The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-04-30
Scores ARE DROWNED
Wall OF Water Six Feet High
Sweeps Through Guthrie.
FLOOD COMES EARLY IN MORNING.

Hundreds of People Take Refuge In Trees
and Cannot BE Released Until Boats Are
Buiit-scores of People Are Missing
Many People Caught ia Bed and
Drowned Before They Could Escape
Large Number of Houses Destroyed.
Guthrie o. T., April 29.-At O'clock
Wednesday morning a mighty wave of
water, feet high and mile wide
swept down Cottonwood valley and
struck this city. A deafening roar went
up as the water crushed houses and
drove the people from their homes At
the first rush every boat and bridge
were swept away. All West Guthrie is
submerged, and twenty of the business
houses have ten feet of water in them.
The river is thirty feet above ordinary
level. Hundreds of people are in trees.
but cannot be helped. Several men
who were trying to swim the current to
reach four women and a baby in a tree
were carried away. A woman waiing
from her home with a baby on her head
was swept away and lost
Fifty Persons Drowned.
1t is believed that more than score
| Of negroes were drowned in the negro
settlement and persons who have es-
capped from the flood estimate that fully
| fifty persons have been drowned. Nine
| people were seen to drown, two women
and a child were carried away on d
bridge and one man and two women
were on a house roof when ii went &C
.stGh G
no communication it was absolutely i'm
possible to get names. Scores are miss
ing and many buildings are still going
/ A girl in a peach tree for hours jus
J. gave up and fell into the water
Hundreds Of men are building boat
\ at the lumber yards. Gus Platt ant
4 George Willis swan the main current
cut a flatboat from it's moorings an
saved seven people, making landin
seven miles below the city. 1t Is be
lieved that many were caught in bed i
the small houses and drowned. The -bi
Cimarron bridge is gone. Immens
damage has been done in the countr!
Skeleton creek has washed away score
of farm houses and sevral people al
drowned.
Among those known to have browne
are Mrs. Ella Dumas, six members
the Clemmons family, George w. Est
and Mrs. James Watt. The wife
James Montgomery, George Thorntc
and James Lilly are among those WI
= are supposed to have persisted. An III
known white man, wife and chlld, Jul
| foated down the river on house Whl'
0 had toppled over and drowned theI
, OF six boats sent across inundated oil
tricts four have been capsiZed. Mo
are being built to aid in the work
9 rescue.
Weeks Before Loss Can BE Known.
? There are many persons who claim
have seen many people drowned.
! will be almost impossible to find
u bodies before weeks have passed, as
y erything is swept into the Cimarron II
Is or two miles away. The Cimarron RI
or Is from one to two miles wide. L
|. large wagon bridge has gone out, and
" is feared that the newly completed 81
- bridge of the Santa Fe railway is wea
=: ened. The tracks of the Santa re
+" submerged and traffic has been ana
doned. Small railway bridges In all
rections have been washed out. ]
losses in Guthrie will reach thousai
of dollars. The disaster equals
70 chandler tornado for its terrible 81