The record-union., 1896-12-03
Residents and Merchants in the Lower
Sections Seeking Places Of Safety.
Water Forced Back From the Ice
Gorge Creeping Up the Streets.

|
Fires = The Chippewa River for
Ten Miles Filled With an Ice
Gorge Reaching Nearly to the
Bottoms.
CHIPPEWA FALLS CWis.), Dec. p
| At II o'clock tonight the water Is
| twenty-eight feet above low water
| mark. Every place of business on
Spring, River and Lower Bridge
| streets has been vacated. A rumor tC
! the effect that the river would cut a
passage for itself through the high
! banks north of the Wisconsin Cen
tral tracks has given rise to great ap-
prehension. The rivers course is seri-
ously obstructed by a gorge, which has
reached within a short distance of the
dam, and the probable turning of the
course of the stream upon the city
seems so plausible that everyone Is
panic stricken.
A rumor that the Little Falls dam
mad given way to the pressure upon ii
has reached this city. If it is fact, an
| enormous body of water Will be pre-
cipitated upon the city about a. m.
as it will take that length of time for
the water to travel the forty miles OF
| river bottom between here and the
point indicated.
Spring street is impossible between
Bridge and Bay streets, and the water
is climbing steadily towards the base
ment of the City Hall. 1t is impossible
to see how any of the lower portion OF
the town can escape, for the coming OF
the water seems as sure as 1t Is dellb-
crate. The Lumbermen's and First Ma
tional Banks have both been obliged to
move.
The river presents a terrible appear
ance The ice gorge is forty feet high
and backing the water on the clty al
the rate of a foot per hour. The poor
are suffering severely.
MOVING TO PLACES OF SAFETY
CHIPPEWA FALLS (Wis.), Dec. =
This has been moving day" at emp
pewa Falls and along the Chippewa
Valley down to the Mississippi The
lower streets Of the city are alive and
noisy with moving wagons, all descrlp-
tions of drays, sawdust carts, farm
wagons and delivery outfits. Every
thing that can be drafted into service
has been set at work, and the mer-
chants of Spring street are rapidly get
ting back to places of safety.
At midnight the water forced PACK
from the Chippewa ice gorge was creep
ing up the streets towards the Wiscon-
sin Central station. This morning at
o'clock the water was two feet above the
tracks An hour later the tracks We're
abandoned. The water has been stead
lily rising since, and at noon Spring
street in its business section was lake
| of ice and water. For several blocks
further back hotels and business houses
| We're chilly, the water having extln-
guished all fires.
| For ten miles below the Chippewa
River is filled with ice gorged well to
the bottom obstructing the flow, and
back of it the water is constantly and
| rapidly rising at the upper end OF the
city Below the gorge to Eau Claire
the water is receding while reports
from above the dam Indicate that the
water on the upper Chippewa, Flam-
beau and other streams will soon go
down.
There is a complete cessation of busi-
ness here, and hundreds have been to
great inconvenience and loss-that is
all as yet
But the shadow of a great calamity
hes over the Chippewa Valley. 1t is Of
record that fifty years ago an ice gorge
formed near here, and that when it
went out in the spring it swept the val
ley clean to the Mississippi. There We're
no houses then, but great trees were cut
off, the banks swept clean and devasta-
tion followed. If the weather is not just
right from now until spring history may
repeat itself-not in an uninhabfted,
| wooded country, but in a valley lined
with farming houses and rich, prosper
Gus cities.
Eau Claire might be swept out of ex-
| lstence by such flood, and the loss
would be incalculable and terrible All
this is likely now. if the weather should
moderate, or should the force of the
backwater become so great as to loosen
or break the jam of ice and logs, packed
almost inextricably between this city
| and Eau Claire, the calamity would
| come now.
With the mercury at zero. the suffer
ing from the flood is almost beyond the
imagination. Below the rapids, at the
dam, the water flows under the ice pack
| for miles, showing against the bridges
and backing into the town The water
is - feet above the low-water mark
In 1884 ii was % feet above. but that
was summer flood, without obstruc-
.ion.
The wagon bridge across the river to
the south of the town seems now almost
| imperceptibly in motion. and may be
moved dangerously soon. Even now its
sSuth approach is trembling Below II
| is the W Wisconsin Central bridge as vet
safe. The entire pack above the solid
gorge has moved 1000 feet in the las,
twenty-four hours. and an attempt is
| being made to secure a passage through
it with dynamite. In face of the fact
that no high gorge Is apparent. the
river being packed for miles. the pro-
| ject can scarcely be successful.
kilograms are being received here
continuously from parties who have
friends in the city asking as to their
| condition. 1t may be said there is nc
danger to life here. nor will there be.
The city is in darkness tonight. the
gas plant having been long ago aban-
| doned The electric light plant at the
dam was last night forced to run under
check, on account of the loss of power by