The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-04-28
50 DROWNED.
A Mighty Wave of Water
Sweeps Through Guthrie.
Every Boat and Bridge Swept
Away by the First Rush.
PEOPLE CLIMB TREES.
A Woman Trying to Wade Out
With Her Baby
Is Swept Away by the Furious
Current.
A Rescuing Party of Four Men
is Drowned.
A DEEPENING Roar
Went Up From the Torrent,
Which Was a Mile Wide
And Six Feet High-River 80
Feet Above Low Water.
DEAFENING ROAR
Went Up From the Torrent,
Which Was a Mile Wide
And Six Feet High-Rfver 80
Feet Above Low Water.

St. Louis, April 28-A dispatch
from Guthrie, 0. T., says:
At o'clock this morning a mighty
wave of water six feet high and a mile
wide swept down Cimarron 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 was 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 ordin-
ary 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 wading from her home with
q baby on her head was swept away
and lost It is believed that more
than a. score of negroes were drowned
in the negro settlement and persons
who have escaped from the flood esti-
mate that fully so persons have been
drowned
from Guthrie to the Beacon says:
Nine people were seen to drown. Two
women and a child were carried away
on a bridge; one man and two women
We're on a house roof when it went to
pieces and they perished. AS there is
no communication it is absolutely i'm
possible to get names. Scores are
missing and many buildings are still
going. A girl in q peach tree for hours
just gave up ard fell into the water.
Hundreds of men are building boats at
their dOOryards.
L. S. Platt and George Willis swan
the main current, cut a hatbOat from
its moOrings and saved seven people,
making q landing miles below the city.
1t is believed that many were caught in
bed in small houses and drowned. The
big CimarrOn bridge is gone Immense
damage has been done in the country
Skeleton creek washed away scores of
farm houses and several people were
drowned.
Wichita, Kan, April 28-The Santa
F'e officials here have received no re
ports from Guthrie concerning the flood
only as to its effect on their property.
They are advised that the tracks be-
tween Guthrie and Seward, seven miles
south, are under water from two to
thirty feet deep. So far as known, the
numerous bridges and draws between
the two places are still intact, but it is
feared that as soon as the water sub
sides the bridges viii go out and part
of the roadbed will probably be wash
ed away.
superintendent Dolan of the southern
division has dispatched train crews to
the scene from every point and has sent
large supplies of material from Wich-
fta. Arkansas City and Purcell The
train northbound from Guthrie will ar
rive over an hour late.
st. Louis, April 2S.-A special to the
Post Dispatch from Guthrie, Ok says:
Among those known to have drown
ed are Mrs. Ella Dumas six members
of the Clemmons family, George w.
Esters and Mrs James Watt The
wife of James Montgomery, George
Thornton and James Lilly are among
those who are supposed to have perish
ed An unknown white man, wife and
child just hoated down the river on
house which had toppIed over and
drowned them.
OF six boats sent across the inundated
district, four have been capsized. More
are being built to aid in the work of
rescue.