El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-05-10
A RAGING TORRENT.
RIO GRANDE WATERS PLAYING HA-
VOC WITH PROPERTY.
From 2:3O Sunday Morning Until the
Present Time the People Have Been
Fighting the Raging Torrents.

some OF UQe people Cdileu bHe LEX
AID sensational when it warned the
people about the river. The HERALD
reporter knew what he was doing in
warning the people about higher wa
| ter. Besides marks at the Stanton
street bridge which showed the rise in
| the river, the reporter was informed
| regularly by people from above that the
river was still rising and the floods Of
yesterday and today convinces the
public he was correct and not sensa-
| tional.
| Yesterday morning at 2:30 o'clock
the banks of the canal just below the
little smelter gave way and the flood
waters of the river began flowing in
| the crevesse and by day light the whole
bottom from the smelter to Rand s
grove was covered with water. The
river was still rising, but men were
put to work on the levee to stop the
break and all day they were hard at
work, and put in one thousand sacks OF
sand besides large amount of willow i,
| which was near at hand, but their work
availed nothing as the break grew
| larger all day, and all their efforts
were futile At one place the work
men dashed willows to full length of
railroad rail and when completed put
it in position across the crevesSe, but
no sooner was it put in position than
the force of the water almost bent the
rail double and swept out the willows,
sand bags and all.
During all the this time the water in
the bottom was rising and the back
water threatened the southeastern part
of the city. The Texas & Pacific rail
road furnished number of men to
help stop the break, but when the SUI
perintendent saw that they were doing
no good he pulled them off and sent
them down the canal to cut the bank so
that the water could flow back into the
river. After this was done the men sta
toned along the Texas &Pacific track
toswatch for breaks as the water in
Raud's grove was rising fast.
When the men working on the Gre
vesse saw their work was useless and
that the back water was endangering
their homes, they quit work and start
ed for their homes to protect their own
property. Many people living near
the bottom by this time had started to
move out, as the river had risen four
inches during the day. While they
were moving there were several other
breaks and the torrent of water from
the river began to pour in so fast that
before they could move their house
hold goods out the water had entirely
their houses. The alarm
was given by the firing of pistols and
many private citizens went to the as
sistauce of those in trouble, but not !
this the water rose so
fast that great deal of household pro- |
perty was lost. Mr.. Knox johnson had |
his dairy near the little smelter and |
before he could get all his cows out the !
water around his place was so deep |
that many of the COWS had to swim. |
Mr.. Johnson's house is of lumber aud |
was not damaged much, but all his |
poultry were drowned and everything |
alive that could not swim. |
His money loss will not amount
to so much, but he will have to keep !
his COWS at some other place until the |
water subsidies. A. j. Taylor's place, |
near the Il. & P. round house, was ear
ly surrounded by water. The house is !
of adobe aid before all the furniture |
could be moved ont the walls began
to give way and the kitchen utensils !
were lost, as it was unsafe to enter the |
building to get them out. The house !
was still standing this morning, but |
the walls were cracked and sprung and |
will likely fall before this paper is is
sued. The tannery was entirely sur
by water and as the building
is of adobe, it will likely fall before !
evening.
While all this was going on in differ
ent sections, the people on Fourth and |
lays street were hard at work throw
ing up an embankment around their ,
homes. Mr.. Guienne employed about |
thirty men at his own expense to
strengthen the levee he had already |