The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1897-04-28
FLOOD FATALITIES.
Several Lives Reported Lost Below
st, Louis.
ANOTHER BAD LEvEB BREAK.

Hundreds OF Homes Under Water In
the Ninety-oight square Miles which
Have Just Been Submerged "a Rush
For Llfo by Farmers Families.
st. Louis. April 2s.-The food situa-
tion throughout the neighboring Mis-
sissippi and Missouri river territory
Is one of the gravest danger. At sew
eral points the swollen streams have
overlapped their banks and burst
through the levees. Already several
lives have been lost and many people
are imperiled by the rapidly rising
waters. Thousands of acres of farm
.ands on both the Illinois and Missouri
sides of the Mississippi river have been
Inundated. or viii be soon, Stock has
been drowned and crops destroyed. Ac-
cording to the weather bureau both
rivers viii continue to rise.
While Joseph Johnson, William Dal-
ton, Minnie Frazier, Mrs. Ida Bugg
and her two small children were at
tempting to ford a swollen stream in
a wagon at Jackson the wagon was
overturned and the women and two
children were drowned.
The Hunt levees, which protected the
Hunt drainage district, on the Illinois
side, below Warsaw hoke yesterday,
sending the Mississippi over one of the
most fertile regions in the Mississippi
valley, The widest excitement pre-
walls, for fully 10000 acres of land and
hundreds of homes are under water
The lowest part Of the district is just
below the Bluffs, seven miles back Of
the levee, and the water is making
straight for the hills. Territory IA
cred with water,
Ceuriers We're sent on horseback to
the Husback district, and condition
Of disorder and fright everywhere pre-
vailed, Some were unable to save any
thing, and barely escaped with their
lives. 1t is feared that some have
been caught and surrounded by the
food.
The levee was covered yesterday
with a crowd of farmers and their
wives hurrying their children and
their live stock to places of safety
Many are now camped out on the hills
with absolutely nothing left, Poverty
and untold suffering must inevitably
follow this disaster
Levee Commissioner Shaffer at once
telegraphed to Major Meigs, of tho
government fleet at Keokuk Ia, for
aid. The latter Immediately ordered
the steamer Mae to the spot, with
barges of sandbags, and he followed
shortly after with the Vixen. The
crevasse is nearly 800 feet wide, and
the fleet is working under great diff
cultles. The break may be repaired,
but in the meantime the whole dis
trict is being flooded. Efforts are being
made to keep the ends of the levee
from being further broken. This is
almost impossible, for the water is
rushing through the break at a ter
rife rate, and it is unsafe for the
steamers to approach It,
The situation here and at Alexandria
is practically unchanged. The water 10
more tranquil, and has stopped flowing
over the levees, having reached its
level in the bottom,
The break on the Illinois side il
drawing the water away from here
and will prove a slight relief although
both the Mississippi and the Des
Moines rivers are rising above
The crest of the flood has doubtless
been reached here, but the worst ha.
just begun in the Illinois bottoms. The
crevasse win make the Mississippi 1.
miles wide at this place,