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pounds of ham were cooked. Before night two steamers, with over thirty
tons of cooked and prepared provisions, twenty-two tons of clothing, several
thousand dollars in money, and boats with crews, etc., were under way for the
devastated city. (pp. 241-42)
Conditions did not improve in the following weeks. California's legisla-
ture, unable to function in the submerged city, i nally gave up and moved to
San Francisco on January 22 to wait out the l oods.
Sacramento remained under water for six months. Brewer visited the city
on March 9, 1862, and described the scene:
Such a desolate scene I hope to never see again. Most of the city is still under
water, and has been there for three months. A part is out of the water, that
is, the streets are above water, but every low place is full—cellars and yards
are full, houses and walls wet, everything uncomfortable. No description
that I can write will give you any adequate conception of the discomfort
and wretchedness this must give rise to. I took a boat and two boys, and we
rowed about for an hour or two. Houses, stores, stables, everything, were sur-
rounded by water. Yards were ponds enclosed by dilapidated, muddy, slimy
fences; household furniture, chairs, tables, sofas, the fragments of houses,
were l oating in the muddy waters or lodged in nooks and corners—I saw
three sofas l oating in dif erent yards. h e basements of the better class of
houses were half full of water, and through the windows, one could see chairs,
tables, bedsteads, etc., al oat. h rough the windows of a schoolhouse I saw
the benches and desks al oat. Over most of the city boats are still the only
way of getting around.
It is with the poorer classes that this is the worst. Many of the one-story
houses are entirely uninhabitable; others, where the l oors are above the water
are, at best, most wretched places in which to live. h e new Capital is far
out in the water—the Governor's house stands as in a lake—churches, public
buildings, private buildings, everything, are wet or in the water. Not a road
leading from the city is passable, business is at a dead standstill, everything
looks forlorn and wretched. Many houses have partially toppled over; some
have been carried from their foundations, several streets (now avenues of
water) are blocked up with houses that have l oated in them, dead animals lie
about here and there—a dreadful picture. I don't think the city will ever rise
from the shock, I don't see how it can. (p. 249)
Charitable organizations, such as the Saint Mary's Sisters of San Francisco,
scouted the disaster areas by boat to aid the l ood victims, delivering the
injured and homeless to their hospital in San Francisco. h ey also provided
refuge for the many orphans whose parents were killed in the deadly l oods.
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