Connecticut western news., 1885-04-29
LATEST NEWS NOTES.
Happenings of Interest to All,
 At Home and Abroad.
SWEPT BY A CLOUDBURsT.
Whole Families DrOwneG-SeVernI Bodies
 of Victims Recovered.

1 special dispatch from Medicine Lodge, at | Wichita, Kan, recounts fearful results of the waterspout or cloudburst, to the residents oi the Medicine River, which seems to have beer the same that filled the Ninnescah to overflow. ing.
 The special says that the water rolled down over the low lands east of Medicine Lodge City five to twelve feet perpendlcularly, carrying death in it's wake.
 Several whole families are known to be drowned. Parties who had gone out to give relief found men, women and children cling ing to trees with nothing but their night clothes to protect them, and some without any clothing whatever, but still alive. Their cries could be heard as early as four o'clock in the morning, above the roaring waters. Three at- tempts were made to rescue parties beyond the river, but each boat in turn was swamped, and the occupants only saved themselves by swimming to trees.
 Five bodies had been recovered up to the hour of the writing of the dispatch, which was sent over to the first railroad point by mail. Another body was in sight, but could not be reached There were eight movers wagons camping in the bottoms, and one old man has recognized the bodies of three of his family his wife and two children.
 James Gibbs and his daughter and niece were washed away with their home. A Mrs. Harris and her little girl of eleven years were found drowned G. ". Paddock and family, consist ing of wife and four children, arc thought to be drowned. Frank Simpler put his wife and child on the roof, and his house went down. He was knocked of by 8 projecting limb and swan ashore several miles below, but of the fate of his wife and child nothing was known.
 ADDITIONAL DETAILS.
 The town is situated between the Medicine River and Elm Creek. Early Tuesday morn ing the flood came down the streams quickly, overfowing their bottom lands to depth of about ten feet. In the Elm Creek bottoms, east of the town, dozen houses were entirely destroyed and many of the occupants drowned, or saved only by clinging to the branches of trees. In camps in the bottoms were ten or fifteen emlgrant wagons hlled with families, and not half of these persons have yet been found.
 North of Medicine Lodge entire families were drowned, others made miraculous escapes. The stores in town were closed and every cit izen engaged in the work of rescuing people by boats and rafts from their perilous positions in trees and on house tops. The work was ex- tremely hazardous, and by nightfau there were still some isolated prisoners. A relief party was out all night picking up these unfor- tunates. The people in Medicine River bot toms had earlier warning, and all escaped with their lives. Hundreds of cattle were drowned and great fields of crops ruined. Hundreds of dead animals also line the banks of Elm Creek. The rise started at dark on Monday night and rain poured steadily for six hours, which was followed by great cloud. burst north of the town.
 WICHITA, Kan., April 23, 1S85.-The Ddit, Edgle's special from the Medicine Lodge gives additional details of the awful calamity oi Monday night.
 The search for bodies was continued early yesterday morning among the drift piles and along the bottoms for miles. The remaining bodies of the Maddux family, who were among the campers alluded to, were found the mother and two children making six, recovered at that point Maddux himself and two children escaping. Jerry Gibbs body was also recovered. The hody of young man named Smith was also found but the campers only knew him by that name. The survivors do not know where he was from.
 Four of the Paddock family have been found all children, the father and mother being stil missing. Frank Shepler's wife and child, whom he left on the roof Of his drifting homo, lave not been found or heard from. Ten bodies had been recovered at the Lodge and four above town at the time of writing the above dispatch making fourteen in all