Show Fleeing t the Mountains GREENSBORO Pa May 31A report has just been received here that the greatest portion of Johnstown has been flooded and hundreds of lives lost Houses are floating about and the people who are free are panicstricken and fleeing to the mountains At a point near New Florence eighty fije persons have been seen floating down the river on drift wood One report comes that but two roofs of houses in Johnstown can be seen The Cavetovvn and New Florence bridges have been washed away and all the buildings along the Conemaugh between New Florence and Johnstown have been earned away The railroad towers cure abandoned bj the operators Pitcairu promptly took Superintendent Pitair prompty tok charge of the railroad and work and began lira dare the tracks and sending all possible aid to those in danger His prompt work 60 doubt saved many lives t I order t understand the nature of this calamity it is necessary to describe the respective locations cof the reservoir at Johnstown The reservoir lies about two and one half miles northeast of Johnstown and the site of the old reservoir which is one of the feeders of the Pennsylvania canal This sheet of water was formerly known as Connemaugh lake I is from two hundred to three hundred feet above I the level of Johnstown being in the moun talus I is about three and a half miles long and from a mile to a mile and quarter quar-ter wide and in some places it is a hundred feet in depth I hold more water than I any other reservoir natural or artificial i in the United States Tno like has been quadrupled in size bv artificial means and I was held in check bv a dam of from seven hundred to one thousand feet wide It was mnetj feet in thickness at the base J and in height 110 feet The top has a I breadth of over twenty feet Recognizing the menace which the lake presented to the I region below the South Fork club which owned the reservoir had the dam inspected bj the Pennsylvania railroad engineers once a month and their investigation showed that nothing less than some convulsion con-vulsion of nature would tear the barrier away The steady rams of the past fort eight hours have increased the volume of water mall the small mountain streams which were already swelled by the lesser lams earlier in the week The conductor of the eastbound New I York limited express who reported the safety of his turn said the report had reached him of the breaking of the dam General Maaer Pugh said he could not understand what was meant when he received re-ceived the dispatches announcing the damages to the track at Lilljs Such thin ah < e never happened before said he tonight and nothing short of a waterspout I water-spout could hive caused such damage Lilljs is a small mining town of about I I three 01 foul hundred inhabitants For 110 water to be enough to obstruct the issage of trains is unprecedented A dispatch has just been received bj mesa I me-sa ing the water is just rushing over the tracks at least live feet above the road bed I and this it is said could be brought about bj nothing short of a water spout I have a message from our operator Sang Hallow in which he says he saw bodies from Johns town floating down the river as is reported bj the Associated Press Dispatches received up to midnight at ihe offices of the Pennsylvania railroad indicate in-dicate that the situation is hourly growing worse and the effects of tho storm are now being felt in the middle division of that road extending between Hamsburg and AIL < oona Landslides and washouts ire reported re-ported ill along the line between these places Xo trains will be sent out west of riamsburg until the storm abates and the extent of the damage can be ascertainee The New York limited eastbound which is now at elmore had a naTO escape from destiuction The conductor reports that immediately after his train had passed over the bridge which spans the river at South Fork that that structure was swept away bj the rushing water Later The tricks west of Johnstown are at some points entirely gone and the road bed also The river for some distance dis-tance above the bridge is filled with buildings build-ings and driftwood fort feet high which is on fire and is likely to damage the bridge which is of stone The fire is beyond control con-trol at Johnstown From this information obtained at this time it is evident that something in the nature of a cloud burst must have been the culmination of the struggle of the water against the bank The difficulty of obtain ingdefimteinformation added tremendous to the excitement and the apprehension of the people woo had relates and friends at the scene of dissster |