Republican Herald

BY MAIL.

BLAIRSVILLE, Penn. Feb. 18.
The Flood. After twice witnessing the breaking up of the ice, we had formed the high expectations of an early opening of the canal navigation and a prosperous season for business. Our hopes have been blasted. Three days of heavy and almost incessant rain, swelled our waters to an unprecedented height higher from eighteen inches to three feet than the disastrous flood of July last. The public work, we fear, has sustained as much damage as on that occasion, but the loss of property has been much greater.
The dam and its embankments opposite this borough, stood perfectly firm until the water rose higher than the embankment. About 11 o'clock on the night of the 9th, this was discovered to be the case: in a few hours the whole of the embankment was swept away. The Lock slightly injured.
The damage done to the canal above this place we understand is not very great, but below it has been serious. These are the principal injuries done to the public works as far as we have heard. Accounts of private losses are coming in every hour.
Immense losses have been sustained by the proprietors of nearly all the salt works on both rivers. Messrs. Boggs, Hill, Talmage, Bigham, Keesler, Brememan, & Co. and Clossen, are the principal sufferers on Kiskiminetas. The loss of the first named gentleman alone is estimated at from 40 to 50,000 dollars. Thousands of barrels of salt have been destroyed, and many of the salt establishments completely demolished. Houses, stables, salt pans, fixtures and tools swept off by the resistless torrent.
With painful feelings we record also the loss of one human life. A man in the employ of the Messrs. Drums, who was endeavoring to get the horses out of the stable which was surrounded with water. He was drowned, and two of the horses.
Many distressing instances occurred to families compelled to fly from their habitations in order to escape a watery grave. Many have lost their houses and all their furniture. Property that could be rescued from the raging element was carried to the high ground where the owners were shivering over a cheerless fire in the open air, waiting with intense anxiety for the subsiding of the waters.
In some instances the rise was so rapid, that the inhabitants had scarcely time to save themselves; one case is related of a family on the shore of the Kiskiminetas, who had to open a passage in the roof of the house, and in that way release a sick woman, who had been confined only two days before, from her perilous situation.
Many of the inhabitants of Freeport were compelled to leave their houses. The Salt works above and below that place on the Alleghany, we are also informed, have been seriously injured.
P. S. We have just been told that there is but very little injury done to the Canal on the Alleghany line. It is confidently asserted by those who are judges of these matters, that the whole of the western division of the canal could be made navigable by the middle of April, if funds were immediately appropriated to make the repairs.

WHEELING, Feb. 15, 1832. The River is 36 feet above low water mark. There have been eleven steam-boat arrivals and eleven departures since our last.

GREAT AND DESTRUCTIVE FLOOD.
It falls to our lot to-day to record the most extensive and destructive flood which has occurred in the history of this country. The Ohio river commenced rising at this place on Thursday last. On Friday, soon after 12 o'clock, it began to overflow its banks. The water rose at the rate of 12 inches an hour till Saturday morning, when it began to rise less and less rapidly till 8 at night, when it came to a stand and soon after began to fall. The precise height of the river above low water mark has not yet been ascertained. It is known to have risen higher than it has risen since the memory of the oldest person now living, it being from 5 to 6 feet higher than it was at the memorable floods of '84 and '13. The destruction of property occasioned by this calamity is beyond calculation. The whole valley of the Ohio from its source to its mouth, within the reach of this tremendous freshet, must present one uninterrupted scene of waste desolation and distress. The farms on the rich bottoms have been swept of the fences, and dwellings, barns, corn and meat houses with their contents, and the stock.
All the towns and villages along the river have been wholly or in part inundated, and many of the buildings with all they contained have been carried away.
All the low part of our town has suffered severely it is impossible at this time to estimate the loss of property 42 houses, we are informed, mostly small frames, have been swept away from South Wheeling. The bridge over Wheeling Creek is gone 35 houses were counted passing by on the river from Saturday morning till 12 o'clock. A large warehouse filled with flour, lodged on the upper part of the Island. The river is now even with the banks. In our next we shall be able to give more particulars. Times.
A letter from Wheeling of the 18th, received in Philadelphia, says Accounts have already reached us, of whole families having perished.
The loss sustained above, in consequence of the flood, must be immense, as dwellings, barns, mills, lumber, flour, wheat, hay stacks, &c. have been floating down in great quantities for many hours. But great as has been the destruction of property above, it must be trifling compared to the ruinous effects of the rise below. The Columbus, which has just arrived, reports that not a vestige remains of many of the towns below. Marietta presents a most melancholy appearance. A large portion of the place has entirely disappeared, and in the higher parts of the town little more is to be seen than the tops of chimneys. Nothing could be learned respecting the safety of the inhabitants, as the boat could not effect a safe landing. The effect of this terrible calamity, will be sensibly felt by the mercantile portion of our citizens. Very many merchants bordering on the Ohio, who were doing a large and profitable business, have lost every thing, and are thus made bankrupt. But the most deplorable consequence, is the effect it will have upon the health of the country. The vegetable matter the river must deposit, will I fear, produce fevers of the most malignant kind.
The Cincinnati American says that the river was 54 feet above low water mark.