The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-04-28
FLOOD FATALITIES.
Several Lives Reported Lost Below
St. Louis.
ANOTHER BAD LEVEE BREAK.

Hundreds of Homes Under Water In
the eNinety-eieht Square Miles Which
Have just Been Submerged-A Rush
For Life 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 bean lost, and many people
are imperiled by the rapidly rising
waters. Thousands of acres of farm
lands on both the Illinois and Missouri
sides of the Mississippi river have been
inundated, or will be soon. Stock has
been drowned and crops destroyed. Ac-
cording to the weather bureau both
rivers will continue to rise.
While Joseph Johnson, William Dali
ton, Minnie Frazier Mrs. Ida Bugg
and her two small children were at
tempting to ford 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 broke 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
miles long by seven miles wide is COW
cred with water.
Couriers were sent on horseback to
the Husback district, and a 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
flood.
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 Megs, of the
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
culties. 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 levec
from being further broken. This Is
almost impossible, for the water Is
rushing through the break at ter
rife rate. and 1t is unsafe for the
steamers to approach it.
The situation here and at Alexandria
is practically unchanged. The water Is
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 has
just begun in the Illinois bottoms. Tho
crevasse will make the Mississippi IA
miles wide at this place.