The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-06-02
ESTIMATED THAT THE DAMAGE
WILL AMOUNT TO FOUR MILL.
ION DOLLARS.
THOUSANDS ARE HOMELESS
BESIDES THOSE BELIEVED TO az
DEAD, ABOUT TWO HUNDRED
ARE MISSING.

Topeka, Kan, June There Is
ground for hope that the worst has
passed. The five miles wide Kansas
river is settling back into its rightful
channel. Sunday. night City Engineer
McCable Issued a bulletin giving out
the cheering intelligence that the wa
tiers had subsidized to the extent Of ex-
actly tx inches. 1t may be some
hours before another drop may be
noticed. q.
With IT'S or 200 lives lost; millions
Of dollars of property destroyed, with
hundreds of pistol shots as signals of
distress, blended with the agonizing
cries OF unwilling inhabitants OF tree
tops and roofs Of houses, and the wa
ters creeping upward and then slowly
subsidtng and alternately changing
hope to despair. the capital city has
passed the most memorable Sabbath
day Of its existence. To all this dis
comforting condition of affairs was
added the presence Of a cold, dismal
rain. .H-
l..fH 0'A 'sSES'S vvStNs
The ardor of the work of the heroic
rescuers vas not abated in the least
by the conditions which confronted
them. For long dreary hours knee
deep in water and sometimes in water
up to their necks they worked with
might and maid. Sunday night they
could point to 800 or more rescued
nnc yx,hn nfbapy,ico ,oi-LA Lo-. o.-
swept away in the current.
Briefly stated, the present condition
OF the food is this:
One hundred and seventy to 200
people drowned; eight thousand peo-
pie without homes; s. 100000 loss of
property: identified dead, five; float
ing bodies seen, twenty; people miss
ing, 200; houses burned, result of fire
In lumber from Stacking lime. prob
ably 200; banks collapsed. two; Whole
sale grocery stores flooded, two: big
business blocks, ready to crumble,
fifty; wholesale commission houses
deserted, six; Rock Island trains con
tanning $50 passengers held here by
high water; city Waterworks plant
useless.
The known drowned are: Karl Rupp,
Orville Rupp, two Rupp girls, G. H.
CARROTS h~ve-year-old son, and twenty
unidentified bodies.
Two Hundred and Fifty Dead. (.
Leading men have made a careful
examination of the food and all it's
conditions and as a result of their in
vestigation they give $50 as the prob
able number of lives lost. A more
conservative estimate places the
number of dead at IT'S. The higher
number is as apt to be correct as the
lower. The number of dead is merely
q matter of guessing. Twenty mem
hers OF rescuing parties tell how they
saw people drop from houses, only to
be swept away by the flood, and 9th
ers tell of men who, terrified at the
approach of the fire. dropped into the
water. where they sank and did not
reappear.
This estimated number of dead does
not include the large number classed
as missing, who cannot otherwise be
accounted for. Neither does it include
the number who are supposed to have
lost their lives in the fire. In the lat
ter class, there is absolutely no means
OF arriving at v an approximate
number of victims. The water is so
high and the current so strong that
all that can be done now is to rescue
those in the buildings surrounded by
water.
Work of Rescue Being Pushed.
It will be at least three days before
the correct number of dead will be
known. Work of rescuing the vic
Tins of the flood is being pushed with
vigor. Better results characterized
the efforts of the organized forces Sun
day evening than before. Two little
steam launches are now pushing up
and down the river, picking up sur
vivors. A larger steamboat is expect
ed here by a special train on the Rock
Island within twenty-four hours. If
possible to run the train, the boat will
be brought to a point two miles above
the city and launched there.
A train load of small boats were in
use Sunday: but they were useless in
battling against the mighty current.
A wire cable has been stretched across
the Kansas avenue bridge. To this
will be attached a sand dip and
refugees will be brought across in
this n If the flood does not
rise any further and those not yet
reached car keep their places a few
hours longer there need not necessar-
lily be a much larger loss of life.
Large Contributions Received.
Large contributions have already
been received for the benefit of the
sufferers. The amount given by To.
peka citizens alone will aggregate
100000. To this is to be added an
immense quantity of clothing, pro-
visions and general supplies. Outside
towns have generously offered aid,
notable among them is Galveston, Tex.
The portion of Topeka not affected
by the flood is crowded with refugees
and people from the surrounding