DAMAGED TRACKS AND OVERTURNED ENGINES, BELT RAILROAD, INDIANAPOLIS, IND. (Copyright, 1913, by H. H. Coburn Co., Indianapolis, Ind.) ANOTHER VIEW SHOWING OVERTURNED ENGINES ON BELT RAILROAD, INDIANAPOLIS, IND. (Copyright, 1913, by H. H. Coburn Co., Indianapolis, Ind.) SECTION OF BELT RAILROAD, INDIANAPOLIS, IND., WHERE FOUR ENGINES WERE OVERTURNED BY THE WASHING AWAY OF THE TRACKS (Copyright, 1913, by H. H. Coburn Co., Indianapolis, Ind.) Lodges of the Brotherhood of Locomotive divisions and lodges were held-one on Firemen and Enginemen and the Broth- the afternoon of April 6th and one on erhood of Railroad Trainmen in Indian- the evening of April 20th, for the purapolis organized a relief committee to pose of promoting the work of relief, the care for their members. The committee raising of funds with which to carry on is officially titled The Associated Railroad the work, etc., etc. During these meetTrain Service Organizations Relief Com- ings several speakers emphasized the mittee. John O'Mara of the O. R. C. necessity of establishing a permanent was elected Chairman of the Committee, local "calamity fund" for the immediate T. L. Haddon of the B. of R. T. Vice and ample relief of members who might Chairman and the Editor and Manager become the victims of any calamity such of the Magazine Secretary-Treasurer. as earthquakes, cyclones, floods, fires, WELCOME BOOMS OF PILE DRIVER HERALD WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION Vandalia pile driver and construction crew rebuilding road at Indianapolis, Ind. (Photo by H. H. Coburn Co., Indianapolis, Ind) MUNICIPAL UTILITIES OUT OF Our Magazine office was the committee's etc., etc. And a resolution was adopted headquarters and the center from which providing for the establishment of such all railroad relief work was conducted. a fund. Emergency relief was extended immediately and the work of refurnishing the homes of the sixty or more flood victims belonging to the three orders, supplying new bed clothing, etc., and other household effects proceeded swiftly and systematically until all had been well cared for. The funds for the carrying on of this relief work were raised locally, no appeal being made to outside sources. Two union meetings of the various In addition to the loss of service of the great interstate public utilities some of the municipal utilities of Indianapolis were entirely out of commission, the people being thus brought to a full realization of what they mean to the life of a city. For nearly a week the street cars were stopped, the company's power house being flooded, and the people were forced to take advantage of improvised conveyances of all kinds which while the heavy rains lasted proved, to say the least, decidedly uncomfortable. Of all municipal utilities that which probably means more than any other to the people of a city is its water supply and for the seven days the pumping station of the Indianapolis water works was shut down the city was entirely at the mercy of any fire that might have started-its health also being service, such as it is, the people are compelled to pay "all the traffic will bear." Hamilton, Ohio. In the matter of loss of life Hamilton, Ohio, suffered more severely than any other city affected and evidently, in proportion to its size, in property loss also. (The 1910 census gives Hamilton's population as 35,279.) A wire received from the Mayor of Hamilton as we go to press states that one hundred and fortythree lives were lost, eighty-nine bodies One of the worst sections of the flood. To the north are residences and Mercy Hospital, surrounded by water. Far to the north is the burning Champion Coated Paper Mills, the smoke from which so fogged the air that the big plant can not be seen endangered because of lack of sanitary facilities. In a flood ten years ago the pumping station of the Water Works Company was inundated and the city's water supply cut off. The danger of this condition of affairs failed however to impel that corporation to adopt precautions against a recurrence of such conditions, and it is doubtful that even with this second warning such steps will be taken, for the reason that the Indianapolis Water Works is owned by private individuals and the primary purpose of its existence is the creation of dividends rather than to furnish the people of the city with a continuous and reliable water supply for domestic purposes and fire protection. For this water (Courtery Cincinnati Post) having been found up to April 25th. The property loss of Hamilton is estimated at eleven million five hundred thousand dollars. All of the shops and factories, large and small, in the north end of Hamilton, in which thousands of men are employed, were closed down. The basements of most of the downtown business houses were filled with water, the newspaper plants were out of commission, the City Building, including police headquarters, was abandoned, and hundreds of homes inundated. The police and Mayor were driven out of their headquarters in the City Building at Monument avenue and Market street in the midst of directing the relief ONE OF THE DEATH STREETS IN SOUTH HAMILTON, OHIO (Courtesy Cincinnati Post) work for Peck's addition, which was the first section of the city to be flooded. When the water burst into the city from the north it was joined at Market street by the overflow from the reservoir, and it was this combined flood that drove the police into the street and for a time suspended even the work of relief. The river rose with such rapidity that, even though, as in the case of other flooded cities people had been given warning, it caught them in their homes, and before long the flood was sweeping through the town carrying ruin and devastation in its wake. One of the saddest features of the Hamilton flood was the inability of the police, firemen and other city employes and volunteers to rescue victims whose loud cries for assistance could be heard from all directions. Crowds of people took refuge on the roofs of the court house and other of the large buildings. Thirty dwellings were carried down stream from a section north of Hamilton. Every house was occupied with girls and women and children whose pitiful shrieks could be heard above the rush of the water. Those who heard them, however, were powerless to give aid. All Miami River bridges except the Coke Otto railroad structure were destroyed, entailing enormous loss to the railroads, the city and county. WASHOUT ON C. & M. V. DIVISION, PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD, CIRCLE VILLE, OHIO, MARCH 25, 1913 |