Show j 1 t fG- fG s tI f I t 17 c r SHAWNEETOWN J DIREFUL AT 1 TAXI of ot Life Ute an Property Beyond Coa- Coa I rf 1 jecture Situation Growing droning Worse Vone J Ridgeway April 5 Shawnee Shawnee- Shawneetown a to town n swept flood-swept is threatened with I total destruction Innumerable more r Jives lives may be lost another nother day has passed Hundreds k of people hav havo not yet been rescued from the houses in which they were imprisoned are still in the tree tops and still others are afloat on the waste of the tile torrent Late reports say the tho entire levee lavee will willbe be destroyed and every frame house in town is ie certain to be dashed to pieces The wind Is blowing thirty five miles an hour with rain that cuts like glass Great fear is expressed for the rescue force now in Shawneetown as a. nothing can resist the power of the waves dashing ten feet high under the impetus of tl the o gale If the storm does j not lot cease the entire town is it doomed as well as most of orthe the people who have s snot not yet reached the hilltops This in information information information in- in t formation comes by telephone from the temporary station on the hillsides west of There is no means of estimating the number drowned dro All the relief work vork is devoted to rescuing people from the tops of trees brick houses and high knolls The rhe loss of life is largely among among- colored people whose light light frame structures structure gave way at the time time when the wall of water struck them giving them thom no chance to es es- cape About 5 6 o'clock last evening th tM thi levee on the north side of town gave away at the north end of Market street near the court house home An opening opening opening open open- ing ten feet ride oride ide was at first made but it quickly y spread to twenty and a awall awall awall wall of water ten or fifteen feet high poured through the main street sweeping every thing before it About fifty small frame houses along the line Hue of the levee to the south sonth were crushed like toys and none of the occupants most of whom were poor colored folks escaped Those living in the more substantial houses managed to climb climb to second and third stories where they clung for hours through the chilly night Houses in the western vestern part of the town did not at once feel the effect effect ef ef- feet of the flood and residents made hurried steps for safety most of them fleeing to the top of the leveo levee on the tha south side of the town A large number num ber her also reached the little hills which are a mile from town tO and from there saw their property crumble in the muddy waters Wh When n daylight came camo this morning the streets were Vere full of water to a depth of ten or twelve feet Only the most substantial buildings in inthe inthe the central business district remain standing Water is everywhere |