forward as rapidly as conditions would permit.

The sum of $50,000 was raised by voluntary contributions in Columbus for a relief fund. In addition, the city council voted $75,000, and great stores of provisions and clothing were contributed by local people and outsiders. Thousands of the homeless people were cared for in homes of those willing to share them, or in public halls. One thousand were fed daily in the Masonic Temple.

In a statement full of feeling, issued Sunday evening, shortly before he left the Executive office for home and the first full night's rest he has had in more than a week, Governor Cox said:

"Refreshed by the tears of the American people, Ohio stands ready from today to meet the crisis alone.

"Ohio has risen from the floods. Such a pitiless blow from Nature as we sustained would have wiped out society and destroyed governments in other days. We cannot speak our gratitude to President Wilson for federal aid, to the Red Cross, to states, municipalities, trade organizations and individuals that sent funds and supplies. They will never know their contribution to humanity.

"The relief situation, so far as food and clothing are concerned, is in hand. Thankful to her friends who succored her, Ohio faces tomorrow serene and confident."

Governor Cox and members of the Legislature began on Monday an outline of reconstructive legislation, to be followed in all of the flood districts by the state. It was decided that the San Francisco relief plan should be placed into effect for the Ohio flood sufferers. Under this plan the relief was based upon property loss of the individual and the income loss incurred. The amount of relief each person received was prorated on such a basis.

Upon the recommendation of Governor Cox, the Legislature recessed until next Monday, thereby giving state officials a week to formulate plans. Resolutions warmly thanking the citizens of New York State and Pennsylvania for their flood relief contributions were passed.

All that human effort could accomplish on Tuesday failed to penetrate the part of the debris piled in the west side, where, it was believed, many of the bodies of persons missing finally would be recovered. As matters stood Tuesday night, however, eight more bodies had passed through the morgues.

In addition to this number, was the body of James M. Kearney, a merchant, who was drowned several months ago, and which, cast up by the flood, was found lodged in a tree when the waters had receded. That many other bodies would be recovered after the army of men employed in the work had attacked the great pile of debris made at several points by wrecked homes was generally conceded.

Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. View of River Street In Troy, New York, showing the Collar, Cuff and Shirt Factory of Cluett, Peabody & Company, the largest of its kind in the world, closed on account of the floods. Thousands of people were thrown out of work on account of the overflowing of the Hudson

[link to high-resolution image]

Photograph by Underwood & Underwood. Under the martial law established at Dayton, citizens were kept off the streets at night as a precaution against looting

LOSS BY DEATH AND OF PROPERTY

Four more bodies were recovered Wednesday from flood wreckage, making the total of bodies found in this city stand at eighty-four. Of these all except seven were identified.

Coroner Benkert, who made a wide-spread investigation among families, some members of which were among the missing, said that he estimated that at least one hundred and twenty-five bodies would be recovered. It was expected that other bodies that had been washed down the river would never be identified as Columbus victims.

The property damage in Columbus, like the death toll, was confined principally to the west side, the business and manufacturing districts having gone almost unscathed.

THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION

Governor Cox and the State Relief Commission on Tuesday left on a tour of the state to visit cities and districts that were hit hardest by the flood to determine what relief was necessary in each case. Before their departure, however, conditions in Columbus were fast approaching normal, and the residents with a cheerful, courageous spirit had commenced the repair of their devastated city.

---