For Warren itself the worst was feared. Hourly the flood situation grew worse. On Wednesday the water was rising at the rate of four inches an hour. The river threatened to cut a new channel through the south side of the city and scores of men were piling up sandbags to prevent this.
MAP SHOWING SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA THAT WERE FLOODED
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Captain U. G. Lyons assumed charge of the situation, and under his direction a life raft composed of barrels was made and launched in the Allegheny River. Thanks to the raft, not one life was lost from among the many who floated down the stream on debris.
FEARS OF OIL CITY
Oil City, on Oil Creek near its entrance to the Allegheny River, was in a serious plight. Oil Creek overflowed its banks and covered the portion of town that was devastated by the great fire and flood of 1892.
The town was in a condition bordering on panic and business was suspended. More than seventy-five persons were removed from their homes in wagons, the water being from five to six feet deep. Railroads suffered heavily.
Newspapers and industrial plants at Oil City were shut down because of flooded power rooms. Fires were prohibited and railroad locomotives were ordered to extinguish their fires to avoid any danger of igniting the oil.