This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: ghoecampbell Surnames: Berndt, Maynard, Bell, Morris, Brown, McGraw, Pennington, Kidwell, Sheehan, Robinson, Biggs, Coleman, Justice, Payton Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.ohio.counties.scioto/11377/mb.ashx Message Board Post: The following are taken from the above Colulmbus Citizen newspaper story, starting on Page 1. Captions from pictures on front page: "Della May Maynard, 9, young Portsmouth refugee, who brought her dog, Trixie, to Columbus by "hiding it under my coat from those railroad men." "Mrs. Ruby Bell gets a lunch and her son, Charles, 3, gets some milk on arrival at the Masonic Temple here. While Charles gulps his milk, another young refugee watches the cameraman." "Drinking water was a luxury in Portsmouth. On the train, Mrs. Esther Morris didn't wait for paper cups to be passed out, but drank from the lid of a box." "These boys had a good time singing on the the train, because Robert Brown decided his guitar was more important to save than anything else. The other boys are Oscar McGraw on the arm of the seat, and Carl Pennington." "First family to register here as refugee trains arrived, Mr. and Mrs. Walker Kidwell and four children. Mayor Gessman and Johnny Jones in background." Page 2: "At Portsmouth: Threat of fire arose to plague authorities in thei beleaguered city today as floating storage tanks spread a film of gasoline over wide areas in teh heart of the residential district. Strict ban on smoking and lighting of fires in the affected sections was ordered by City Manager Frank Sheehan as police, firemen and coast guards sought to anchor three large tanks which broke from their moorngs on the outskirts of the city." "Refugees: 18 Here Taken to Hospitals for Treatment" "By Arthur Robinson >From the nightmare of flood-stricken Portsmouth, the American Red Cross today had removed 546 persons to the comparative paradise of clean beds in a high and dry city with an ample flood supply. They are 546 persons to whom pure water had become a luxury; baths and clean clothes a dream; adequate meals something they prayed for. They are the first of the hard hit victimes of disaster-shaken Portsmouth to be evacuated in a gigantic plan to relieve that city of the burden of 5000 homeless floor sufferers. Today they were being cared for in the warm auditoriums of the Masonic Temple and the Broad-St. Presbyterian Church. Nineteen of the refugees were taken to hsoptials, Grant, Mt. Carmel and White Cross, to be treated for exposure, codls, influenza, cuts and bruises....." ...."Some had come from a Portsmouth school in which 175 had been jammed into one classroom- 16000 into a 10-room schoolhouse. The train was to most of them a miracle of comfort and convenience. On short water rations (two horus a day) most of them had not been able to wash even their faces and hands. Most were thirsty for fresh, cold water. Washroomson the trian were crowded. The ice water tanks ran dry before the train had rolled 30 miles. They talked of their hardships, of what they had lost. To many of them,the loss meant everything they had. Others had hopes of salvaging something when the mad Scioto and Ohio rivers get over their rampage. Mrs. Marm Brown, 80, saved only her pipe, on which she puffed rapidly but found little solace this morning. "Never been in a flood before in all my life," she said. "Alwlays lived off and on in Portsmouth and in the country. Just moved to Portsmouth again before Christmas. Wish I'd stayed in the country. My house is turned over by the flood, and I know there's nothing left." Mr. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Biggs said they moved thier belongings three times to the homes of freinds on higher ground- "but still we lost everything, because Old Man River kept right on coming up." Mrs. Blanche Coleman and her son at first did not believe the predictions of high waters. "We stayed in our home and moved everthing upstairs," Mrs. Coleman said. "But when a boat used our front porch for dock, we stepped out the upstairs window, walked across the porch roof, and got into the boat. Only the tiptop of our house is abouve the water now." Mrs. Sarah Justice and her grown son, Henry, have nothing to go back to. "Our home's been washed away," they said. Mrs. Justice was at home alone when the water started coming up. "I waded away from the house with water up to my waist," she said. "Henry waded home from work with water up to his chest and I wasn't there. We didn't find each other for four days. I didn't know how he was, and he didn't know about me. But we're together again now, thank God." On the day the water came up, Vernon Payton was with other WPA workers, piling sandbags on top the flood wall. Finishing work, he went home- and found water on his parlor floor. "Don't worry about anything but the family," he shouted to his 27-year-old wife. Mr. Payton is 32. "We just grabbed the six kids and a handful of bedding and ran for it," he related. "And all my wife and I have got now is our kids." The "kids" range from Billy, 9, to Jerry Lee, two months. With memories like these fresh in their minds, the unpleasantness of their crowded school roooms in Portsmouth and only a dismal prospect for the future, the 546 came to the Columbus train like beatne people, as if to say: "What next?" Their miery was greater because many were suffering the after-nausea of anti-typhoid serum injections. One doctor and three nurses were on the train with 28 special deputies to help the victims. The physician and nurses had many callers." "No one is really ill," said Dr. Albert L. Berndt, whose own office is buried under water. "They are all sick at heart. Their nerves are gone. They think I can do something for them." But medicine is not made that cures sick hearts. No serum has been found that restores confridence..." Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.