The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-06-07
MANY LIVES IN DANGER.
Call For Help From Village of Black
Walnut

Walnut
st. Louis. No. June 6.-Tvvo hundred
people in the village Of Black Walnut
on the north bank of the Missouri
I twenty-five miles northwest of St
/ Louis, are surrounded by rapidly rising
waters. Their lives are in grave dan
/ ger
The condition was learned at St.
Charles tonight and Sheriff Dierks OF
that city telephones to the St. Louis po-
lice for aid in rescuing the imperiled
villagers The sheriff stated that only
light boats are available at st. Charles,
and that owing to the heavy current it
was impossible TO reach the people
without the aid of a river steamer.
Immediately Harbor Commissioner
Z Whyte was notified and requested to
rush the harbor boat TO Black Walnut.
The appeal was futile, however, because
the high water viii not permit a river
steamer to pass upstream under the
Eads bridge. Word was telephoned TO
Alton, where the steamer Spread Eagle
Is moOred, and il is probable that she
viii at once start on a mission of res
cue. Sheriff Dierks at st. Charles tel
ephOned that the water is rising rap
idly and that unless the people are res
cued there will be great loss Of life be-
fore morning.
Driven From Home.
The Conlogue Ievee, just south of
East St Louis, broke at midnight and
the 500 colored families who inhabit
that district were driven from their
I homes. Many had narrow escapes from
/ drowning.
The swollen Mississippi has spread
out like an inland sea over the Illinois
shore in the vicinity Of East st. Louis.
Far away 10 the southeast the water
covers lower St Louis and a big grain
elevator, which is now isolated. with a
heavy current pouring past its inland
side
The railroad and shipping district of
East st. Louis presents a small PENN
sula on which freight houses stand a
short distance above the flood, but be-
yOnd these freight houses extends a
lake half a mile wide and the water at
the eastern edge laps at the fOunda-
tons Of tall building blocks
Tops Only Visible
North of East St. Louis the eastern
boundary of the floods expanse cannot
be described Here and there the tops
Of freight cars and roofs of houses ap-
pear above the surface, and grain ele-
vauOrs surrounded and flooded present
. a scene Of desOlatiOn-
Along the St. Louis shore wharfboats
are drawn in almost to the foundations
E
tinUe business freight wagons today
hauled their loads with the wagon beds
touching the water and the horses all
but swimming. Freight traffic viii
probably be discontinued Monday. as
the stage by that time viii preclude
all wagOning along the levee.
At O'Clock tonight the register stood
35-4 feet, a rise Of = in twelve hours
Forecaster Bowie tonight predicted
that the rise will continue rapidly for
the next forty-eisht hours, and that a
stage of 37-5 feet viii be reached by
Monday
Train Service Crippled.
7 For a time today the train service to
the west was cut off. The Missouri
Pacific track has been used since the
flood began by all the western roads.
and today the swift current of the food
undermined a portion of the Missouri
Pacific railroad between St. Louis and
jefferson City. Workmen and carloads
Of filing were rushed to the spot and
the track bed speedily rebuilt, strong
and substantially, and train service re
sumed this afternoon.
It is estimated that within a radius
Of twenty miles from St. Louis the food
has rendered 25.000 people homeless and
submerged 200. 900 acres of fertile farm
ing lands.