Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1896-12-04

has been day of excitement and anx-
iety, and tonight finds the inhabitants of
this little village In state bordering on
panic. The worst of the situation Is the
knowledge of the impending danger
and of the fact that they are utterly
helpless to stay or avert it. Those
whose houses have been flooded have
removed much of their household goods
and belongings to higher ground and
are huddIed together in the school.
houses and other vacant buildings,
out of the path of the torrent that Is
sweeping down several of the main
streets.
All hope of breaking the gorge and
thus allowing the pent-up waters to
| gradually sudside is now abandoned.
All efforts today were directed to re-
moving household goods and merchan-
disc out of reach of the flood. Every
team in the city has been engaged In
this work. Every resident and business
firm of River street have moved out.
The Chippewa Lumber and Boom
companY's mill and yard are under
water, anc all hope has vanished of saw
ing the entire business portion of the
place from being submerged, and the
wate- will soon reach the courthouse,
eight blocks from the river.
A report from Little Falls was
brought in this morning that another
gorge was formed thirty miles above
here, and this greatly added to the
alarm, and in case 1t should break, moth
ing could save the city from being
swept away. Reports of very serious
country everywhere Is flooded. The
gorge continues to grow in extent. 1t
is now FIVE miles long and in many
places thirty to fifty feet high. 1t COM
pletely dams the river, and this is what
is causing the rapid rise of the river
here. The heavy rains of last week
here were followed by sudden freeze,
which suddenly massed the floating Ice
in the Chippewa, and the swiftly run
ming current continually added to 1t un-
til 1t reached Its present gigantic pro-
portions. Below here the Chippewa is
falling. There is no food at Eau Claire
but this fact is causing the people al
that place much uneasiness, as 1t indi'
Gates the water is being piled up bysa
dam above them. The ice-pack at Bad
ger mills, half way between Eau Claire
and Chippewa Falls, is growing in ex
tent, and everything seems to indicate
that the river is choking up.
The Chippewa river is filed will
gorges at many points. At Flambea,
farm the river ran over Its banks, de
stroying goo head of live stock and ruin
) Ing dozen farms.
1t is feared the course of the rive
will be changed, throwing 1t directly OF
the town and completely inundating IT
, In that event heavy loss to property
and life cannot be avoided.
The business portion of Chippewi
5 Falls is abandoned tonight, and tn
flood may sweep away many of tn
buildings without damaging scarcely
dollars worth of merchandise and othe
valuable goods that were stored Their
until today. Business men decided no
to take chances with the foe that threat
; ened to sweep their possessions fror
g them, and at an early hour they bega
( the removal of their stocks.
. At o'clock tonight every bushes
Z house on Spring street and Bridge stree
from the river to Center street is d.
7. serted and the contents of buildings hav
q been stored in unoccupied structures
remote portions of the city, where tn
floods cannot reach unless the entiI
D. city is overwhelmed and swept away.
The Chippewa river shows!no signs
abatement. It rose four feet today ar
at o'clock this evening the water
If rising at the rate of two inches an hou
ID The postoffice is under three feet
X alter, and Postmaster Mccall has move
:. the Office seven blocks from its old loo
n ton. Ten stores on the south side
ne Spring street are inundated. The ofic
Id of the Hrald and the Independent new
papers are flooded and the papers W
be issued from other buildings. II
stores of Heller & Jacobs, jenkins Bro
u E. Posnansky, Weilberg Bros, Godda
II. & Wilson, the Goodluck Dry Goo
O.. company and the Mitchell restaura
r.. are under water, and twenty other fri
lct have vacated their places of business.
its At Chippewa Falls the river is full
ur three-quarters of mile wide, and
ed surface is covered with Ice to der
Ter varying from ten to thirty feet. T
Did most stubborn resistance offered by
Try obstruction is in that portion of the riN
no between the wagon bridge and the c.
at trail railroad bridge, about half mile
oss length.
,ss Today Mayor Lindley ordered an
a plosion of 500 pounds of dynamite,
after 900 pounds had been exploded
experiment was abandoned as failu
al. Nilroad officials who viewed the go
sic, stated that there is not sufficient dy
wn mite obtainable to blast a channel
to the river through the frozen mass
18th, snow, logs and Ice. The river has ri