The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-06-06

The floods caused by the rising Of the
Columbia. the Willamette. Fraser and
6kagis rivers have wrought frightful de-
vastation in Oregon. Washington and
British Columbia. The cause II plain
enough: the sudden spslI Of warm weather
melted the SHOWS on the mountains
rapidly, swelled the mountain streams 70
torrents. and Of course when the Columbia
rises rapidly the sst back Of its waters lifts
the Willamstts The Northern Pacific.
the Great Northern. the Canadian Pacific
and the Union Pacific have suffered
enormously, not only by the detention OF
trafYic and the interruption Of travsl, bus
by absolute destruction Of railroad prop
erty.
IL IL said this dood year 10 not unex.
ampied; that the foods Of 1854 and lss2
we're vorss. but in those days none Of
these great trunk lines were in existence,
the Union Pacific and Central Pacific, the
first great transcontinentAl line, not being
completed until isto. but Il 10 undoubtedly
the most destructive flood rear since The
completion OF our four great transcon-
tinental lines. The remarkable thing il
that few lives have thus far been lost.
Such inundations are known In all coun.
tries travsrssd BY streams of any siss shat
are fed by mountain tribntariea In China
the foundations of the great river Hoang
Ho are the despair and terror of the
provinces il travsrses The inundaiions
Of the Danube and the suffering
and misery they entail are described
with great power in ouida's best novel
wanda" The foundations OF the Miss
slssippi frequently burnt ths isvees con.
structed 10 eon;ine it, waters. bat no inun-
daiion Of the Mississappi ever caused 90
great loss of life ~ the food on the CON-
paratively little river. the Sabine. between
Texas aud LouisiAna few years ago. The
"sprins freshess" In New England caass
annually great destruction. white the loss
Of life on tho Sea islands Of South Caro-
lima aud ofthe Gulf states has more than
once been terrible.
On the whole our foods have been con.
spscuoas for loss Of property rather than
life, while on the Atlantic seaboard the
loss Of lie has 1T tim<s been very great.
On this coast, too. ws escape entirely the
cyclones and tornadoes that nearly svsrv
year cost terrible destruction Of life and
property In The Middle West and some.
times even - far east ~ Massachusetts.
Probably nothing can be done to mitigate
the destructive consequences Of these floods
until Ne know when they are coming.
A sudden srell OF hot weather in the
spring o. an enormous rainfall IL likely
10 nreeiratzte these disastrous foods. but
nobody car tell when to sxpsct these sad.
dsa change If weather. IL does not APP
PEAR On the y hole that Ne suffer nearly a
much in less Of life By foods ~ does the
Atlantic ssahoard. and vs do not safer II
al from the cyclones and tornassoxs Of the
Middle West While the ioss Of property
and The interruption 10 bassaess and
tracse 10 very great Ia consequence ef our
noods. the loss 81 life is cor. parasiveiy
ANAL What can BE- doas TO avert q
calamity that Ne do not knew IL coming
b hard 10 tell We have for nearly
hundred years been trying 10 save the
states srsversei By the lover Mississippi
fsoz the destructive consequences Of an
nusi fmanaassons and ne have net solved
the problem yet: neither have they In
Esscfe II tie ease Of the Danube.