The age-herald., 1898-04-05
Those Who Escaped in Great
 Peril From Weather. WIND BLOWING BITTER COL D Governor TannOr En Route to the Scene
 With Food and Tents. THE PITIFUL STORY OF A SON Who, In a Skih, Got Within Forty Feet of His Parents, to ..s fe See Them Carried Down By the Madden ed Waters.
THE PITIFUL STORY OF A SON

l fcod of the Iron road bridge, but that at | the railroad bridge is still two feet above | At one point on the Big Four( @ mile north | Of Carmi, the track is but one foot above | water for a quarter of mile.
 Every means of assistance Is used to | provide food and shelter to the hundreds | of homeless refugees at Shawneetow1I. Last 1 night the school house, city hall and the | Riverside hotel, all situated on high ground
 above the water, were crowded with home | less people. Absolutely nothing has been saved in the city. The stores and other business houses are flooded to the second | floors and all the streets are under water from ten to thirty feet. Provisions are | constantly arriving from all the nelghbor- | ing towns.
 | J. T. Hogan( of Omaha, Ill.,, left the
 scene of the flood half an hour before the l dyke broke. Ills brother-in-law, Sheriff | Galloway, of Gallatin county. whose home | was in Shawneetown, had the same good fortune. Teh sheriff's wife and two daugn- ters were swept away their bodies have not yet been recovered. Hogan's story of the flood shows that the people had absolutely no warning of the disaster Sheriff Describes the Break 9ssi "About o'clock last evening"" he said, "the Ieyee on the north side of town gave
 away at the north end of Market street near the court house. An opening ten feet wide was at first made but 1t quickly
 spread to twenty and a wall of water ten or fifteen feet high poured through the
 main street sweeping everything before
 it. About fifty small frame houses along
 the line of the river to the south were crushed to atoms and none or the occu-
 pants, most of whom were poor coiofed folks escaped. Those living in the more substantial houses managed to climb to sec ond and third stories, where they clung for hours through the chilly night. Houses m the western part of the town did not at | once feel the effect of the flood and resi. | dents made nasty steps for safety, most or l them fleeing to the top of the levee on the l south side of the town. A large number | also reached the little hills, which are a l mile from the town and from there saw | their property crumble in the muddy waters When daylight came this morn- ing the streets were full of water to a depth of ten or twelve feet. Only the most substantial buildings in the central busi-
 ness district remain standing Water Is everywhere and the relief work is being
 carried out under great dif1culties'
 Warned by Church Bells
 Mrs. Harriet Dumont was one of the rivals tonight from the flooded district Mrs. Dumont, in company with friend, was walking along the levee at the time
 the break occurred. She said:
 s.It was about 4:25 in the afternoon when
 we were suddenly startled by hearing the bells of the different churches throughout the city changing. People began running in all directions and somebody shouted that the levee had broken. We ran three blocks to my friends home and went up- stairs Within ten minutes the water came pouring down the street and within | twenty minutes more it had risen almost to | the second floor of our house. My friend
 husband soon came to us with skif and l took us to the Riverside hotel. The | first alarm was given by Father Buckman, | who began ringing the bell of the Church | of the Immaculate Conception
 Ed Flake, whose wife was drowned, came | to Cypress Junction today and said there were fifteen people in his house when the | flood struck the building Only himself ana l one other succeeded in escaping betore the | building toppled over. :, l MT. Flake was hysterical from grief, and could not give the names of thirteen who | were lost. Saw His Parents GODown
 Mark Callicott, made heroic efforts to save his parents. He secured a,row boat l and got within forty feet of the house | where his mother and father were im- 1 prisoned. The swift current prevented him | from coming nearer The parents stood | in the yard in water to their armpts | awaiting the arrival of the boat. Suddenly | a wave swept them into the current and | they were drowned before their; son could get to their rescue. aGT
 | | little granddaughter when the water struck
 his store and, holding her above his head, waded armpit deep toward high ground. l A boat picked them both out of the water. | David Rookendorfer and wife were in their home, directly In the path of the huge wave that swept through the broken dyke. Their | little son in the yard saw the wave coming and hurredly climbed tree. The, father | and mother had time to rush upStalrS, | when the house was swept from its fonn- | dations. They climbed on the roof as the | house floated off and heard their little son
 in the tree crying, Goodbye, papa and | mamma" 1si
 The agonized parents were powepless, to go to his assistance and in few moments
 the house had been carried beyond othe 1 reach of the boys voice. They foated 1 from the north levee to the south levee, a
 distance of mile and were taken off in
 safety The little son was subsequently,
 rescued in the tree top by boat and the
 family reunited. MT Rookendorfer said
 that as he fioated down he saw people
 drowning on all sides.
 threatened With Fatal Destruction
 Ridgeway, H., April 4.-Shawneetown
 fiood-swept last night. is threatened with l total destruction tonight. Innumerable
 more lives may be lost before another day
 is passed.
 Hundreds of people have not yet been
 resucued from the houses in which they | have been imprisoned, others are in the
 tree tops and still others are afoat on the
 waves of the torrent. Late reports say the
 entire levee will be destroyed by morning
 and that every frame house in the town | is certain to be dashed to pieces. The wind l is blowing thirty-five miles an hour with
 rain that cuts like glass. Grave fear Is ex-
 pressed for the rescue force now in Shaw
 neetown. as nothing can resist the boyer | of the waves dashlng ten feet high under
 the impetus of the gale. If the storm does
 not cease the entire town is doomed, as
 we'll as most of the people who have not
 vet reached the hilltops.