Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-03-29
THOUSANDS OF ACRES UNDER WAT.
Err AT SULLIVAN. IND.
MANY FAMILIES IN DANGER.
OHIO RISING RAPIDLY AND MAY
BREAK ITS LEVEES.
Has Reached q Stage of Over Sixty.
one Feet at Cincinnati-River
Pirates Are Reaping . Rich
Harvest In the Flood.
ed District.

Sullivan, Ind, March eS.-The levee on
the Wabash river went out tonight with a
break Of 100 feet. entailing a loss OF 100000.
Twenty thousand acres Of land are over
flowed. and hundreds Of families are rem
dered homeless and destitute. Citizens
are responding for miles around in their
efforts to remove families and stock Hun
dreds of cattle and horses are hemmed
in. Such a rush Of water was never known
in this section of the country before.
4 calamity, second only to the great
Johnstown flood, is upon US. The levee Is
eleven miles long and was built at a cost OF
$O,60.
A grand effort is being made to rescue the
families from their submerged homes.
The Indiana & Illinois railroad suffers a
serious loss. h road officials are direct
ing and rendering every assistance in the
work of relief. The waters at this hour. 9
o'clock. are making a mad rush through
the bottom lands, uprooting trees and taxi
ing everything in It's path. 1t Is feared that
many people who were slow to take warn
ing, will meet death In the flood. a dis
patch from Emerson says that 1900 BUSH
els of corn and sixty-five hogs were swept
away by the floods to-day.
An Osgood special says:
The b. & o. S. w. railroad canno run
trains over this part OF the road. Tho
track east OF here between Lawrenceburg
and Aurora for three and one-half miles is
four feet under water. Trains go to Gin
cinnati by North Vernon via the Big Four
route.
The Ohio Is rising at the rate of five
inches an hour with no immediate pros
poets of stopping. The conditions 'are
alarming and fears that the levee will
break at Lawrenceburg are entertained
TIL Wabash reached 22.7 feet to-day, this
being the highest ever known and Is still
rising. The levees below the city which
nave stood the pressure gave way this aft
ernoon and the lowlands of Lawrence
county. already Inundated by the overflow.
and loss loss Of property viii be great.
Cincinnati. March 2s.-Until the weather
becomes settled there can be no reliable
Ohio. But for the rain which began about
2 o'clock this morning In the OHIO valley
the river here her would not not have ave reached r III
o'clock this morning was one,haf inch: To-
night rain is reported from the. same storm
s fssn F1 sss oSio fe laliins as sl points POINTS
above here. Tit swell that brought the
Ohio to sixty-one feet one inch here this
low. the Little Miami above and from the
hill side torrents on both banks OF the
river further up stream. From 5 to 8 o'clock
this afternoon the river was stationary
Since then 1t has risen one-tenth of q foot
hourly and at 10 o'clock Is sixty-one and
three-tenthS. Wnat II Snali De to-moIfoW
depends wholly on whether or not there
will be additional rainfall in the Ohio val
ley. ALI railways are running trains on
their regular lines tonight. The condition
of people exiled from homes by water Is
the same as yesterday.
The only difference In the flooded dis
tricts from hat reported last night Is that
the water is nearly two feet deeper. 1t
has reached the foot Of the hill nearly
everywhere, so that to extend Its invasion
it will have to rise relatively much higher
Steamboat navigation down the river con-
tinues without interruption. If there Is no
more rainfall the river will begin to decline
about midnight at about 61.5 feet and after
that will run out rapidly.
River pirates are reaping a harvest
These are fresh water tramps of unknown
antecedents and mysterious means of sub
sistence who infest the whole length Of
the river, living in shanty boats. They are
all astir in skiffs now picking up whatever
owners ashore to place a double guard on
property.