Connecticut western news., 1899-07-06
HUNDREDS ARE IN PERIL
Direful Work of the Floods
 In Texas.
GREAT LOSS OF LIFE REPORTED.
Four Hundred Persons Cut on From Escape by the Raging Torrent, and All Are Thought to Have Perished In the Waters.

Dallas. July 5.-Another flood disaster which. from the first bulletins received here, appears to be worse than that al Calvert on Friday and Saturday last occurred in the Brazos valley about 10t miles down the river from Calvert. Re ports say that the large steel bridge of the Missouri. Kansas and Texas railroad at Dewey station. near the crossing of the Brazos river, is gone. The river in that section began rising suddenly on Monday and last night was six feet high. er than ever before known. Immense drifts of houses, trees, fences. etc, are floating past Sealey and Dewey.
 Alarming reports come from Lagrange and Sealey of loss of life in the vicinity Df Brookshire. Houston has been appeal ed to for help. and Mayor Brasher of that city has issued proclamation calling. for men and boats to rescue those in danger. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas rail. road is sending out relief trains from Houston, Lagrange and other points.
 Photographic communication with the new flood districts has been entirely cut off. Chief Lineman Lowry of the Postal Telegraph company makes the following statement over the long distance tele- phone from Sealey, 250 miles south of Dallas:
 'The Brazos river here is more than five miles wide. and the waters are lash ing furiously. All character of tioatable property is rushing along with the cur rent. On this side of the river tat Sealeyl there is as yet little danger. but on the other side Dewey and Brookshire) the conditions are terrible. Brookshire Is 13 miles from Sealey and 37 miles from Houston. We cannot get from the Sea ley side to the Dewey and Brookshire side, and, as our wires are all gone on that side, we cannot tell the extent of the disaster at Brookshire. I reached Sealey last night in a small boat after spending the previous night on an island four miles from here.
 'The big bridge of the Missouri, Kan sas and Texas railroad at Dewey is ruin ed. It is covered with water, and the center span is six inches out of line. The entire structure is likely to go at any minute. Four miles of Missouri, Kansas and Texas track is gone on the Dewey side, and about a mile on the Seayey side has been washed away. If boats and special trains from Houston or other points have not yet reached Brookshire, they are too late.
 Hundreds May He Lost.
 ''The people, I fear, will be drowned before they can be reached. Last night there were from 300 to 400 people on a small island near Brookshire, and the water was rapidly rising. l fear they are drowned by this time, as they had not the slightest means of escape.
 'The river here is six feet higher than in 1885, which was the record up to the present. The damage to property is enor- mous."
 One thousand miles of country tribu- tary to the Brazos river and 500 miles tributary to the lower Colorado and Guadalupe rivers is laid waste as the result of one of the most disastrous floods that ever visited Texas.
 The river has engulfed thousands upon thousands of acres of farm land. running millions of dollars worth of property, sacrificing 100 lives so far as reported along the course of the flood, and 1t now threatens the entire country with an epi- demic of yellow feter.
 Losses are figured up as follows, ae- cording to latest reports: Cotton crop, damaged irreparably, $3,000,OO0; corn crop, damaged. $50.000; loss entailed up- on various counties by damage to bridges, roads. etc, S300.0O0; railroad property destroyed. S750.000; stock, houses, or chards, melons, S1 1,500,000; tobacco crop, S15,O0O-making total of S5,325, 900.
 Railroads of the state have all been tied up since last Wednesday, and 1t is estimated that it will be another week before they can be operated.