The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-05-19
Damage by Floods.


Dispatches on Sunday. night last give the
following in regard to damage done by the
floods in some parts of the West:
At Davenport, Iowa, the Mississippi river is
SO high that several manufacturing establish
ments have been obliged to close, and many
families living in the lower part of the city
moved. The damage caused directly and indi-
rectly, by the giving way on Friday ofthe Gov,
eminent water power dam connecting Arsenal
Island with the Illinois, is placed at over
$500, 600 AT Dubuque a number of manu-
featuring establishments have been obliged to
close, and on the levee all the stores have
several inches of water on the first floors, and
it is impossible to receive or ship goods
Many families who have fled from the flooded
district are living in tents or have found shell
ter in the public buildings. The railroad
tracks are under water. At Keokuk, the
Rock Island car shops are flooded, and access
to them is had by means of skiffs. Farmers
will suffer great damage.
A despatch from st. Louis says advices
from the Red river country report that dam
age done to the inhabitants of the Red River
Valley during the past ten days is almost be-
yond comprehension. The overflow is the
largest since 1913. Most of the plantations
near the river have been covered with water
from four to six feet deep. Many ofthe people
have lost their household furniture, provisions
and corn. In several places the river water
extended from the hills of Arkansas TO the
hills of Texas, distance of ten to fourteen
miles. Quite number of deaths from drown
ing are reported, but names are not given.
Planting in the bottoms will have to be done
all over again.
The levee south of Alexandria, Missouri,
broke in several places at IL o'clock on Sat-
urday morning, and the town was soon inun-
dated. The whole town is submerged from
two to six feet, and business is entirely sus-
pended. The Mississippi river at that point
is seven miles wide.
LOUISIANA, Mo-, May 1.-THE Mississippi
River broke through the Suy levee, ten miles
north of here, and a vast volume of water is
now sweeping over the farms of the Suy bot
tom. The loss will be hundreds of thousands
of dollars, and district forty miles long by
five miles wide will be desolated. At the first
the break was only twenty FIVE feet wide, but
now it is fully 200 yards wide, and the whole
flood ofthe great river is tearing through the
gap with roar that can be heard for miles.
At daylight the Suy bottoms contained the
best wheat and corn crops in the State of Hi
nois. Prosperity and comfort were indicated
on every hand. Tonight this farmers para
disc is waste of wild, turbulent waters.
Homes are abandoned, and south of this city
not an acre has escaped. The result is that
the river has fallen rapidly, and the lands
below Alton will escape the deluge. The
last time the Suy levee broke was in 1881,
and the country was inundated. There is a
fall of nearly twenty feet to the lands, and the
rush of the waters is appalling.
THE LATEST.
There are now FIVE bad breaks in the Suy
levee, and all of the Suy bottoms in Illinois,
from opposite Louisiana, Missouri, to Hanni-
bal, in the same State, are inundated. The
area submerged is 40 miles long and five miles
wide, and 200, 600 acres of crops will be dam
aged or destroyed. A telegram from Quincy,
Illinois, says the situation there is appalling.
A heavy rain set in Thursday morning, and
the water gauge in the evening showed a
height 10 feet % inches, 81 inches above the
flood of 1881. All the mills and factories on
the river front are under water and shut down.
Many fishermens houses and other small
buildings have foated down the river. Rail
road travel is suspended and telegraph lines
are down. Hundreds of farmers are camped
on the bluffs, with no shelter from the rains
except improvised tents made of quilts and
Sheets The Indian Grove District, owing to
the food, will be abandon for years to come
for agricultural purposes. Last fall there vas
a large acreage of wheat sown on these low
lands, and, owing to the favorable season for
corn planting, large acreage of corn was
planted.