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Show WIPED OUT BY FLOOD APPALLING DISASTER VISITS OREGON TOWN. Wall of Water Sweeps Down Upon Unsuspecting People, Five Hundred Hun-dred Lives Belncj Lost. From Hoppnor, Oregon, comes tho news of tho most nppalllng disaster that over visited that- stoJtr when tho little town of Hoppnor wns almost totally destroyed by a cloudburst and probably GOO pooplo drowned. All telegraph and telophono wires aro down and no accurato Information can bo received from tho scono of tho disaster, hut from tho reports nt hand It Is bollovcd at least BOO pooplo havo met death, whllo tho number may bo considerably larger. Heppncr Is tho county scat of Morrow Mor-row county nnd had about 1,200 Inhabitants. Inhab-itants. Tho calamity occurred at o p. m when a wall of water twonty foot high rushed down tho gulch In which Heppncr Hepp-ncr Is sltuatqil and carried everything beforo It. Tho flood enmo with such suddenness that tho Inhabitants, woro unnblo to seek places of safety and woro cnrrled down to death by tho awful aw-ful rush of water. Almost tho entlro rcsldenco portion of tho town was wiped out, but somo of tho business part, which is on higher ground, escaped. Huge bowl-dors bowl-dors weighing a ton woro carried down by tho torrent, and many pcoplo wero killed by being dashed against tho rocky bluff. Early In tho afternoon a thunderstorm thunder-storm occurred, covering a wldo ro-glon ro-glon of country, nnd later a heavy rainstorm set In, many of tho small streams overflowing their banks In an Incredibly short time. Drldgca were swept away llko straws jind tho darkness dark-ness of tho night soon mado tho sltua. tlon more appalling. As soon as possible aftor tho tor-rlblo tor-rlblo flood subsided tho work of rollcf was commenced by tho cltizons of tho town. Dozens of bodies wero found lodged nil along tho bends of tho stream, and In several places wero pllod over ono another. Over 200 bodies havo been recovered within tho city limits. Tho buildings which wero not carried car-ried away wero moved from their foundations or toppled ovor. Hundreds of cattlo, horsos, sheop and hogs that had gono Into tho creek bottoms for water porlshod. As soon as tho news of tho dlsastor reached tho outsldo woild rollof was oxtondod to tho stricken town. Tho Oreon llalluny & Navigation company com-pany staruM a rr-iirf train from Tho Daijcs shortly after noon, with a party of ,1 a lnclu,,lnK tlire doctors, four nurses, fifty h. rsos, blankets and supplies of all kinds. Heppncr ii in the center of a largo farming nnd stock growing country. Tho town Ib hunt on the banks of Willow Wil-low crook In tho neighborhood of tho converging prim of four other mountain moun-tain stieams that tlialn a largo area of, rolling and hilly country that reaches from throe to twenty mlloi to tho foothills nnd along tho courso ot Willow crook Itself for a dlstanco of twenty-fho mllrs to tho baso of tho Dluo mountains Leslie Mnttork a young man, was tho hoFo of the tiny. Whon tho flood first, came hp mounted a horso and rodo nt breakneck speed down tho canyon can-yon In front of tho rushing wntor to notify tho people of l.olngton, n small town nine miles bolow. Ho had to go cer a rough ami stony road, and tho nljflit wat dark and stormy His horso reaped o t r bouldors, sometimes nearly throwing tho rider, hut yet not onco losing his feet. Ho arrived nt Ioxlngton Just a few minutes ahead of tho flibd The pcoplo woro warned and Immediately left for tho hillside, not lining time to tnko anything with them. i?cry person oscnpod, hut whon tho flood had passed only two houses woro standing. Word has been received from lone that 303 coffins aro needed nt onco nt Heppncr. Tho weathor Is hot, and It THE LIGHT THAT NEVER FAILS. is necessary thnt tho dead should bo burled nt onco. It Is estimated that tho damago dono to property alono wns $500,000. |