Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1884-02-29
THE FLOOD AT pADUCAn.

1 80 ACnhcoocc ScnOlnE down y
Large Contingent Of Water-Nsny Small
| Towns Entirely Inundated-The Waters
Exceeding 1t Cincinnati.
PADUcAH, Ky, Feb. IL.
Paducah claims attention as the scene of
to-day's food sensa.iSN. The l., 900 people
OF this pretty little city got up this morn
ing to find that the food had wiped out all
previous records. The fact that the high
water OF 1888 has been eclipsed here, while
the stage is below last year at Shawnee
town and other points above, is easily ac-
counted for. The great volumes of water
from the Cumberland and the Tennessee
are turning out and adding to the Ohio.
The water is now twenty-four inches higher
at Paducah than it was last year, and has
risen all day at the rate of one inch an
hour. Three days ago it had wiped out
Front and the first two lhoroughfares par
aIIel with the river. Tnis noon the water
extends back into the business heart of the
city, and the merchants on broadway and
the cross streets four blocks back from the
river are scafolding up their goods.
by atual observa ion and count the
streets surrounding forty-three blocks in
tie business portion are submerged. Where
Pavemenis are high aud the first floors of
the building step or two above the side
walks, the water has not entered, but
where the difference in level between the
noors and the streets is slight
there is from three inches to two
Ieer OF water in tie stores and
business establishments. Along Broad
way, in front of the X chmond House and
some of the large Wholesale places, the only
means Of passing are raised planks or
tkllfs. The situation is novel, even 10 old
faducahans, to go out five blocks from the
river and look up and down and see a
stretch of water extending TO the city,s
limits in both directions, with scores of
skis plying TO and fro where vehicles were
three days ago, il a sight which the oldest
lnhabltant does not remember to have
seen paralleled.
Paducan is now an island, and the dry
land is being reduced rapidly every hour,
Tor the rise TO the center OF the plateau
which is the city's sic is very gradual.
Fortunately many of the houses are O.
va Ell from one to three feet above the
streets level. Were they not the water
would be- on tn &C. .ourtns of the lower
sors in Paducah at this writing. As il is
the houses from which the people have
been driven number hundreds, aud those
the front doors of which can be reached
only by boating can be counted by the
thousands. As the water advances she
hogs and cows are driven in upon the dry
land, and now stand in droves in tae CEN
trail streets.
The city has to-day located q number of
free skiff ferries 10 enable the people to get
from one portion OF the city to another.
The fires at the gas-works We're reached last
night in spite OF Uulk-IeadinG, and to.night
the city has ia len back on lamps and can
dies. This is a city OF churches, but such
was the demov aliZation to-day that services
were not attempted in any but the Method
list, and these only in the morning. All
day long the streets, such as were paSsable,
were thronGed with people looking at tne
xtraoidinary spectacle. Merchants are at
q loss to know what to 90. Mr.. Lyle, who
carries one of the largest stocks of goods
here, has made two moves, he said tonight,
and is afraid now that his stock isn't high
enough. j. X. Smith, wholesale grocery
merchant, who has n large block 113 feet
deep, has already moved his stock once
and says tonight that ii there is another
foot more he will have to go into the water
and move the goods again. The tobacco
warehouse people are III the most critical
position. They have hundreds OF thousands
OF dollars worth of tobacco on hand, whica
they have been raising up as the water adj
vanced. The warehouses are great Struct-
ures, but portions o. them stand in water
twenty feet deep. Tie collapse of one of
these structures now would be attended
with great loss. In many places the cur.
rent of the water through tie streets is five
and six miles an hour. Her streets are Pa
ducah's pride, but they VIII be i'm sad con.
dition after all this washing and wearing.
Nothing has arrived from the Cumber.
land or Tennessee, and the situation in
those rivers Is unknown. There can be no
doubt but that it is Dal enough, however,
Judging from the wa -er coming out of them.
The water ut midnight covers over one
nall the area OF Paducah, which has river
| front or three miles, and depth back from
the river OF one mile. People who can
sleep under the trying circumstances have
gone to bed, prepared to see almost any
thing in the way of water by morning.
Captain lex Morrow, of the steamer
Nesbit, reports tho drowning of a colored
man and child in Indian Creek, just above
Clifton, and the miraculous escape of a
woman and two children. A colored man
and his wife and four children had started
In canoe to make their way out of the
high water caught by the overflow of In.
dian Greek, up the Tennessee, when, in pass
ing down the creek, the canoe ruck a tree,
ana threw all OF the oc upants into the wa
ter: The current was very swift, and the
father and one child were soon swept be-
meath, but the mother caught two of the
children and saved them AMI herself In
falling from the boat the woman was
thrown against n small tree, and around
this she wrapped her arms with child in
each hand and saved her life and two chill
dren, one babe and the other only a year
or two old
Well informed ci liens say that So, 900
will not begin to cover the actual damage
to property in the city, leaving out of all
Ques' ion the stoppage of factories and all
trade. An examination of the gauge, wnlvA
is now reached by a pontoon, since dark
SLOWS a stage of o.. feet.
Trains got out of town to-day by adopt
ing a novel expedient. The passenger
coaches were put in front OF a tram of thir-
ty freight cars and pushed through the
overfiowei portion. Then another engine
was attached and the train taken out.
This will be attempted tomorrow, but the
railroad men are not sauguine of keeping
up connection longer than another day.
New Liberty, twelve miles above here, is
entirely abandoned, ami nothing but the
roofs of houses can be seen. the situation
is but little better with many other points.
Four-fifths of Smthland, situated at the
mouth of the Cumberland, is under water
Rose Claire, Birdsview, Raleigh, Elizabeth
town, FaIrplay and Free Fight are all SUBJ
merged. the front portion Of Caseyviile is
under water to a depth o. ten or twelve
| feet.
What is written here at six o'clock
doesn't hold good at twelve. When the
first portion of this dispatch was taken to
the tele graph Office IL was possible to get
along the upper side of Broadway without
getting over shoe Top in the water. As this
message is closed skif communication
with the operator is necessary.
CINCINNATI, O., Feb. II.
At eight % lock tonight the n Cd is l
| foot lower than il was last year at its high
est, which highest was 81 feet inches. All
day the weather has been murky, with a
heavy rain in the forenoon and a drizzling
rain in the afternoon.
This afternoon three daring river rousta-
bouts went into the ruins of the building
which fell and crushed ten people, at the
sou Invest corner of Pearl and Ludlow
streets, and at the risk of their lives got
seven more bodies out. 1t is sup
posed that there are no more
dead in these ruins. No one asked the
rousIabouts to go in, and no one else dared
to 20.
When asked to take pay they refused.
but by-standers compelled them o receive
it. On they went at their work again after
taking out the Burke family, nor did they
| stop till the last body was recovered.
| When asked: "Have you no regard for
your lives!" they answered: ave lost some
| of our friends once in the same way, and
| we Just can't bearto lie. the families of these
people wait any longer to get the bodies of
| their dear ones"
The steamer Gen. Pike, with Government
| supplies, went from here to-day, with Cap
| tain Ruhlen in charge. Thew landed at