The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1891-07-02
FATAL FLOODS IN IOWA
EIGHT LIVES LOST FROM
CLOUD-BURSTS.

Buildings, and a Village Swept Away
Twelve Inches of Water Said to Have
Fallen in tho Cherokee valley-Hun-
dreds of People Homeless and Hundreds
of Cattle Drowned.
Late telegraphic dispatches indicate
that the storm in the northwestern
counties of Iowa was more severe than
at first reported. A dispatch from
Waterloo says 100 houses at Cherokee
were washed away, and everything is in
the widest confusion.
The same is true at Correctionville
and no word by telegraph can be re-
ceived from there. 1t is now known,
though, that six persons met their death
in the country around about Correction
vile, and the number is reported in
creased to eight.
Houses, barns and outhouses were re-
ported floating in the Little Sioux past
Cherokee al day. No one knows where
they came from, but they aIe presumed
to be from Sutherland
Aurelius, nine miles east of Cherokee,
reports storm clouds gathering in the
vicinity of Cherokee again. An Illinois
Central work train has succeeded in
reaching point about one mile east Of
Cherokee, further progress being barred
by vast expanse of water stretching as
far as the eye can reach. tits feared
there will be added to the present suffer
ings of citizens the pangs of hunger.
All &, the surplus, stock of provisions was
destroyed by the flood, and the town is
now as effectually isolated from the rest
of the world as though no railroads were
in existence.
Says a Sioux City dispatch: Reports
are received from all quarters of unpre-
cedented high water in the streams, in
jury to railroad property, loss of bridges,
and destruction Of crops along the
rivers. The Floyd River is out Of it's
banks, and people have been compelled
to make hasty depGStures to higher
ground.
The following additional particulars
of the food at Cherokee were received
this morning: The wagon bridge over
the Sioux south of the town went out
about 10 o'clock Tuesday night. This
was followed by all the houses on the
fat in that part of the town, numbering
over one hundred. The number of peo-
pie driven from their homes was between
twelve and fifteen hundred. The river
continued to rise until o'clock, at that
time being ten feet higher than was ever
before known.
The destruction of property alone in
Cherokee is about 100000 Besides.
almost all of the stock pastured along
the Sioux were carried away by the
flood, only few animals being saved as
they came down the river. Yesterday
all passenger trains were stopped at
Storm Lake.
The food in the Floyd River which
came past LeMarS and Merrill yesterday,
doing great damage in the country,
reached here early this morning and the
river rose about twelve feet. One humid
red and fifty houses in the valley are
partially submerged and the families
have move out to the hills. The LaraI
stove works. shoe factory, flour mill and
foundry in the suburbs of the town are
closed.
A man in from Melville, eighteen
miles east Of here, reports that the
whole town was swept away and only
one house was untouched.
A heavy food came down Willow
Creek, entering the Floyd River q mic
above this place, says a telegram from
LIE Mars The bottom land along the
river was at once raging torrent near
ly mile wide The flood washed out
over mile of embankment twenty feet
high on the Illinois Central tracks milo
east of LIE Mars, where Willow Creek
runs under the railroad.
Crops on the bottoms were entirely de-
stroyed. Hundreds of head of cattle and
horses were found swimming in their
pastures and were rescued by men in
boats.
The flood is the highest ever known
here. The water came down from the
Sutherland storm, the larger part of it
having gone on the other side of the di-
vide to Cherokee. Mails were delayed
thirty-six hours. 1t will take several
days to fix up the Illinois Central from
here to Cherokee.