Birmingham age-herald., 1895-07-08
LIKE THE FLOOD OF OLD
Devastation in the Eastern Wa
 terShed of the Rockies.
SOME APPALLING FIGURES
Heavy Loss of Life and Destruction of Property Amounting to MiIions-Much Suf
 fering Will Follow

St. Louis, July 7.-Thursday morning last telegraphic reports began to arrive in this city of rains at western points. These reports grew in number Friday and covered a large territory, indicating that the entire eastern water shed of the Rocky mountains from the Nebraska and Iowa lines to Texas. was swept by a storm.
 Friday night the severest blow came. Reports of loss of life and destruction of property came with every telegram, and the downpour which was at first re- garded as blessing grew into wave of devastation. Fields that promised the most bountiful yields in many years are today swept bare of vegetation. In sev- eral instances the seas of rains were abetted in their work of destruction by tornadoes. It is too early yet to sum up the loss, but the total must be appalling and those to whom the angry elements spared life have little left to sustain it. The stories of storm are so similar that a statistical summary is all there is left to tell
 The storms focus embraced an area of 200 square miles, with the southwestern corner of Missouri as the center. The greatest loss of life is reported from Winona, Mo-, where eleven corpses have been found, with assmany more missing. At Baxter Springs, in southwestern Kan sas, five were killed and eleven seriously injured by a cyclone, that accompanied the storm. Three were drowned at Co., lumbus and two at Ottawa, Ks.
 At NanBuren, Ark, woman and her child were drowned.
 A family of five were eamped on the banks of Fish creek, in the Indian ter ritory. Yesterday nothing of them or flanit ha1h a part of their wagon on pile of drift wood.
 At Thomasville Mo- where the rain was inches in depth, five lives were lost.
 Uneonfirmed reports are received Of loss of life as follows
 Three at Fayetteville, Ark; one at Paoli, Ks. one at Richards, Ks, and six of a hunting party in the Indian territory. This gives probable loss ot forty-three lives. This total will be in- creased when the receding waters per init a thorough search. The loss in property can be placed in the millions.
 Dwellings, fences and farm buildings were carried off and wagon and railroad bridges swept away. Thirty of the forty buildings in Winona succumbed. Five residences, a church and a warehouse went down at Baxter Springs Six bridges went down in Russell county, Kansas. About Jefferson City, Mo, many square miles of growing grain were covered with debris.
 Traffic on the Fort Scott and Memphis railroad is temporarily suspended.
 Reports of damage to property other than above noted come from five points in Kansas, nine in Missouri, six in Ar kansas and two in the Indian territory. The storm spent itself in Illinois, but hay ing lost it's force proved blessing to tbe crops.
 The above summaries give only frac- lion of loss in property. The greatest burden falls upon the farmers, as the season is too far spent to plant new crops and suffering must surely follow in the storms wake. Details of individual suf- ferings and experiences recall the hor- TOTS of the JohnStown disaster.