The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1896-01-01
The Flood in the West.
Gr eat Floods in Missouri and
Arkansas.

Gr eat FIOOQS IN missouri and
Arkansas.
LITTLE Rock, Ark, December "a.
The Arkansas River has continued
to rise during the past forty-eight
hours
At Fort Smith, between, 5000 and
10000 feet of bridge timber were
washed away, the water rising so
rapidly that it was impossible to
save it.
Traffic on the Kansas and Arkan-
sas Valley Railroad has been absn-
doned because Of the washing away
of the steel bridge at Fort Gibson,
l. T.
THE DELUGE IN MISSOURI.
St. Louis, December 24.-Yester-
days subsistence of the foods
throughout the State was only tenn
porary. Rain and snow fell over a
large area last night and this morn
ing again fs,ded the streams A
rescue party left Seneca this morning
to aid Walter Hennis and Dave Bee
man and their families, who were
forced to take refuge in tree tops in
the Spring River bottoms. The
Usage River for two hundred miles
is again over its banks and rising.
The damage throughout the State
has already reached the million
mark.
GREAT STORM IN TEXAS.
Dallas, Texas, December 24.-The
worst storm for years prevailed over
North and Central Texas from mid
night until 6 O'Clock this morning
The wind blew hurricane and rain
fell in torrents. Much damage has
been done to railways and all trains
are late. Big washouts are reported
on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas
Railroad and the Gulf. Colorado and
Santa Fe, in North Texas. The
Indian Territory ard Arkansas trains
are reported from seven to twelve
hours late, and trains on the Sante
Fe are entirely lost so far as ability
to hear from them is concerned.
Telegraphic communication between
Dallas and Kansas City and Dallas
and New Orleans is badly crippled.
There is bad wreck reported on the
Santa Fe system to the North, but
where it is and how serious has not
been learned.
THE OVERFLOW OF THE osAGE.
Kansas City, Mo-, December % -
Rain began falling last evening, and
has continued uninterruptedly since.
Throughout Missouri the storm has
been unusually severe. At Jefferson
the heavy rain last night caused
great alarm in the Usage and Moreau
River valleys The already swollen
sire ans are rising, and it is feared
that the high water of last week will
be greatly augmented. On the bot
tom farms fencing. haystacks, shock
corn and many outbuildings have
been swept away and many animals
have been drowned, and if the rain
continues for twenty-four hours
longer the river valleys will be de.
vastated Several lives are reported
to have been lost along the Usage
valley.
Word from Tuscumbia, sixty miles
up the Usage, is that more than l00,-
| 900 bushels of corn within small
radius of bottom land was washed
away last night, and thousands of
railroad ties and bridge timbers
have Aoated away. The Usage River
is now higher than it was in 1882,
when it broke the record. A :ele-
gram says that the Meramec is
higher than it was before. The Mis-
souri, is not dangerously high, but is
rising and promises to be booming
soon.
The Missouri, Kansas and Texas
tracks have been washed away in
Vernon County. During the food
two families camped on the White
farm, near Smitbfeld, Mo, were
missing and were supposed to have
been drowned The Russell boys,
the older under l6 years of age,
began a search for them and finally
found them, thirteen men, women
and children on a wagon box on a
haystack with mile Of water around
them 10 every direction. The lads
conveyed them two at time in safety
to land.
Lockport, Ill.,, Dec. 27.-The powder
magazine at Smith & Eastmen's section