The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-12-03
GORGED RIVERS
ARE YET RISING
People in Danger of the
3. Flood Fleeing for
Safety.
. = %
Cities and Towns in Wisconsin
:: That May Be Swept Out
+: 80 =: Of Existence.
, Experiences of the Past May Be Re-
-: peated With an Appalling
:. Loss of Life.

down to the MISSISSIPPI. Inc lower SlIeeto
of the city are alive and noisy with NOV
!: jing wagons of all descriptions, OF drays,
sawdust carts, farm wagons and delivery
outfits. Everything that can be drafted
into service has been set at work and the
merchants of Spring street are rapidly
getting back to places of safety.
st midnight the water forced back from
the Chippewa ice.gorge was creeping up
the streets toward the Wisconsin Central
station. This morning ct 8 o'clock the
water was three feet above the tracks. An
hour later the tracks were abandoned.
The water has been steadily rising all day.
For several blocks further back hotels
and business houses were chilly, the water
having extinguished all nres.
For ten miles below the Chippewa the
river is filled with ice, gorged well to the
bottom, obstructing the flow. Below the
gorge to Eau Claire the water is receding
while reports from above the dam indicate
that the water on the upper Chippewa,
sFlambeau and other streams will soon go
down.
There is a complete cessation OF business
here and hundreds have been to great in
convenience and loss-that is all as yet
But the shadow of great calamity lies
over Chippewa Valley. 1t is OF record that
fifty years ago an ice gorge formed near
9 here and that when it went out III the
spring it swept the vally clean to the Mis-
sissippi.s There were no houses then, but
great trees were cut off, the banks swept
clean and devastation followed.
Eau Claire might be swept out of ex.
istence by such food and the loss would
be incaleulable and terrible. All this is
possible, perhaps probable. Ii the weather
should moderate now or should the force
OF the backwater become so great as to
break the jam of ice and logs. packed
almost inextricably between this city and
Eau Claire, the calamity would come
q now. With the mercury at zero the suf-
fering from the flood would be beyond the
power of Imagination. Vast quantities of
water flow over the dam at the upper end
Of the city, bringing down ice in large
quantities. Below the rapids at the dam
this water flows under the ice pack for
miles, showing against bridges and back
ing into the town.
The.water is twenty-five feet above the
low mark. In 1884 it was twenty-eight
feet above, but that was a summer food
without obstruction. The wagon bridge
across the river to the south of the towns
seems almost imperceptibly in motion and
may be moved dangerously soon. Even
now it's south approach is trembling. Be-
low it is the Wisconsin Central bridge, as
yet Safe. The entire pack above the solid
goree has moved 1000 feet in the last
twenty-four hours and attempts are being
made to open passage through it with
dynamite. Owing to the fact that no high
gorge is apparent, the river being packed
for miles, the project can scarcely be sue
cessful
1t may be said there is no danger to life
here, nor will there be. The city is in
darkness tonight, the gas plant having
long ago been abandoned.
The Wisconsin Central roped in its de-
pot buildings TO hold them. Late reports
from Little Falls, where the Weyerhausers
have the biggest dam on the Chippewa,
are that the dam there is likely to hold.
If it should be opened, probably great de-
struction would result there.
DURAND, Wis, Dec. 2-The situation
on the bottoms remains unabated. The
T.. terrible water and ice food extend over
damage to livestock and hay and grain
aggregate thousands of dollars. One or
two men refused rescue and no word has
since been heard from them. About thirty
people who were brought here are being
taken care of in the county building. At
this place the water is in every street and
easements and people are moving out.
The railway track is damaged and washed
out for several miles between here and
Wabash.
Should the dam above Eau Claire break
there is no telling the danger and damage
that will ensue to Durand and vicinity.
1t is impossible for trains to move more
than six miles below here. Stages west to
Arkansas and Eau Falls are abandoned
and the wires to these points are down.
Business is practically at a standstill
People residing on the west shore are liv-
in second stories.
CHICAGO, ILL, Dec. q Passengers
who came to Chicago to-day from Chip
pewa Valley stations assured all nxious
enquirers that though there was still the
gravest danger of Chippewa Falls being
destroyed by the food there was no longer
any fear for Eau Claire. The flood sui
ferers along the Chippewa River are pray
ing for warmer weather as much as for a
subsiding OF the waters. The thermome-
ter at the Wisconsin Central station at
Chippewa Falls at midnight registered ten
degrees below zero.
A rise in the temperature would allevi-
ate the sufferiugs of the homeless as well
as melt the ice and allow the river to SUBJ
side to its ordinary channel in the terri
tory between the falls and Irvine station.
The Northwestern, st. Paul and Wiscon-
sin railways have resumed the running of
trains to Chippewa and the postoffice has
been moved from the business portion OF
the town seven blocks away on the hill.
When the limited on the Wisconsin Gen.
tral arrived here to-day half an hour late
on account of time lost between Chippewa
and Eau Claire there were many people at
the depot TO learn of the conditions pre-
vailing IN the stricken region from the
trainmen and passengers. The train was
at Chippewa at IL P. NJ. and the water was
then oyer the platform of the depot. The
people we're filed with fear that the worst
would befall the town, business was sus-
Dended and there was a general avodns +o