e point in Johnstown opposite the Gautier
Steel Works, this road bed, ballast and all are gone. Only a few rails
may occasionally be seen in the river below.

Freaks of the Flood.

When the crash came in Johnstown the houses were crushed as easily by
the huge mass as so many buildings of sand, making much the same sound
as if a pencil were drawn over the slats of a shutter. Houses were torn
from their foundations and torn to pieces before their occupants
realized their danger. Hundreds of these people were crushed to death,
while others were rescued by heroic men; but the lives of the majority
were prolonged a few minutes, when they met a more horrible death
further down the stream.

There is a narrow strip extending from the club house to the point
which, in some singular manner, escaped the mass of filling that was
distributed on the flats. This strip is about 200 feet wide, 300 long
and from 3 to 20 feet deep. What queer turn the flood took to thus spare
this section, when the surrounding territory was covered with mud,
stones and other material, is a mystery. It is, however, one of the
remarkable turns of the flood.

The German Catholic Church is standing, but is in an exceedingly shaky
condition and may fall at any minute. This and Dr. Lohman's residence
are the only buildings on the plot standing between Main street, Clinton
street, Railroad street and the Little Conemaugh.

The destruction of life in this district was too awful to contemplate.
It is estimated that not more than one thousand people escaped with
their lives, and it is believed that there were fully five thousand
persons remaining in the district when the flood came down. The flood
wiped out the "flat" with the exception of the buildings noted. The
water was twenty feet high here and hurled acres upon acres of houses
against the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge which held it and dammed the
water up until it was forty feet high. The mass accumulated until the
weight became so great that it broke through the fill east of the bridge
and the debris started out of the temporary reservoir with an awful
rush.

It was something near five o'clock when the fill broke. The water rushed
across the Cambria flats and swept every house away with the exception
of a portion of a brewery. There is nothing else standing in this
district which resembles a house.

The Johnstown Post Office Building, with all the office money and
stamps, was carried away in the fl