Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1899-07-07
Appalling Reports are Receiv-
ed From the Flooded Dis
: trictS of Texas.
HAVOC ON EVERY HAND.
A Careful Estimate Places the Num-
/ Der of People Drowned at Up
! wards of Three Hundred.
Rivers Continue to Rise and Their
Currents Are Filled with Houses,
Barns, and Dead Stock-FortLnes
Are Swept Away-Rescue of Fami-
lies Continues Day and Night

Dallas, Texas, July 4.-Reports from
Che flooded districts of Texas continue
TO pour in here, and with every one re-
ceived is an addition to the terrible
calamity that has befallen the unfor-
sunate people of this State, and the
present gravity of the situation is al
snost beyond description. Heavy loss
of life is reported on every hand, aud
ahe very lowest estimates place the
MURDER of drowned, those killed by
Syclone. collapse of buildings and
SiCating wreckage, at upwards of 300,
and the end is not yet. Rains which
have been falling in torrents for several
days still continue in many places, and
everywhere the floods are increasing.
A telephone message just received
from Calvert, which is the first news
received from that place in two days,
says:
The situation here and all over Rob-
prtson county is terrible. The rain has
Eoured in torrents for three days and
alights, and more than S1,000,000 worth
of property has been destroyed and
trom thirty to fifty lives have been lost
y
given now, because everything is con-
# sion.
we have been unable to tell the out
side world our condition. because all
Kinds of communication have been cut
off. Railroads, wagon roads, telegraph
and telephone lines alike have been de-
abolished.
The Big and Little Brazos Rivers
dave united and are at this place five
miles wide.
Part Of Calvert is entirely under
water. and the citizens are stopping in
7he upper stories of the highest build
5Lgs. Fifteen persons have been
drowned in the suburbs. From thirty
TO fifty have been droWued in the coUn-
Try districts
People here have been constructing
aule boats and RATS and have been
sailing 2ut for miles TO rescue the per-
sons who have had tlrir homes swept
away ana who are clinglps to any OBJ
Ject within reach. Hundreds are in
She tops of the houses.
"A boat with fourteen refugees has
gust arrived here. On" Of the negroes.
in his excitement. caught hold of 4
limb of q tree and upset the whole
-larty. Two Were drowned ana the
Others are clinging to the boat and 9th
or objects \ party has gone to their
rescue.
"Ralroad property in Robertson
county is damaged hundreds ~ thou
sands of dollars It will take fifteen to
twenty days Of good weather to get in
80 condition To resume operations
Every bridge and very culvert is de-
stroycd. and also every bridge on the
public roads. More than fifty bridges
of various kinds
"A property loss of $1,000 in the
county is low estimate. Crops are
ruined and thousands of people will be
homeless. The waters are higher here
han ever known before. y report
rom Waco says the Brazos is rising
here again, and this means more death
and destruction in this vicinity. as
frat additional rise will soon lie on us"
The Houston and Texas Central Rail
road operator III Hammond. twenty
miles north of Calvert. says the re-
ports reaching there from the surround
ing country are appalling He reports
that horses, ca tie. outbuildings. grain
etc, are floating III the rushing waters
across what was two days ago ripe
farming section 1t is impossible to
get ont of town far enough to obtain
details of the disaster. 1t is feared il
will he terrible. but the extent will NOT
he approximately known until the
water subsidies.
Telegraphic communications for q
vast scope of country south of Dallas
Is paralyzcd. and the only available
source of news gathering-the long
distance telephone lines-is badly Grip
lied. All wires north of Waco are
lost. Water in that section was within
.ess than Il foot of the wires twelve
Iours ago, ana it has probably gone
over them now.
The dclugcd section of the State is
confined To the delta lying between the
Trinity River on the east and the Colo
RADIO River on the west and extending
from the Texas Pacific Railroad on the
north to the Gulf on tie south, one Of
he richest and most productive Dor.
lions of the State.
Navasota reports waters still rising.
crops being destroyed, stock drowned
and prosperous planters made poor in a
day or night The BraZos River is out
Of its banks. The NaVasota River has
submerged all the cotton and corn
and is higher than the Brazos, with a
mill race current.
Pitiful appeals for help have come
from Mumford. Boats have attempted
TO reach that place. but it is feared the
effort will prove futile.
Mclean says that persons who have
Just arrived from Clay Centre, in
BUrleson county. say the Brazos River
was as high as in 1885, and the current
vas filled with farmhouses, horses,
cows, dogs and chickens.
lakewood, the principal cemetery of
Waco, located on bluff of the river,
is threatened with destruction. Graves
arn sinking and mOnumpnts tOnnlinO
and apprehensions are felt that the
bluff is undermined and will slough
off into the current of the river.
Nearly every house in Brennan is
flooded and damage to property in the
county will run into hundreds of thou.
sands.
1t is impossible 10 accurately estimate
the losses in cropS, railroad and other
property, but that ii will reach $1,000.