George Memmert took shelter in an old Indiana barn as floodwaters rose around him.
Before long, the water had climbed so high that he was forced onto the pointed frame of a harrow to keep from drowning. Then another danger appeared.
Swarms of hungry rats followed him upward.
For twelve hours, Memmert clung to the barn with one hand and fought off the rats with the other, his feet freezing in the cold and his hands left bloody from their bites, until a railroad crew finally spotted his signal for help.
Man Gnawed By Rats
PRINCETON, Indiana. — Surrounded by water and attacked on all sides by swarms of hungry rats, George Memmert, aged 45 years, was rescued from the point of a harrow, where he had climbed to escape drowning.
Both feet and legs were frozen and his hands were bloody where they had been gnawed by the rats.
For hours he stood on the harrow, holding with one hand to the side of the barn, against which the harrow leaned, and with the other fighting off the rats.
He had sought shelter in an old barn on a knoll a few miles south of Oakland City. Before he realized his danger, water had risen several feet deep about the barn and inch by inch it climbed the walls of the building. Inch by inch, Memmert was forced to seek a higher position in the barn.
Finally he reached the top of the harrow. It was then that he discovered his companions. They swarmed after him up the harrow.
For twelve hours he occupied the position, when his signal for help was seen by a railroad crew, and they poled their improvised raft to the barn.
Source: The Washington Times. Washington, D.C. February 27, 1908.
