| Show forecasting BIG FLOODS most destructive inundation for fifty years accurately foretold by we ither bureau early in 1897 telegrams were posted in a hundred cities along the 11 warning the inhabitants to pre pare tor tremendous floods these warnings says J E in the technical world went so far as to name the exact date sometimes two or three weeks off when the coming flood would be at its height and even stated the number of feet above low water mark the waier would reach they were signed by the ahlet of the weather bureau at washington the inhabitants of cairo new orleans and of the towns and cities be tween read these sensational messages looked out at the shrunken father of waters flowing calmly along within its banks and sniffed contemptuously they were not going to be scared by a lot of tool scientists in washington only a comparatively few timid people were at all alarmed or even impressed these went so far as to move their valuable property up onto high ground and were well laughed at for their pains even the newspapers took the matter up and scolded the govern ment tor allowing the weather bu reau to frighten peerlessly neer lessly a lot of silly old women finally the date et tor the coming of the flood arrived and with it came the water the greatest flood for than halt a century swept down the mississippi and overflowed more than 13 square miles of land the main streets of a hundred towns and cities were under water and at some points practically the only property not dam aged was that of the ridiculed people who had heeded the despised warning of the weather bureau and it was es timatea that property to the value of 15 was saved which would certainly have been destroyed but tor the advance notice which its owners had been wise enough to heed |
