Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-07-07
FLOOD SITUATION.
Late Reports Indicate That While
the Damage Has Been Severe, it
Has Been Overestimated.

GALVESTON, Texas, July 6.-James
Collinson, superintendent of machinery
for the Santa Fe railroad, arrived in
Galveston on the last through train the
road has been able TO run. The Brazos
river at Rosenberg is running wild, Mr..
Collinson says, but with regard to the
ultimate damage he is very optimistic.
He thinks the damage has been greatly
overestimated and that the loss to
crops in the bottoms will be counter
balanced by the increased yield on the
uplands. lie left at noon on a special
train for the flooded district, carrying
provisions for the destitute.
At Sunnyside, twelve miles from
Brookshire, the Brazos river is ordinar-
lily 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
are separated by low bottom lands and
are now united, making a river between
five and six miles wide and from sixty
TO seventy feet deep. Along the cur
rent people were rescued yesterday in a
skiff sent from Houston. The people
were demolishing their shed sand out
houses and making boats hat they
USED.
Cattle were resting their heads in
the boughs of trees, making a pitiable
struggle for existence.
At one point two houses were seen
coming down the stream. In one of
them was a man and two women and
On the other a and five chill
dren were %clinging for life and calling
for help. One of the houses was a fine
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 row boats fully manned and
provisioned left here to-day for the sec
ton overlooked to assist in saving life and
property.
Governor Sayres has been asked by Rep
resentative W. Fl. Ellis to call a special
session of the Legislature to relieve the
distress.
The Santa Fe main line trains have been
abandoned between Galveston and the Bra
HCS I1fG1. IldIAS MC9N VI lHc A4NCL AK
running on schedule time. The Southern
Pacific and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas
railroad bridges across the Brazos river
are reported to have been swapt away
this morning.
Reports from a special correspondent of
the News indicate that while the property
loss by the recent floods have been enor-
nous, the loss of life has been greatly ex-
aggerated. A~ccordingto the News only
two lives nave been lost in the lower Bra
EOS flood. Every year the Brazos and Coll
orado valleys suffer foundations. The
Brazos is falling rapidly in the central part
of the State, the scene of last wees f.od.
The War Department has authorized Gov
ernor Sayres to distribute 10000 army ra-
tons among the flood sufferers, the ra-
tons to be furnished the governor from
San Antonio. These rations will be dis
tributed at Wallis, Sealey, Richmond, Ros-
enberg. Thompson. Dunke, Arcola, Full
shear. Chenango. Columbia, Velasco, Nav
asota, Calvert, Hearne, Bryan and Bren-
ham. In addition TO the War Department
rations, Houston and Galveston nave sent
several carloads of groceries into the
flooded district. II is believed there is now
food enough in transit to feed the negroes
until the waters recede and they can re-
turn to plantation work.