d the
steam roads had poor success in getting trains out of the city.
Passenger trains were shut out of the city on the lines entering from
the West, and the passengers were forced to share the lot of the
homeless refugees.

By Thursday conditions in Indianapolis were such that Governor Ralston
was impelled to issue a proclamation asking for general relief. Five
hundred refugees from West Indianapolis were brought in small boats to
the Blaine Street wharf. Some of these had been clinging to trees for
hours. Others were taken from floating houses. Women with babies were
taken from the upper stories of houses. The refugees said that many had
been killed in Wolf Hall when the floors of that building gave way under
the strain of hundreds who had taken refuge there. Reports of death were
everywhere exaggerated, owing to the difficulty of accurate knowledge
and the shattered nerves of the sufferers.

SYSTEMATIC RESCUE WORK

Systematic rescue work was rendered more difficult by a storm of snow
and sleet. Tomlinson Hall, the great civic gathering place of the city,
was converted into a temporary hospital. The homeless men, women and
children from West Indianapolis, Broad Ripple and other suburbs
devastated by the White River were taken to the hall and were fed and
given medical attention. From Fort Benjamin Harrison 500 blankets and
500 mattresses and cots were obtained. Citizens' committees were in
charge of the work of distributing food and of raising money. It was
estimated that 10,000 persons in Indianapolis alone were in need of
immediate assistance.

The situation was rendered graver by the outbreak of contagious
diseases. Five women rescued and taken to Tomlinson Hall were suffering
from pneumonia, and cases of whooping cough and measles were discovered
among the refugees.

There were numerous cases of pneumonia. Measles and whooping cough
attacked the children. Nearly all of the doctors of the city volunteered
their services and asked for volunteer nurses.

Those suffering from contagious diseases were removed at once and
inspectors from the city board of health aided by a corps of nurses
detailed from various hospitals of the city set to work to prevent
exposure of the refugees to contagion and to take care of the other
sick.

THIEVES BENT ON PLUNDER

Thieves took advantage of the wrecking of lighting plants to plunder
deserted houses and even to rob survivors of the flood. In West
Indianapolis the vand