Show WIPED OUT BY FLOOD LOOD rj ir APPALLING DISASTER VISITS OREGON TOWN 1 wall of water sweeps down upon unsuspecting people five hun dred lives be ng lost from heppner oregon comes th the news of the most appalling disaster that ever visited that state when tae the little town of Hep heppner prier was almost 0 totally destroyed by a cloudburst and probably people drowned all telegraph and telephone wires are down and no accurate information can be received from the scene of the disaster but from the reports at hand it Is believed at least people have met death while the number may bas 1 considerably larger heppner is the county seat of mo r row county and had about 1200 1 innab stants k the calamity occurred at 6 A pj in when a wall of water ater twenty feet high rushed down the gulch in ahl which V hopp ner Is situated and carried before it the flood came with such suddenness that the Inh inhabitants abitanta were unable to seek places of safety and were carried down to death by the aw ful rush of water ater ok almost the entire residence portion of the town was wiped out but some of the business part which Is on higher ground escaped huge hug 0 b bowl wa ders weighing a ton were carried down f A oregon railway navigation abra pany party start started d a relief train from the dalles shortly after noon with a party of including three doctors four nurses fifty horses blankets and supplies of all kinds heppner is in the center of a large farming and stock growing country the town ia 19 built on the banks pt wil low creel in the neighborhood of the converging point of four other moun tain streams that drain a large area of rolling and hilly country that reaches from three to twenty miles to the foothills and along the course ol 01 willow creek itself for a distance of tient five miles to the base of the blue mountains ensile L s slie mattock a young man was r road e ro 4 of the day when the flood rs r ame he mounted a horse and rode speed down the can yon in f front of the rushing shing water to notify eople of lexington a small town U ine miles below he ile had to go over a rough and stony road and the night vias a darl and stormy his horse leaped over toul boulders ders sometimes nearly throwing the rider but yet not once losing his feet he arrived at fit lexington just a few minutes ahead of he the flood the people were warned ind and immediately left for the hillside n lot ot having time to take anything with them every person escaped but when he the flood had passed only two houses were standing Word has s been received from lone that hat coffins are needed at once at Hep eppner prier the weather Is hot and it t d THE LIGHT THAT ANEVER FAILS r dah V 4 1 by the torrent and many people were killed by being dashed against the rocky bluff early in the afternoon a thunder storm occurred covering a wide re glon ot of country and later a heavy rainstorm set in many of the small streams overflowing their banks in an incredibly short time bridges were swept away lil e straws and the dark ness riess of the night soon made the situa tion more appalling As soon as possible after the ter flood subsided the work of relief was commenced by the citizens of the town dozens of bodies were found lodged all along the bends of the stream and in several places were piled over one another over bodies have been recovered within the city limits the buildings which were nolt car ried away were moved from their foundations or toppled over hundreds of cattle horses sheep and hogs that had gone into the creek bottoms for water perished As soon as the news of th the 3 disaster reached the outside world relief was extended to the stricken town the Is necessary that the dead should be buried at once it Is estimated that the damage done to property alone was BOO |