El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-05-17
THE FLOODS.
A Close Look at the Breaks From Stall-
ton Street to the River.

HERALD reporter made a trip over
the flooded district this morning. from
Stanton street to RhOtan's place il
East Ell Paso. The trip is not an easy
one and had to be made by boat, wagon
and afoot. The work on the washout
south of the little smelter has been
abandoned and the main current of the
river now runs through that crevesse.
The work already done by the rail
road company will save the east end Of
the levee thrown up by the city, but
the water will continue to flow through
the southeastern portion of town until
the high water recedeS. AT the point
where the canal bank was broken the
river has made a channel about six
feet deep and the work done by the
railroad people has narrowed the
deeper. All the way the break could
be stopped now would b, by driving
piles and filling in with rock.
AT another place, just back OF Rand 8
groves the river has broken through
the canal and through gap one hun
dred yards wide the main current OF
the river flows. This is caused by the
rip-rap work on the Mexican side
which catches the current and shoo's
it right across towards Rand's grove.
This body of water comes down through
race through the gap in the spur of the
Texas & Pacific track. 1t looks very
much like the main channel Of tbs
river is going to change here which
would ruin the canal and throw large
amount of land on the other side of the
river. The wash in the Texas q
Pacific track keeps widening and cav
ing in and is now almost up TO the coal
schultz. The company has set force
81 - Il inn
washout to keep it from further dam
aging the track. It was reported this
morning that the railroad intended
putting a steam pile driver to work on
this wash and would fill it up this way.
This break is all that prevents the
water from rising in the south eastern
part of town and the people OF that
neighborhood are scared up over the
report that the washout will be filled
up. A number of people in that sec-
ton of town have been fighting the
food for a week and feel very much
discouraged now that they have been
left to the mercy of the water, as all
work between them and the river las
been stopped. Their only hope now
lies in the water falling instead of
rising, but reports from above are
against them.
The Southern Pacific Railroad COM
pdOH mas CuduRc1 tuC Od-S vi leS otJCi q"
tons and since yesterday morning have
been working about 80 men on the
East Ell PasO levee. There were only
two breaks in this levee aud the work
yesterday stopped one of these and the
last break has already been thoroughly
timbered and the gap is being filled up
fast with sacks of sand. This work is
being done so systematic ally and thor
oughly that by midnight the flow OF
ast FL PaSn will he StOnnp6
and trains will be abe to run over the
track by tomorrow afternoon. Why
the railroad people never tried to fill
these two gaps in the East Ell Paso
levee before is mystery, as whole
weeks work would have b2eu saved if
they had begun work there last Mon
day. The work already done has
lowered the water in East | Paso
at least two feet, but it has caused the
water to rise on the river side of the
levee and it has backed up to several
points where it never reached before.
At the Myrtle street crossing of the L.
& P. track the water is almost up to
the crossing. 1t is now possible to pass
all along the levee to the end at Rho
tan's place but there is no use for
crowd to go down there and try it as
there is only a foot path for the one
hundred and fifty men working there
on the levee, some one would be bound
to 60 into the water and at places 1t is
six fest deep right along side the levee.
The railroad company expect by
mid ght to put $1,000 sacks of dirt
The Southern Pacific has received
&c, 600 meal sacks which they are using
to ustop the washouts. They were
short on sacks at noon, but expected
more by the , o'clock train.
ol- <,ft hn il
der water for five miles down the val |
ley, but as soon as the break is stopped |
all the water will be run off, but the
track is left in terrible cond tion, as it |
Is almost buried in mud and there Is no
to the road bed, not even |
enough to do crib work. However, |
after the water runs off the railroad |
will find some way to bolster it up 50 |
that trains can be passed over.
The weeks washout has cost the |
railroad companies thousands of dol |
Texas g. Pacific had to abandon its |
fast fruit trains and they are now all
run by Albuquerque. 1t is the
same with their sugar trains and all
other classes of traffic.
Besides this the railroads have had
several car loads of psrishable goods
On the other side of the wash out ex-
pect1ng to get by every day ana ihey
have had to bring ic, from Abilene
twice to ice the cars. Then several car
loads of cattle have been in the sock
pens here to 90 east and these cattle
have been left on the hands OF the Tex
as & Pacific company who are feeding
them
All through traffic on the Southar n
Pacific has been abandoned and moth
ng but local trains have gone west
rom Ell Paso for week. The loss to
,he railroads cannot be less than S2O,-
)C0 per day.
There is much comment over the in
activity of the city and county author
ties. The city claims they have no
10 donate money for that
purpose, while the county does not
jhink it has any business building
evees in the city limits. TIE Southern
Pacific railroad offered to furnish half
,he funds for the purpose of building
evee from the Stanton street bridge
east, provided the county. city or canal
com pany would stand the Other half of