6

THE GREAT STORM.

The heavy storm which set in night before last still continues, but it has been raining since yesterday noon very steadily, melting and carrying off the eight inches of snow which had previously fallen, at a rapid rate, creating floods in all the canyons, and ding more or less damage, the most serious, however, being the washing away of the railroad between Steamboat and Reno, thus interrupting both mills, express, freight transportation and passengers--cutting off nearly all communication.

About Gold Hill,

The most damage was from steep banks or excavations for houses on the hillsides caving down, and leaky roofs. The town sewer carried off all surplus water, keeping any flood from rushing down Main street. The heavy bulkhead embankment in front of the row of houses on High street, back of the News office, gave way for the distance of about 100 feet, and the banks at the rear of Hank Smith's house and others at the lower end of town caved, but did no serious damage. Some of the high banks along the Crown Point switch of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad also caved down, and a strong force are now at work to clear the track. On the main track, in the deep cut at the south end of the Crown Point bridge, a huge body of rocks and earth slid down, requiring much work and some blasting to get it out of the way. The bridge itself is all right and no damage done by flood in Crown Point Ravine.

Down Gold Canyon

The flood rushes in pretty good volume, yet not sufficient to do any serious damage so far to either tailings, reservoirs, bridges, mills or anything else as far down as McCone's foundry, below Silver City. Below that point there is less chance for damage, except about Dayton, which place we hear is all right yet, although Carson river is pretty well up, and still rising.

At Virginia

No particular damage has been done by floods down the streets, but many of the roofs, including some of the new ones, leaked badly. This was, however, owing partly to not shoveling off the snow, allowing it to back up the water in the gutters between the roofs, or to block up the outlets provided for drainage. The roof of Jackson's millinery store leaked so badly as to damage his stock considerably, obliging him to remove from the premises this morning. The rear of O'Connell's grocery, on South C street--a big two-story rickety brick building, condemned by the Board of Aldermen as unsafe--started caving down, and O'Connell was obliged to remove his stock to another building. The rear of another store near O'Connell's was also caved in by a falling bank of earth. Other banks about the city also slid down, but with no serious damage resulting. The roof of Wells, Fargo & Co.'s building is found to leak badly, considerably damaging the upper rooms.

The Railroad.

The Virginia and Truckee Railroad, between here and Carson, is essentially demoralized by slides and caves, and no through trains are liable to run over it for the next two days, judging from present prospects. The cave in the Crown Point cut already mentioned was cleaned away, allowing the locomotive Nevada to pass down at 2:15 P. M. to work between here and the railroad scales below American Flat, where at the Lawson Tunnel a bad slide impedes the road. There is another heavy slide just south of the big railroad tunnel below American Flat, and another huge one completely blockades the Vivian Cut, near Carson river.

Other Localities.

We hear of no particular damage in Six or Seven-mile Canyons or elsewhere in this vicinity. The telegraph says it was raining all last night at Truckee, where the snow was four or five feet deep. If the rain continues much longer, great damage will surely be done by floods along Carson river and similar localities.