Show THOUSANDS OF I LIVES IN PERIL r Mississippi Missouri and Other I Rivers Away Out of a Their Banks MANY CITIES ARE INUNDATED Loss of Life Is Already Astonishing BELIEF THAT THE WORST IS TO COME Big Thaw All Through the flis j sissippi Valley Dangers Are Threatened From Every Side and Already It Has Been Considered Necessary That Governmental Gov-ernmental Aid Should Be Extended Extend-ed to the Suffering Thousands Many Towns in Wisconsin Illinois Illi-nois Kentucky Ohio Missouri Mississippi South Dakota Iowa and Other States the Victims of the Torrents Bage Elkhorn and Logan Rivers in Nebraska Very HighA Sugar Factory UnderWater Under-Water Publication of Newspapers Newspa-pers Suspended Because the Press Booms Have Been Turned Into Miniature LakesRailroads Are I Among the Greatest Sufferers Chicago March 20Three days of unusually warm weather accompanied accompan-ied by heavy rains extending over an exceptionally wide area of country have played havoc with things generally gener-ally throughout the Ohio Missouri and Mississippi river valleys and the worst is yet to come judging from the telegraphic tele-graphic reports The outlook is so gloomy for the residents of the threatened districts that the weather bureau has issued warnings telling them to flee from the floods that are coming It is considered an absolute certainty that the floods in the lower Mississippi valley during the next ten days will exceed in destructiveness those of any in the past I Many lives have been lost already through the breaking of levees and a 1 vast amount of property has been destroyed de-stroyed by the inundations of the low j lands ALL ARE RAMPANT While the Mississippi river has thus far broken its hounds only in the lower i valley the indications point to danger dan-ger in the upper valley as well The r Ohio river is also on the rampage and other important points along its course From all over the northwest come reports of disaster to the railways and the river towns Bridges and culverts have been washed out streams that were scarcely navigable have become raging floods too great to be confined by their banks rivers have swollen i until their waters are sweeping through the streets of a dozen or more I towns trains are delayed hours behind be-hind their schelulPS and in several places telegraphic communication has been temporarily cut off families have I been driven from their homes so suddenly 4 sud-denly that they had no time to save J their belongings from the flood farms I are hidden from sight in the bottomlands bottom-lands and the fires of many factories have been put out by the rising waters I WITH ALARMING RAPIDITY I The Missouri river fed by hundreds of swollen tributaries is rising with a rapidity that is alarming At Kansas City it has risen a foot a day for three days and when the accumulated waters reach there a great deal of damage is sure to follow fol-low All railroad traffic has been suspended sus-pended at Yankton S D on account of the high water and the washedout bridges and culverts Many Wisconsin towns are in the direst distress because of the floods 11 > Milwaukee La Crosse Richland Cen kDTh B scobel Bnraboo Oshkosh and Fon DJ Lac are the worst sufferers some of them being partly under water The situation is very serious at Sioux City la nearly every subu1 b being in updated Even bridge from Lemars to Sioux City has been carried away by the flood that is rushing down the big Sioux The water is five feet deep In the streets at Hawarden and the Northwestern railroad has lost nearly I every bridge between that town and I Huron The Milwaukee bridge at Sioux City over the Floyd river is expected to go with the flood and all trains have been abandoned MANY LIVES LOST Lives have been lost in great numbers num-bers the principal losses occurring in the lower Mississippi region The drowning of negroesmen women and J childrenhas been officially reported at Memphis until the list now numbers fjJ over 50 J > Dr J H Travis and Oliver itirKen berg lost their lives while trying to cross the Boone river at Eagle Grove la yesterday The most alarming reports come from the south along the Mississippi river Breaks have been made in the levees at several points some of which have been repaired in time to prevent any great damage Work is being carried on at the weak spots in 7 strengthening the levees but under the greatest difficulties on account of the softened earth The serious breaks are south of Memphis according to the I most reliable information to be obtained r ob-tained the points being remote from telegraph lines CROWDED WITH REFUGEES r Memphis Is being crowded with flood I refugees and a relief committee has a I herculean effort on its hands in taking tak-ing care of them Telegrams from j 4 points 65 miles south of that city have been received asking for steamers to rescue people left by the last trip of boats and two steamers started out on their mission of mercy The government is aiding the city in its resoue work A dispatch from I Washington asked the government engineer en-gineer to lend men and service to further fur-ther the protection of life and property I prop-erty Flood conditions are reported from Paducah Ky the country for five miles around that city being underwater under-water and every river and stream is swollen out of its banks The rain has been falling steadily for 48 hours and the reports from that region last night showed no cessation in the downpour The same kind of a story came from Pittsburg concerning the rainfall and the headwaters of both the Mononga hela and Allegheny rivers were rising steadily I is almost certain that the Ohio river will make trouble again for the people of Cincinnati and other river cIes The big thaw began last Tuesday morning all over the Mississippi valley val-ley For three days the temperature has been an average pf 6 degrees above I the normal stage and all the accumulated accumu-lated snow and ice of the western and northern states has been rapidly softening ening into water Rain has been falling fall-ing almost continuously in the central cen-tral Mississippi valley and intermittently intermit-tently in the other regions east of the I big river The area of the rainstorm yesterday was unusually wide extending from the Mississippi east to the coast and south as far as Florida Last night there was a prospect of clear weather at St Louis and the surrounding region re-gion |