The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-07-21
DAMAGE BY UPPER MISSISSIPPI
RIVER FLOODS GREATER THAN
FIRST REPORTED
NOW ESTIMATED AT
NINE MILLION DOLLARS
Situation Growing Worse Hourly, the
Worst Being in ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Crop of Corn Ruined-Hundred of
Farmers Are Suddenly Reduced From
Wealth to Penury.

hEOhUk, Iowa, july 2O.-EXplOra-
ton of the flooded districts of the Mis-
sissippi river from Keokuk south show
conditions beyond the appreciation or
realization of any but people of long
experience with the Father of Waters
in It's most destructive mood.
The situation is growing worse hour
ly and great conflagration in a great
city would not be more rapidly de-
structive of values. There is not the
slightest chance of stopping this most
costly flood in the history of the great
river above st. Louis. People at the
river cities give accounts of losses ag-
gregating many millions Of dollars.
Hundreds Of farmers, rich ten days
ago, are penniless and homeless.
Careful estimates of the territory
covered by the statements of those
best informed indicate that the loss
up to today is about $6,000000, with
every prospect of 100000 or $9,000,-
600 additional by the rise above, not
yet reaching the lower stretches of the
river. Most of the loss is on the Mis-
souri, side of the river between Keokuk
and Hannibal.
Passing the lumber yards of Keokuk,
the mouth of the Des Moines river is
nearly, two miles wide. Normally, there
are two mouths, and a delta covered
with farms, which are now under rag
ing torrents.
Town Submerged.
Alexandria was protected to the last
by the Egyptian levee, the breaking Of
which would send four feet of water
over all the town. Gregory is sub
merged, except the white church, in
which service was held today, the con-
gregation from the country reaching
the church by the railroad track, which
is still above the flood in a waste of
waters, miles wide. Other towns and
cities on the islands are beyond the
danger line. :tF I'd
Immense fields are great lake, with
the shore visible only with a glass,
where the high bluffs bound the bot
toms. Islands dotting the river at it's
normal stage have disappeared, except
for the tops Of trees or fringe of will
lows slightly protruding like a circular
green coral reef. Occasionally a house
on piles or stiIts is seen, but generally
only roofs protrude to mark the center
of farms or corn.
On the edge of the flooded river corn
gradually rises on slope. In the mid
die of the present river the tracks of
the st. Louis, Keokuk & North West
ern railroad, = normally the Missouri
shore, are now a few inches above the
water and under it in some stretches.
Shore lights for pilots are standing in
the midst of a waste of waters, where
steamboats, can run over them. The
river is five to ten miles wide and an
other great lake is added to the geog-
raphy.
Corn Loss Total.
All this territory was practically
covered with corn a fortnight ago, es-
timated to make IS to 100 bushels to
the acre. Previous estimates of the
loss have been greatly increased by the
prospective yield being found much
greater than ever before, experts tell
ing of many farms that were good for
loo bushels to the acre before the flood.
The loss is total. Experience is that if
corn shall stay forty eight hours even
four inches under the surface it kills
corn, and every stalk wet by waves
perishes from rotting roots.
The height of the flood is indicated
by an Incident at Lagrange The
steamboat warehouse was we'll back
from the river bank and sits high. A
strong current and a gale caused the
pilot to make an imperfect landing,
and the cornice of the roof of the
Warsehouse was torn off by the for
ward guards of the Silver Crescent.
The river is rising all the. time. six
inches during the day in the immense
area of 700 square miles, and the worst
is to come by the extension of the
Hooded area by the water passing the
levees, which it is now tapping.
Fear of Crevasses.
The chief flood thus far is on the
Missouri side, from Keokuk to Louisi-
ana, with Canton and West Quincy as
centers of the country the most in
jured. On the Illinois side are three
continuous levees for forty miles from
Warsaw to Quincy above the waters,
which are thus far safe, but farmers
are afraid of crevasSes from muskrat
holes, and every9rod of the redoubt is
watched day and night.
The breaking of these levees would
flood 175 square miles in Illinois and
destroy 100000 to $4,000, 600 worth
of corn. The levees below Quincy are
in the same situation except that they
are lower and less firm.
Opposite Quincy, in Missouri, is still
another center of special devastation
which is appalling. North twelve
miles to Lagrange and south to Holton
large prairies are we'll under water,
reaching from the Illinois bluffs to the
Missouri bluffs, at least ten miles.
Levees hastily thrown around farms
have disappeared in the fierce current,
rushing from above through the draw
of the Burlington bridge, carrying
everything before it. Long Tree
prairie, ten miles square, is deserted,
the population having escaped to
Quincy, and the bluffs on the Missouri
side, where they watch the complete
destruction. Fabius river fifteen miles
above Hannibal, is high and furnishing
a route for the Mississippi to flank and
reverse the levee, as the Fox river does
forty miles up the Mississippi. This
thanking movement makes even the
highest Missouri levees ineffective.
Around Lamotte, Silverton, Busch Sta
ton, Clemens and Ashburn, north of
Hannibal, there is more wheat than at
other places, and all in the shock is
mostly washed away. The chief crop
there is corn, however, and there is the
same ruin as at other places.
In the vicinity of Quincy and Hanni-
bal there Is much unnecessary loss on
account of the peculiar conditions of
the flood. A smaller flood began to
subside when warnings from the Keo-
kuk weather bureau observer We're re-
ceived and were unheeded, as being af-
ter the fact, when actually it was be-
fore new and greater flood.
Rivers Begin to Fall.
The levees protecting the Mississippi