Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-06-27
MILLIONS SWEPT AWAY.
THE HAVOC OF THE WESTERN
FLOODS INESTIMARLE

n Shght FAN I'm the River Gives Faint
encouragement, but the Water on the
bottom Lands Still Rising-More
LeYees Carried Away by the water.
ST. LOUIS, June 26.-On this side of the
river the whole of the levee is now sinh
merged, and in the lowest places the first
noors Of stores are flooded from few in
ches to couple of feet deep. Business in
the houses on the river front is suspended.
except IN two or three groggeries, where
scanolds have been built and whisky is
stlll dispensed for five cents drink.
Inc Chicago and Alton in connection
win the indianapolis and st. Louis and
i" aDash roads are driving piles in the
break in their track above Venice. and if
is expected that they will have a GOOD
tTestle across the gap by Wednesday. and
their trains running again.
large number of farmers and land
owners on the American Bottom and resi-
dents OF Venice and other towns between
East st: Louis and Mitchell held a meet
ing at Venice yesterday afternoon and
Many OF the people who make this appeal
are camPed IN tents on the ridges sur
rounded by water Orin the open air on the
DluH beyond. Many are also housed in
oOX cars on the railroad tracks. and a
good many OF them will be Obliged to be
led: Their crops are totally DESTROYED,
anu Ihey are destitute of money and the
East Carondelet and Cahokia grows worse
daily The water covers the whole of
that section OF the country. The rail-
roads which have lost their tracks have
abandoned the ferryage system between
mere and Alton and have arranged with
the Nandalia Road to run their passenger
tralns. The indianapolis and St. Louis
Road VIII send their trains to Efing-
nam, thence to MaltOOn. The Wabash will
use the Vandalia Road to AltamOnt. where
IL VIII take its own track and the Chicago
ana Alton, and the Chicago, Burlington
ana quincy Will run to SmithbOrO, where
they Will connect with their own roads
All the other Eastern lines are using
their own tracks and all the Western
hoads are getting trains through with
good success. The Vandalia's track.
about which there has been some appre-
hensl0n, is still two feet above the water.
Adylces from Chester, Randolph coun-
ty, Illinois, say that st. Mary's levee, op-
posite that point, in Missouri, broke sun
day night and st. Mary's bottom, large
wheat raising region, is nearly flooded
Two thousand acres of wheat are under
water on this bottom alone. From Ches-
SOuLnMdIU.
Illinois side, a distance of TWENTY-FIVE
miles, with an average width of ten miles,
and embracing an area of $50 miles, near
ly all is submerged and the crops are de-
stroyed, entailing great loss.
North of Chester, nearly all the way up
to st. Louis the bottom is said to be inun-
dated, except here and there on a high
ridge, which is out of the water. Thou
sands of families are either living
Hnndnd hnx An1
to the bluffs for safety. The
loss to crops and to general
farm property is almost incalculable.
The American Bottom extends from
Alton to Cairo, something over 800
miles, a large part of which is pretty
thickly settled. All this great track is
subject to overtlowing in freshets like the
present.
The town of st. Mary, on the Missouri
side of the river, is partly submerged, and
Kaskaskia, on the Illinois side, is to be
abandoned, the people there having sent to
Chester fora steamboat to carry them
away. A levee three miles above Cape
Girardeau, Missouri, about fifty miles
above CailO, and another at Prices
landing, twenty-five miles down the river,
broke Sunday night and a large volume
OF water rushed over the bottom. Other
points on both sides of the river below
here, particularly on the Illinois side, are
about in the same condition as above
described, and it may be said that pretty
much all the bottom land between here
and Cairo has more or less water on it.
Tonight the river is falling slowly in
East st. Louis, ON the river side of the
Chicago and Alton track. but is still
rising out on the bottoms east of that en-
bankment. The fall is small, but suffi-
cient to create strong, hopeful feeling
that the worst is past. There is hardly
a doubt that the aggregate loss In the
bottom between Alton and Cairo Will
run into millions, and this is not half the
story, for nearly as much bottom lands
skirts the river on the Missouri side, most
of which has been Overflowed and hun
dreds of thousands of acres along the
Missouri river, and its tributaries be-
tween here and Kansas City now lie un-
der water, and the crops thereon are de-
strOyed.
ATCHIsON, KANSAS, June 26.-The
Omaha extension of the Missouri Pacific
Railroad is running only to Hiawatha.
The Atchison and Nebraska Road has not
sent out regular trains for ten days.
They are not likely to run for
two weeks to come. The St.
Joe and Western track was almost
entirely destroyed, for sixty or seventy
miles hardly a single bridge or embank-
ment being left. 1t is doubtful if it will
be in running order for two weeks. Good
Judges estimate the damage to all the
roads centering at this city at $5OO,0Oo.
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, June 26.-A great
rain fell Friday night in the Nemeha Val
ley and the streams are alre ady destroy
ing crops and washing away bridges,
roads and houses. Thousands of hogs
and hundreds of cattle were drowned.
The many losses will aggregate enor-
mOuslV