Throughout the Shenango Valley hundreds of families were imprisoned in their homes and frantic efforts were made to rescue the marooned persons from their dangerous positions. At Sharon the greatest flood in the history of the city was experienced. Thousands of persons were thrown out of employment and the property loss was enormous. The entire town was inundated and a dozen or more bridges were wrecked. The loss of the United States Steel Corporation at Farrel, a suburb, was estimated at $200,000.
The torrent swept swiftly upon Sharon. The crest reached a height of fifty feet. The released wall of water, gathering buildings, stacks of lumber, hundreds of logs and a mass of debris in its van as a giant battering ram, rolled like a giant hoop into the center of the thriving milling town. It followed the course of the Shenango, which bisects the city.
After the flood unsuccessfully rammed the double line of steel buildings the torrent passed further to the center of the city. One pier of a concrete bridge, erected two years before, which spans Silver and Porter Streets, cracked off like a matchstick. The impact carried the block of concrete, weighing several tons, for a distance of a quarter of a mile.
Fire added to the terror of the flood when Wishart's planing mill, on Railroad Street, was discovered to be in flames Tuesday afternoon. The steamers of the fire companies could not be taken close enough to pump water from the swollen Shenango. There was only one recourse—to take the supply of drinking water in the city's reservoir or permit the fire to burn and possibly jeopardize all the wooden buildings within a radius of a mile. Sharonites actually cheered the firemen as they saw their drinking water vanish.
PANIC IN NEW CASTLE
The flood waters of the Shenango caused great distress in New Castle and near-by places. The water put the lighting plants and the city water station out of commission. Fifteen hundred homes were submerged. Thousands had to flee.
BEAVER RIVER AT FLOOD
The Beaver River rose high and the entire valley from the Ohio River north was flooded. The towns of New Brighton, Fallston and Beaver Falls suffered most, and there was some damage at Rochester. Traffic on the railroads was suspended at daybreak, and not a trolley car was running in the valley.
THE RISING ALLEGHENY AT WARREN
At Warren and points all down the length of the Allegheny River to Pittsburgh, flood conditions were still more serious.