Newport weekly independent., 1902-07-25
serious Conditions Along the Upper Mississippi Caused by
 High Water.
MOST COSTLY IN THE RIVERS HISTORY.
An Estimated Loss of Six Millions of Dol lars, With Half as Much More Inc vita ble Even If There Is No Further Augmenta- tions of the Supply of Flood Water From Above.

Keokuk, Ia., July 2o.-Exploration
 of the flooded districts of the Missis.
 sippi river from Keokuk south shows
 conditions beyond the appreciation
 or realization of any but people of
 long experience with the Father of
 Waters in its most destructive mood
 The situation is growing worse
 hourly, and a great confagration in a
 great city would not be more rapidly
 destructive of values than the
 antithesis a hundred miles below
 keokuk. There is absolutely not the
 slightest chance of stopping this
 dozen-times most costly flood in the
 history of the great river above St.
 Louis. A correspondent went over
 the most damaged area to-day in a
 launch and found everywhere the
 greatest crops ever known under Wa
 People at the river cities give an inn
 mense mass of details, all to be gen
 eralized in losses aggregating many
 millions of dollars; hundreds of
 farmers rich ten days ago are penni- less and homeless; hundreds watch. ing and praying that the great levees may hold which are now their bull wark against additional millions of loss and many cases of penury.
 Careful estimates of the territory covered and generalization of the statements of best-informed people indicate the loss up to to-day is about six million dollars, with every pros- pect of two or three millions addi- tional by the rise above not yet reach- ing the lower stretches of the river. Most of the loss is on the Missouri side of the river between Keokuk and Hannibal.
 Passing the water-lapped lumber yards of keokuk, the mouth of the Des Moines river is seen to be near ly two miles wide. Normally there are two mouths and an island delta covered with farms, which are under raging torrents.
 Alexandria was protected to the last by the Egyptian levee, the break ing of which would send four feet of water all over the town. Gregory Is submerged except the white church in which service was held to-day, the praying congregation from the coun- try reaching the house of God by the railroad track which is still above the food in waste of waters miles wide. Other towns and cities on the islands are beyond the danger line.
 Shore lights for pilots are stand ing in the midst of a waste of waters where steamboats can run over them. The river is five to ten miles wide and 70 miles long, and another great lake is added to the geography All this territory was practically covered with corn fortnight ago, estimated to make seventy-five to hundred bush els to the acre. Previous estimates of the loss have been greatly in- creased by the prospective yield being found much greater than ever before, experts telling of many farms that | were good for 100 bushels to the acre | before the flood. The loss is total. 1 Experience is that if water stays 4s | hours even four inches under the sur face 1t kills the corn, and every stalk | wet by waves perishes from rotting roots. Much of that back from the | channel looks to the casual observer | as If it would recover when the flood | h Nxy,ll oil brown and scar.
 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 hurt worst. On | the Illinois side are three continuous | eveeS for 40 miles from Warsaw to | Quincy above the water and are thus | crevasses from muslrat holes and | every rod of the redoubt is watched | lay and night. The breaking of these | eeves would flood 175 square miles in | Illinois and destroy $2,o00,000 to $3,- | 100000 worth of corn. The levees be- | low Quincy are in the same situa~ | ton, except that they are lower and | less firm.
 Opposite Quincy, in Missouri, is still another center of special devastation, which is appalling. North 12 miles to LaGrange and south to Horton, large | prairies are well under water reach ing from the Illinois bluffs to the Missouri bluffs, at least ten miles. | Levees hastily thrown around farms have disappeared in fierce current |