The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-12-02
IN 4 PANIC,
CHIPPEWA FALLS, MAY HAVE
A SERIOUS FLOOD.

NhiPPS"o Il eett>, w 1871 A/CC L. HIS
has been q day of excitement and anxiety
and toni ght finds the inhabitants of this
little village inee state bordering on panic.
The Worst of the situation is the knowl-
edge OF inponding danger and of the fact
that they are utterly helpless to stay or
to avert it. Those whose houses have
been flooded have removed their house
hold goods and belongings to higher
ground and are huddled togetheS in the
school houses and other vacant Buildings
out of the path of the torrent TINT is
sweeping down eof the ntip streets.
All hope of breaking the gorgeand thus
allowing the pent-up waters to grads ally
subsidcSis now abandoned. ALL eGorts
to day were directed towards removing
household goods and merchandise out Of
the reach of the food Every team in
the city has been cnga ged in this work
EverY'resident and business firm of Rive,
street has moved on {. The Chippewa
Lumber mills anS var lis are under water
other gorge was for ming thirty miles
ADORE here and this realty added to the
alarm, as in case it 81 ioul6 bre,s1 nothing
could save the city from being swept
away.
Reports of IL cry ,erioas nature came
from down the1,iver The country every
where is flooded. rhc gorge continues
to.grow in extent. 1t is now over five
miles long and in many places thirty to
iifty feet high. 1t completely dam the
river and this IS VIII ut is causing the rapid
rise OF the river ht re. The heavy rains
of last week we're followed ,bya sudden
freeze which quick ~ massed the foating
ice in the Chippcw II and the swiftly run
ming current con tinuously added to it
until it reached it $ present gigantic pro
portions. Below here the Chippewa il
falling. There is no flood at Ear, Clare.
but this fact is ca using the people ut that
place much ilnea. siness, as it indicate that
the water is beill g piled up as'by IL dam
above then. r he ice-ppck AZ Baduar
Mills, half way between Eau Ciuire and
Chippewa alls, is growing.in extent and
everything scents to indicate that the
river is checking up. 1t i- not believed
tnat anything serious can happen under
the present conditions for ut least Il tlay
or two arti it is believed that cvery-
one has been sufficiently warned and is
in readiness to fly the moment the crash
comes.
Top 10 The Chippewa river shows
no sign OF abatement tonight 1t rose
four feet day and ut 9 O'Clock this eve
ming the waters are rising nj, the rate of
two inches I'm hour.
Reports from various sections indicate
deploraEle condition of affairs At the
Fambeau farm, fifteen miles above this
city, anOilaer ice gorge has formed The
river has overflown it's banks and inunda-
ted the country twenty miles on either
side. Domestic animals havcperished by
the score Farms and farm houses are
flooded ard the losses will reach into the
hundreds of thousa IDS. These reports
are meagrc and uncorroborated but it is
safe to estimate that Mt least3,000 horses.
cows andll ogs have met death in the flood.
At Chippewa Falls the rive is fully
three quarters of Il mile wide and it's sur.
face is covered with anchor ice 30 IL depth
VARYING fsom ten to thirty feet. The most
stubborn resistance offered hy the OBJ.
struction is in that portion OF the river
between the wagon bridge and the Cen
trail railroad bridge, about half n mile in
length To-day Mayor Lindley ordered
an explosion of 800 pounds Of dynamite
but after 300 pounds had been exploded
the experiment vas abandoned us fail
urc.
Railroad officials who viewed the gorge
state that there is not sufli Gent dynamite
obtainable 50 blast channel for the river
through the frozen mass OF SNOW, logs,
and ice.