Omaha daily bee., 1896-12-04
NO DANGER FROM THE FLOODS
River Falling at Rate of a Foot a Day
and Water Will Get Away.
EXPERT OPINION FROM COLONEL JONES
Says the Course of the River VIII De
Changed slightly, hut that u
is Constantly Chang
Ing Anyway.

! river is falling at the rate of foot per
day, aud there is no reason whatever for
| apprehension, said Colonel W. A. Jones, U.
S A., to an Associated press representative
this afternoon, after he had put in busy
day investigating the situation along the
Chippewa river Colonel Jones, who is in
charge of the government engineering works
| in the northwest, had been called here by
the local authorities who sought expert
advice in what seemed like an extremity
and a critical situation.
He continued: THE situation of the river
at Eau Claire and at Chippewa Falls is prac-
ticaly the same, and the stgo of wter at
Eau Claire is really the stage OF the river,
as the food here is simply caused by the
back water Most of the water IL able to get
away under the ice and the hack water rep
reaents the amount of water that Is unable
to get away, As the stage of the river goes
down, more of this water will Gow away un-
der the ice and the flood here will soon be
over. The gorge extends about eighteen
miles. and is made up largely OF anchor ice,
| which is a sort of slush packed closely,
| but not so hard ordinary ice Under this
the river Is running In somewhat cramped
! quarters and as the water falls more, the
ice will drop down into the river bed. where
it is likely to atay until spring. the water
/ still running along under the mass of ice.
/ We seem to be starting regular, old-fash-
/ ioned winter, 40 that there Is every reason
| TO expect the Continutuce of the ice till
! spring. The course of the river will he
! changed slightly, but far as that goes, 1t
I iS constantly changing, anyway. 1t Is very
/ peculiar circumstance that there should be
such a frost in conjunction with n Hood but
, there would have been food here, ynaawy,
for you know we had a very heavy series
| of rainfals about Thanksgiving time, and
! the flood was sure to come. | can see no
cause for further fear of damage here"
GOES TO EAU CLAIRE NEXT.
Colonel Jones will visit Eau Claire aud
! look into the situation further tomorrow.
| The people of the Chippewa valley Will un-
! doubtedly feel much relieved over such an
opinion from such an authority and they
! certainly need to be relieved, for a sort Of
decentralization has seized on many business
4 men in Chippewa Falls which does not
seem warranted by the actual facts OF the
I case. Aside from loss OF business to those
: in the flooded districts and property loss
in the same location the loss in the city Will
I not be great. The big mill of the Chippewa
Logging and Boom company is in serious
/ position and any sudden break of the Ice
would seriously ondangsT 1t, even though
! there was n break in. the gorge formed
several miles above Looking up or down
( the river from the wagon bridge a mass
! of the broken white ice can be seen, with
! here and there dark Clump of logs frozen
| in the gorge. At the lower end of the gorge,
near Eau Claire is banked mass of logs
! containing 20,000,000 feet OF lumber. The
| ice and food have not encroached on the
banks of the river so much as feared and
! the damage is much less in the country
| than at first thought. The water has been
| Just about twenty-five feet all afternoon.
! 1t has been showing tonight, the ground
| being covered. but the cold weather continues
| with little change.
The railroads are not suffering so much as
! might be expected The Omaha runs along
! high bluffs and has not been in the least
| hampered in its workings. The Wisconsin
! Central tracks are lower and have at times
| been covered by the water, many of its
! trains had to use the Omaha tracks. Last
! night the water dropped over foot and
| it used its own tracks but early today the
water started UP again and its line had to be
! abandoned. The river branch of the Nil
waukee & st. Paul has stopped all business
| for the present its line extending along
| the course of the Chippewa river where the
! ice gorges and floods prevail.
One of the great uncertainties Is the way
/ the water rises and falls. 1t will drop
! foot more and the people begin to hope
! for relief from their fears and then tho
water rises faster than before and their
fears are redoubled The water seems TO
/ find an occasional crevice in the ice and the
falling through these lowers the water,
| which Immediately rises again afterwards.
In this way the level was lowered twelve
inches during the night and then climbed
! five inches in two or three early morning
| hours.
Along the river there are a number OF
critical situations In this city there are
I more fears from the result Ii the Little
Falls dam should break than over the local
! flood situation 1t is feared that a break
! in the Little Falls dam, seven miles north
of here, would carry nearly everything away
here. In the same way the people of Eau
Claire fear the result If the ice gorge here
breaks too suddenly. while those below
Durand are entertaining the fear for the
outcome there.
! The water yesterday reached twenty-four
feet eight Inches the highest yet and later
dropped back nearly foot but at $50 this
morning had again risen to the highest
figure of yesterday and was stil rising at
8 o'clock. Mayor and Manager Irwin OF
the logging company drove down the river
| to Gravel island. six miles from here where
an attempt will be made to break the gorge
ONE BRAVE ESCAPE.
thrilling escape of a family of five
persons four miles below this place occurred
this morning. A man named Barker lived
with his family. consisting of his wife two
small girls and boy in houae built upon
an island In the Chippewa river. The ice
had piled up so formdaby about the dwell
ling and seemed to threaten every minute to
crush 1t like an egg Siell that they deter
mined to abandon 1t and make for the shore.
Barker strapped the younger girl TO his
back and Mrs, Barker did the same for the
boy. The older girl then grasped her
fathers hand and the little party set out
on their perious journey across the noun
famous gorge, and made for the shore.
They leaped from cake to cake advancing
with considerable rapIdity until tley reached
a point where the ice had formed seem
ingly impossible gorge. without hesitation
they started to Chamber up the slippery
eminence, until about one-half way up, tho
older girl slipped and reeled back, but was
rescued by her father, and the race went on.
BY this time large crowd of spectators
rad gathered on the shore and were shout
ing cheers of encouragement TO the brave
little family. After desperate struggle
they finally reached the firm ice near the
shore where the waiting spectators lent
their assistance and the little party was in
safety.
A delegation of thirty or forty citizens
Of Eau Claire arrived in the city at noon
and called on Mayor Lindley Of Chippewa
Falls Mayor Henry Day OF Eau Claire on
their behalf spoke briefly expressing the
sympathy of the sister city In this disaster
and Offering any assistance that may be In
their power to give.
MILWAUKEE,, Dec "A special 10 the
Wisconsin from Chippewa Falls says: Late
this afternoon the water Is still rising. If
the water gets much higher the electric plant
VIII have to suspend entirely and the dark
moss will be total tonight. The weather IL