Gilpin observer., 1902-07-24
FLOOD IN MISSOURI
ESTIMATED DAMAGE ls SIX
MILLION DOLLARS.
7iver io Ten Miles Wide at Some
Pclnts-Sovcn Hundred Square
Miles of Miooouri Farms Under
Water-Devastating ccene.

Misunderstanding Ccene.
Kcokuk, Ia, July 21.-Exploration of
the flooded districts OF the Mississippi
river from KeokuiI south shows con
ditions beyond the appreciation OF any
but people of long experience with the
Father of Waters in its most destruct-
| i've mood. The situation is growing
worse and a great confiagration in z.
great city would not be more rapidly
destructive of values than the antithc-
sis a hundred miles below KeokuE.
There is not the slightest chance OF
stopping this dozen times most costly
flood in the great river above s..
Louis.
| Deep Enough to Float Steamboat.
The correspondent of the Associat-
ed Press went all over the worst DAM
aged area yesterday in the steamer
| Silver Crescent and found every
where the greatest crops ever known
under water deep enough to float
steamboat. People at the river cities
| give an immense amount of informa-
ton, all to be generalized in millions
of dollars loss, hundreds of farmers,
prosperous ten days ago, are penniles3
and homeless, hundreds watching and
praying that the great levees may
hold which are their bulwark against
millions of loss, and many cases of
penury.
LOSS Estimated at Six Millions.
The extent OF territory covered and
generalization of the statements of
thousands of people indicate that the
loss up to today is six millions of dol
lars, with every prospect of two or
three millions additional by the rise
above not yet reaching the lower
stretches of the river. Most OF this
loss is on the Missouri side of the
river between Keokuk and Hannibal.
Passing the water Tapped lumber
yards of Keokuk the mouth of the Des
Moines river is seen to be nearly 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
breaking of which would send four
feet of water all over the town.
Gregory is Under Water.
Gregory is submerged except the
White church, in which services were
held yesterday, the praying congre-
cation from the country reaching the
house of God 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. Immense
fields are seen in a great lake with
the shore lines barely visible with e
glass. where the high bluffs bound the
bottoms. Islands dotting the river a.
It's normal stage have disappeared ex-
cept for the tops of trees. Occasion
ally house on piles is seen. but gen.
orally only roofs protrude to mark
the center of farms of corn. On the
edge of the food, corn gradually rises
on a slope, tassels. ears. stalks ap-
pearing in order. In few of the half
submerged fields is shocked wheat il
the background, the remnants of many
more washed to the Gulf of Mexico.
In the middle of the present river the
tracks of the st. Louis. Keokuk and
Northern railroad. normally the Mis-
souri, shore. are only a few inches
above the water, and are under 1t in
some stretches.
Great Lake is Formed.
The river is five to ten miles wide
and seventy miles long and another
great lake is added to the geography.
This tract was practically covered
with corn a fortnight ago, estimate
to make seventy-five to hundred
bushels to the acre. Previous esti-
mates of the loss have greatly in
creased by the prospective yield be-
ing found much greater than ever be-
fore. The loss is total. The expert
ence is that If water stays forty-eight
hours even four inches under the sur
face it kills corn. and every stalk per-
ishes from rotting roots.
River is 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
is 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 Keokull to Louisville, with Can
ton and West Quincy as centers OF
the country hurt worst. On the Illinois
side are the three continuous levees
for forty miles from Warsaw to Quin-
cy above the water and are thus far
safe. but farmers are afraid of a
crevasse from muskrat holes and
every rod of the redoubt is watchel l
day and night. The breaking of these
levees would food 175 square miles in
Illinois and destroy from $2.000,000 TO
$3,000.000 worth OF corn.
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 well under water reach