Sheffield Flood
Sheffield Sunday evening
«Return(BY ELECTRIC AND INTERNATIONAL TELEGRAPH.)
Every additional inquiry made into the circumstances of this appalling calamity shows that it has been much more disastrous than was at first anticipated. It is now estimated that the loss of life will exceed 250, and that the value of the property destroyed exceeds half a million.
From Bradfield, where the reservoir burst, down the course of the rivers for 12 or 14 miles the country is laid waste. The reservoir covered an area of 76 acres, and would hold 114,000,000 cubic feet of water. The embankment, which crossed the end of the valley, was an enormous erection, with an average height of 85 feet, and 40 feet in thickness. It was 300 yards long.
Between Matlock and Hillsborough, a distance of four miles, the greatest loss of life has been caused. Within this tract whole rows of houses have been swept entirely away, in three of which alone there were 25 lives lost. In the opposite row the whole of the inhabitants were drowned, and scarcely any of their bodies have been discovered. The flood seems to have swept off everything before it, from the confluence of the Loxley and the Revilin to the Don. Between Wardsend and Sheffield on the Don, the bodies were seen lying in the mills and the mud and ruins. There were 14 in one place, 10 in another, and 13 in a third.
At Neepsend - 900 acres of gardens were devastated, and whole families were swept away. An official report just received states that 156 bodies have been already recovered; 70 have been identified. Large numbers are not yet found. Bodies have been discovered as far down the river as Doncaster.
Along the banks of the river, between that town and Sheffield, the scene of the inundation was visited by vast crowds on Sunday; the police and a strong military guard acted for the maintenance of order and the security of property. A movement for a general subscription was immediately commenced, and a meeting will be held tomorrow.
The inhabitants of the submerged districts have lost everything, and an appeal for instant help will be made; hundreds have nothing left of their property but their night-dresses.
The inquests were opened on Saturday night, and then adjourned for ten days. There were 90 bodies in the workhouse, and the coroner said he had been informed there had been nearly 200 found. He referred to a statement, which is generally made and believed, that, in consequence of the dangerous state of the reservoir, warning was sent to the inhabitants of the valley as far as Damflask, and that only a few lives were lost there, but that the warning was not sent to the thickly peopled districts below.
A strict inquiry will be necessary to ascertain if the accident could have been prevented. Continued »
