Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-05-15
A DAMP DES0LATI0N.
sNv LeVee succUMBS TO THE PRESS
uRE OF THE WATERS,

Aud the DeIugs sweeps Over Thousands
Sg0O.O0O worth of Property Some
Spectators Whose Faith Was Unprodt-
abIe-Heavy Losses at Quincy. His.
HANNIBAL, Mo, May l5-The Sny levee
broke twenty-one miles south OF this city
Yesterday afternoon. The crevasse is now
about 100 yards wide and is constantly in.
creasing About 600 acres of the finest
farming lands in Illinois have been or will be
submerged and the wheat and corn crops
which promised TO be abundant, will be
ruined The loss is estimated at S7i0,00O.
The point where the break occurred was
known to be weak, but for the past three
days a large force of men have been
strengthening it with stone, and when they
quit work Sunday night it was thought to lie
secure II is not known that any lives We're
lost, but it is believed considerable stock has
been drowned. The water PUSHES through
the break with a roar like that of Niagara,
uprootng great trees and sweeping away
everything III its path.
Persons arriving from the overtlowed dis
trict described the scene as desolate in the ex-
IRENE Whore but few hours before lay ms
fair u land as ever yielded sustenance to man
now all is waste The mighty Mississippi is
now eight miles wide. Here and there may
be seen the cottages and out-buildngs of tho
unfortunate people lodged against trees miles
away from their foundations, or floating
away in the flood The water has backed up
inside of the levee for ten miles north of the
break, and although the crevasse has had a
| tendency to lessen the pressure on the levee 1t
| is feared that the relief is only temporary,
and that 10000 acres still protected by that
part of the levee above the break may yet be
! submerged
Opinions on this subject differ greatly. A.
| J. Stillwell, one of the largest landowners.
says that there is no reason for anxiety, anu
| believes that the water will flow over the top
of the level before it will break. His opinion
is shared by very few, and when telegram
was received from A. w. Pettibone, at La
Crosse, warning the representatives of his
lumber interests here to prepare for water
two feet higher than was ever known, all hope
was lost 1t is now considered question of
but few days or perhaps hours, when the
| worst shall come
During the past few days spectators who
had faith in the levee have been buying up
all the growing crops offered for sale, thou
sands of acres of wheat changing hands at
prices ranging from % cents to 81. 80 an acre.
| The work of strengthening the upper levee
still goes bravely on, hundreds of carloads OF
stone have been placed in the weak places,
and all that men can do to avert threatened
disaster will be done. Yesterday large num-
bers of farmers who thought they had re-
NAMED behind the levee as long aSprudent
abandoned their homes and with their fam
lies and live stock sought refuge on high
ground.
The situation in the city hourly grows
worse The water ON the Railroad tracks
along the river front is now so deep that it
reaches and extnguishes the fires on the
locomotives as they pass through, Iester-
day trains on the st. Louis, kecl<uk
& Northwestern railroad were aban-
doued, as the road-bed is several feet un-
der water for miles at a stretch between here
| and st. Louis. Among the industries affected
are the Hannibal saw mill, which shut down
yesterday, throwing 30 men out of employ
ment; the Herman & Curd lumber com
pany; d. Dulach 81 Co, and Empire Lumber
| company, whose yards are all atloat and
whose losses ON account of lumber floating
away will be considerable; the Packet ware
house of the st. Louis a. ST. Paul company
has been abandoned, and the destruction OF
several Ice houses belonging to Hutton
| SLOrrs is imminent.