OCR Text |
Show LOSS BY GREAT FLOOD Hundreds of Farmers Aro Made Penniless. DEVASTATION IS APPALLING Father of Waters Now Covers Hun-dteds Hun-dteds of Miles of Farms nnd the Oreatest of Crops Ever Known In Iovva, Illinois and Missouri Are Under Water Deep Bnough to Float ft Steamboat Caieful Estimates l'lnce the Financial Loss nt Six Millions of Dollars. KrOKUK, 11 Julv :i ntploratlon of tho flooded district of the Mississippi liver fiom Keokuk south shows conditions con-ditions besond the npprcclitlon or reallialloii nf nns but people nf lone expcilence with the rather of Waters In Its ineist destructive mood Iho slluntlnn is crowlnc worse hniirls Theie Is nbsolutels not Ihe slightest chance nf stopplnu the flood which Is n doicn times the most costly nf nns In the history of the Brent liver above St I-ouis HUNiim.ns madi: itn'smm: Ihe correspondent nf the Associated Press went all over tho worst iliuiinR.il aien todas In the steamer Mlver I'res. cent and found evorywheie the ureal-eat ureal-eat eiops ever known under water deep enmiKh to float a steamboat I'eoplo nt tho river cities Klvc an Immense mass of details till to be Kcncrnllied In losses intKreKntliiK ninny millions of collars llundieds ot farmers rich ten class sko are penniless and homeless, and hundreds nic watching nnd prns-Iub prns-Iub that the ureal levees which nre the onls bulwark nirulnst missions of losses and mans cases of penury will hold. BIX MILLION ISOLLAHS LOSH. Careful estimates Indicate the loss up to today at about six million clollarn. with evers project that It will be Increased I13 two or three millions by tho llse above which has not $et reached the lower stretches nf the river Most of this loss Is on the Missouri Mis-souri side of the liver betwen Keokuk and Hnnnlbnl. ONI! TOWN Hl'nMIHtOEI). I'nsslnff the vatcr-lipped lumber Sards of Keokuk, the mouth of the Ilea Moines river Is seen to bo neirly two miles wide Noriuallj thero nre two mouths and 1111 Island delta covered cov-ered with fmins which ate now undei MKlnic torrents Alexnndrla was pro-lected pro-lected to tho last by the llKSPtlau levee, iho bienklna- of which would send four feet of wnter all nvet the town. (IreBory Is submerged except the white church In which services were held todas. The congregation from the country reached the house of worship bs the lallroad. which Is still above the Hood In n waste of waters miles wide Other towns and cities on the Islands are besond the dancer line. INLANDS HAVJ3 DISArPRAIlIU). Immense fields arc seen In a great lake with tho shore line visible only with a Klaus, where the IiIrIi bluffs bound the bottoms Islnnds dntttnc the river at Its iiormnl stage have disappeared dis-appeared except for tho tops of trees or fringe nf high shore willows protruding pro-truding Bllghlly like green coral rei fs. Occaslonalls a house is seen, but generally gen-erally only roots protrudo to mark the centers of fatms of corn. On the edge nf the flood corn rradualiy rises on a slope, tasseled tops, cars and stalks appearing ap-pearing In order. In a few hnl tuti-merged tuti-merged fields Is shocked wheat In the backcrouml. COIIN CHOP ItL'INni). The rivet Is live to ten miles wide nnd another Breat lake Is added to tho t,coBraphy All this territory was practically prac-tically rnvered with corn 11 fortnight ago, estimated to make 73 to 100 bushels bush-els In the ncre. Previous estimates o tho loss have been Brcntly Increased by tho prospective sleld being found much greater than ever before, experts ex-perts telling of many farms that were good for 10O bushels to tho ncre. The loss Is total llxpeilenro Is that If wn-ter wn-ter stays forty-eight houis even four Inches under the surface It kills corn, and every stalk wet by waves perishes fiom rotting roots Much of that back from tho channel looks to the casual observer as ir It would recover when the flood subsides but a month will see It all brown nnd senr. ri.ooD a TnnMKNDOiis o.vn The height of the flood Is Indicated by nn accident at Lagrange. The steamboat steam-boat vvnrehouse was well up from the river and high A strong current nnd gale caused thn pilot to makn nn Imperfect Im-perfect landing nnd n cornice of the roof of tho warehouse waB torn by the tor-ward tor-ward guards of tho Silver Crescent. Tho river Is rising all the time, six Inches during the clay In an Immense area of 700 square miles and the worst to como by the extension nf tho flooded nien by the water passing levees it is now topping i.nvnus ci.osi:ly watchhd The chief flood thus far Is on the Missouri side fiom Keokuk to Louisiana, Louisi-ana, with Canton nnd West Qulncy as centers of the country hurt worst. On the Illinois side there nre thrco continuous con-tinuous levees for forty miles, from Wnrsavv to Qulncy, ubove the water and nie thus far safe but farmers are afraid of a crevasse from muskrnt hills and evers rod of the lodoubt Is watched day and night The breaking of these levees would flood 17 squaro miles In Illinois and destroy two to three million mil-lion dnllais' worth of corn The levees below Qulncy are in tho samo situation except that they aro lower and less "rm pensn or di:solation. Oppoilte Qulncy, In Missouri, Is still nnolher center of special devastation which Is appalling North twelve miles from Logiange and south to Ilolton large prairies aro well under water leaching from the Illinois bluffs to the Missouri bluffs, at least ten miles Levees hastily thrown around farms have dlsapreared in a lerco current rushing from above through the draw of the Hurllngton route bridge, carrying carry-ing everything before it Lone Treo Pinlrle, tne miles square. Is deserted, the population having fled to Qulncy and the bluffs on the Mlssouil side, from which they watch the complete destruction W1II1AT WASIinn AWAY Fnblus river, fifteen miles nbovo Hannibal, Han-nibal, la high, and furnishing a route for the Mississippi to flank and reverse tlie levees, as Iho Foi. river does toity miles up tho Mississippi This llnnk-Ing llnnk-Ing movement makes even tho highest Missouri levees Ineffective. Around Ln Motte, Baverton, Husch btntlon, Clemens Ashburn north nf Hannibal, there Is more wheat than at other places and nil In the shock Is mostls washed away. The chief eiop there Is corn however, unci there is tho same ruin as at other places. |