New-York tribune., 1899-07-07
FLOODS IN THE SOUTH.
LOSS OF LIVES EXAGGERATED, LOSS OF
PROPERTY HIGH.
MANY PEOPLE RESCUED BY BoATs-Gov
EMINENT SENDS OUT RATIoNs-cRoPs
NOT WHOLLY DESTROYED.

! tendent OF machinery for the Santa Fe Railroad.
| arrived at Galveston on the last through train
| the road has been able to run. The Brazos River
/ at Rosenburg is running wild. Mr.. Collision says.
! but with regard TO the ultimate damage he is
| very optimistic. He thinks the damages are
greatly overestimated. and that the loss TO crops
| in the bottoms will be counterbalanced by the
! Increased yield on the uplands He started at
noon a special train for the flooded district.
carrying provisions for the destitute.
! At Sunnyside twelve miles from Brookshire,
the Brazos River is ordinarily two hundred
yards wide. About parallel with this and two
| and a half miles away is Elm Creek, which is
seldom over thirty feet wide. and in midsummer
often dry. The two streams separated by
low bottom lands and are now united. making
river between five and six miles wide and
/ from sixty TO seventy feet deep. Along the cur
| rents nineteen people rescued yesterday in
skiff sent from Houston. The people were
demolishing their sheds and outhouses and
making boxes that they used for boats. Cattle
found resting their heads in the boughs Of
trees making pitiable struggle for existence.
| AT one point two houses were seen coming down
! the stream. In Of them a man
! and two women, and on the other woman and
/ five children were clinging and calling for help.
| One Of these was a two-story affair and the
other was a smaller dwelling. They passed on
with the foaming current. and may have struck
an obstruction and been smashed to pieces, or
! found their way into the Gulf.
Twenty-Five rowboats. fully manned and pro-
visoned left here to-day for the section over
| flowed TO assist in saving life and property
GOVERNOR ASKED FOR AID.
Governor Sayers has been asked by Represen-
tative W H. Ellis to call special session Of
! the Legislature 10 relieve the distress. The
| Santa Fe main line trains have been abandoned
/ between Galveston and the Brazos River.
| Trains west Of the river running on schedule
! time The Southern Pacific and Missouri Kan
| sas and Texas bridges across the Brazos River
| are reported to have been swept away this
morning.
! Reports from correspondent Of THE News"
| indicate that while the property loss by the re-
! cent foods has been enormous. the loss OF life
| has been greatly exaggerated. According TO
! The News" only two lives have been lost in
! the lower Brazos food.
| Every year the Brazos and Colorado valleys
| suffer from foundations. Up TO the present
! food the greatest destruction from the annual
! inundations was in 1855 This year the high
| water mark OF lAj has been surpassed in
Washington. Waller Austin, Fort Bend and
! Brazos counties in Southern Texas The Brazos
! is falling rapidly in the central part OF the
/ State the scene OF last weeks food The food
reached the southern part Of the State Sunday
| night and Monday. The planters had received
/ ample warning. but many negroes remained IN
! the Rrazos Valley believing the water would
! not reach higher than in 1885. From fifteen
| hundred to two thousand colored people were
! caught in the valley. in Austin. Waller and
! Fort Bend counties and forced to take TO
! the trees and housetops An appeal was made
! to Houston for boats but Houston had sent all
! boats available further up the river last week 70
| Calvert and Bryan. Governor Sayers, at the
| suggestion OF Congressman Hawley, appealed TO
/ the War Department for permission 10 send
! Government ufesaving boats from Galveston.
! Permission was granted and a special train LETT
/ this afternoon for the flooded districts carry
ing several Government and a number or prl-
! ,ata boats II is believed that nearly all the
| neople lodged in trees and on housetops have
/ been rescued. but the boats sent from CAVES
/ ton to-day will patrol the flooded districts ana
| make a thorough search for straggers. good
indication that the people have been rescued IS
the fact that a special relief party started out
from Brookshire Tuesday night and patroled
the river all night. but found no one TO rescue
GOVERNMENT RATIONs ORDERED.
The War Department has authorized Governor
Savers TO distribute ten thousand Army rations
among the food sufferers the rations 10 be fur
nished 70 the Governor from San Antonio. These
rations will be distributed at Wallis, Richmond
Rosenb berg Thompson, Dunke. Arcola, Fulshear'
Cbenango Columbia Velasco, Navasota, Cal
vert Herne Bryan and Brenham. In addition
| IN the War Department rations, Houston ana
Galveston have sent several carloads OF gro
ceries into the flooded district. II is believed
there is now food enough in transit 10 feed the
reeroes until the waters recede and they can
return n nlantation work AS 10 crops cotton
il not lost II is entirely washed out in some
places but. on the whole, more good than harm
has been done to crops by the flood cotton
will be replanted in most cases. Corn mas
soured in some localities. but the crop is not an
entire loss Those who looking for big de-
crease in the Texas cotton crop because OF
foods in ten out of two hundred and fifty organ
lied counties in the State. and not few unor-
ganized counties. will be disappointed. The
ground in the inundated counties constitutes the
garden spot Of the State. There is plenty OF
time to raise cotton before January 1900.
vELAsCO WARNED IN TINE.
The next trouble will be at Velasco the
mouth Of the Brazos whore the foods reached
to-day The town may be cut OF from com
rnunication with the world for day or two
but no loss Of life is anticipated, because the
people had two days notice that the Hood had
broken loose above and was coming down.
The revenue cutter Galveston will leave here
tonight for Velasco to rescue those really In
danger at that point. The sending Of Govern
ment boats 10 the flooded district was ad-
visable. although II is believed nearly every
person in danger has been rescued. The dona-
ton OF the war rations was most timely as sew
eral thousand homeless negroes Will nave 70 De
fed for ten days.
The hood situation is now we'll In hand. The
das,i,u,e will be fed and receive work on rail-
y,avs until the flood will permit them 10 re-