The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1902-07-26
RUIN BY HIGH WATER
Floods In Mississippi Valley Are
Very Costly.
The Damage, IL II Said, VIII Elk
ceed 10000, OOO.-Farmers of I'LL
nois, Iowa and Missouri
suffer Severely.

Keokuk, Ia, July 21.-Explorationo OF
the flooded districts of the Mississippi
river from Keokuk south. show con
ditions beyond the appreciation Oh
realization of any but people of long
experience with the father of waters
In It's most destructive mood. The sit
uation is growing worse hourly and
great confagration in great city
could not be more rapidly destructive
of values than the antithesis hun
dred miles below Keokuk. There Is
absolutely not the slightest chance
of stopping this dozen times most
costly food in the history Of the great
river above st. Louis. The correspond
emit went all over the worst damaged
area Sunday In the steamer Silver Cres-
cent and found everywhere the great
est crop ever known under water deep
enough to float steamboat. People
at the river cities give an immense
mass of details, all to be generalized
in losses aggregating many millions OF
dollars; hundreds of farmers, rich ten
days ago, penniless and homeless,
hundreds watching and praying that
the great levees may hold, which are
now their bulwark against additional
millions NJ los. and MANY cases of
nanny
u On 900 ooo
-, .,.. .,..;.
e,'' .a''"..o ~.
80. - 49,
80" ,'',,' - ira
~. 'eae "a" q. zoe 200 w -,
so 900 600 a,
o p'o3P 70, ~-'uoo'oo
ooo''oo "u,li''pn". 80
nv ~ de'S 'i'
Oh 'ne river Mose VI inns ioss 10 on
."' ''''
49,
=. saved ny the Levee.
Alexandra was protected TO the last
by the Egyptian levee, the breaking
OF which would send four feet OF wa
ter all over the town. Gregory Is sub
merged, except the white church In
which service was held Sunday, the
praying congregation from the coun-
try reaching the house OF God by the
railroad track, which is still above the
flood in waste OF water miles wide.
Other towns and cities on the islands
are beyond the danger line. Immense
fields are seen in a 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 ex-
cept for the tops of trees or fringe of
high shore willows slightly protruding
like circular green coral reef. Occa-
sionally a house on piles or stills is
seen, but generally only roofs pro-
trude to mark the center of farms of
corn.
.... River still Rising.
The river is rising all the time, six
inches during the day in the immense
area of 700 square miles, and the
worst to come by the extension of
the flooded area by the water passing
levees it is now topping. The chief
flood thus far is on the Missouri side
from Keokuk to Louisiana. with Can
ton and West Quincy as centers of the
country hurt worse. On the Illinois
sue are three continuous leveeS lot Az
miles from Warsaw to Quincy above
the water, and are thus far safe, but
farmers are afraid of crevasse from
muskrat holes and every rod of the
redoubt is watched day and night. The
breaking of these levees would food
IT'S square miles in Illinois and destroy
100000 to $3,O00,OOO worth of corn.
The levees below Quincy are in the
same situation, except that they are
lower and less firm.
On the Missouri side.
Onnosite Quincy. in Missouri Is still
another center Of speciaI devastation
which is appallipg, North y miles
TO La Grange and south to Holton
large prairies are well under water,
reaching from the Illinois bluffs to the
Missouri bluffs, at least ten miles
Levees hastily thrown around farms
disappeared in a fierce current rushing
from ABOVE through 'he IRA" oi the
burlington bridge, carrying every
thing before it. Lone Tree prairie, ten
miles square, is deserted. the pOpula-