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.

GIRL DROWNED AT FRANKLIN

One death and extensive property damage were caused in the vicinity of
Franklin by the flooded condition of the Allegheny River and French
Creek.

Every one in the flooded district was ordered to extinguish all fires,
as benzine from the Titusville refineries was floating on the rising
waters.

GRAVE SITUATION OF PITTSBURGH

In Pittsburgh the flood situation became serious by the evening of March
26th, and continued to grow rapidly worse. The gauge at Point Bridge
shewed twenty-six feet at eight o'clock, four feet above the danger
point, and the rivers were rising steadily. Rain was falling throughout
the western watershed, and every stream in western Pennsylvania assumed
the proportions of a raging torrent.

In the Pittsburgh district 100,000 were idle, the workmen having been
driven from the manufacturing plants by high waters. Ten miles of
streets were converted into canals. In parts of the North Side the
streets were under twelve feet of water. The policeboats patrolled the
flooded district, carrying coal and food to families marooned in the
upper floors of their homes.

Pittsburgh's suburbs down the Ohio were all partly inundated. Ambridge,
Woodlawn, Sewickley, Coraopolis and McKees Rocks residents were forced
to desert their homes or take to the upper floors.

Downtown the pumps were working in most of the hotels, theatres and
office buildings. Business was nearly at a standstill. Hundreds of
thousands of dollars worth of store goods was ruined. The Exposition
Music Hall was holding four feet of water.

No trains were running to the flooded regions. At least a score of
railroad bridges had been destroyed, and mile