but a few blocks before disintegrating.

Incidents without number were narrated of persons in the flooded
districts waving handkerchiefs and otherwise signaling for aid, being
swept away before the eyes of the watchers on the margin of the waters.
Many of the rescue boats were swept by the current against what had been
fire plugs, trees and houses. They were crushed. Canoes and rowboats
shared the same fate. What life existed in the district which the water
covered was in constant danger and helpless until the flood subsided.

Bodies were found as far out as Wayne Avenue, which is more than a mile
from the river. At Fifth and Brown Streets the water reached a height of
ten feet. At least one of those drowned met death in the Algonquin
Hotel.

The rumor that the St. Elizabeth Hospital with 600 patients had been
swept away, which gained circulation Tuesday night, proved to have been
false.

Although it was impossible to reach the hospital, field glasses showed
that the building was still standing. The water was not thought to be
much above the first floor of the building, and it was hoped that the
patients had not suffered.

Dayton was practically cut off from wire communication until late in the
afternoon. Then two wires into Cincinnati were obtained and operators
plunged into great piles of telegrams from Dayton citizens, almost
frantic in their desire to assure friends outside of their safety.
Operators at opposite ends of the wires reported that thousands of
telegrams were piled up at relay offices. These were from people anxious
over the fate of Dayton kinsmen.

Two oarsmen who braved the current that swirled through the business
section of the city reported that the water at the Algonquin Hotel, at
the southwest corner of Third and Ludlow Streets, was fifteen feet deep.
From windows in the hotels and business buildings hundreds of the
marooned begged piteously for rescue and food. The oarsmen said they saw
no bodies floating on the flood tide, but declared that many persons
must have perished in the waters' sudden rush through the streets.

Oarsmen who worked into the outskirts of the business section at night
reported that two hundred and fifty persons marooned in the Arcade
building and two hundred imprisoned in the Y. M. C. A. building were
begging for water.

"SEND US FOOD!"

Before the terror of fire had dwindled, gaunt hunger thrust its wolfish
head on the scene. Famine became an immediate possibi