REPETITION OF BIG FLOOD OCCURRED THURSDAY NIGHT THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS DAMAGES WILL RESULT MINIATURE OF “JOHNSTOWN”
Semi-Weekly Irontonian 19 July 1907
A flood equal in proportion to that of Wednesday evening again damaged the residents along Rachel creek and its vicinity last night. The rain of last evening was not hard enough to cause the creek to overflow unless there is something radically wrong with the bed and culverts of the creek.
Last night, the water lacked a few inches of coming as high as Wednesday night, but it was equally as great destructive volumes of water poured into Rachel creek, and within a short time after the rain ceased, Sixth street between Oak and Neal avenue was a mammoth lake. The water spread to all the lots in that vicinity, filling cellars and basements and sometimes getting into the houses. Gardens and flower beds were ruined or badly damaged.
The water covered Walnut street and filled all the cellars along the creek. Dr. Marting had pumped water from Wednesday night’s flood from his cellar only to have it filled again last night.
The deposit or sediment from this nasty water cannot help but breed disease as the water from Bone Yard Hollow [this is where the Newton Cemetery is now located], which drains two slaughterhouses, finds an outlet in Rachel creek and is not an uncommon sight to see putrefying hoofs and horns of hogs and cattle. At different times after an overflow, even the decaying and foul-smelling heads of animals are seen. After the waters recede, this deposit is baked by the hot sun, and the odor that arises is fearful. This condition is certainly a menace to life and health.
Several cisterns of South Side residents were filled with filthy water and, of course, will have to be thoroughly cleaned before they can service. In the meantime, these unfortunate people, these taxpayers, will be compelled to use the river water furnished by the city, which is as bad and unfit for use as the water in Rachel creek.
The waterless night made a pond of Pine street, and all the people in the vicinity of Fifth and Pine were again damaged fully as much as on Wednesday evening. Chestnut and Quincy’s streets were flooded, the water covering the years of the residents.
Mrs. E. Miller telephoned the Irontonian office that her garden had been practically ruined. The Webber Bros., the East End Hardware company, Mr. Seiff, While Brothers, and Gilbert Marting, all of whom suffered Wednesday night heavily, were again damaged last night. A strange feature in connection with these floods, which tends to show an obstruction in the creek somewhere, is that there is no creek overflow from Center street down.
Many South Side residents believe that some kinks are obstructed under the stables or in the culverts. This theory seems plausible, for last night at Center street, there were not more than two three feet of water in the creek, while at Vernon street, just two blocks above, the water overflowed the banks of the creek and the adjacent lots. A careful examination of the creek should be made immediately, for the creek will overflow now with every rain.
The Board of Public Service should take steps today to see that the bed of Rachel creek is freed from every obstruction, great and small. This will at least help. The basement at Monnig’s livery stable had four feet of water in it last night.
At Webber Bros. greenhouse, five thousand carnations were planted, and two thousand ferns and many other platens were ruined. Mr. Weber had great difficulty rescuing his horse from the stable, just in the greenhouses’ rear. The water was halfway up to the horse’s back when he got to the stable.
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