Omaha daily bee., 1903-06-02

tnlnk that the best we can promise tno
people for tomorrow is gas for two hours
night and morning to cook their food"
The muddy, deso1ate expansion Of the
Missouri's surplus waters. known locally
as the east bottoms" furnished continu-
GUS moving pictures Of difhcult rescues to-
| day Lieutenant OF Police Harry A
Adams Of the Eighth district police sta
/ tion, assisted at first by FIVE policemen and
later by double that number working with
boats none too safe themselves, continued
\ throughout the day TO effect rescues under
great difficulties. Probably seventy-hve
persons were removed to places of safety
during the day in this section OF the city.
/ Nightfall found the rescuers still at work.
Last evening the west bottoms, In the
vicinity of the Helm brewery. was an at
tractive place from which to view the surg
! ing river, with its melancholy souvenirs Of
the rampage further up. From the brewery
nearly a quarter of a mile in the direction
! from the river the land was protected from
| the rising waters by the embankment OF
the Missouri Pacific railroad. This en-
| bankment formed not only a safe looking
dyke, but a vantage ground for sightseers,
| nearly 1000 of whom were struggling along
the tracks, Hosts of others watched the
river from second story windows or roofs
Of their homes. ...
Would Not Leave Homes.
Lieutenant Adams, almost alone. scented
! danger in the embankment which others
thought meant safety. with what few
policemen he had and few volunteers, he
! ordered the crowd from the tracks. For
a good hour, arguments and commands
having proved futile, he and his men were
engaged in literally pushing the crowd from
! the tracks across the sheltered bottom
lands to the higher ground south of the
brewery, He found It impossible, however
in many cases to persuade the people in
their own homes to desert their property.
They insisted that the embankment pro-
| tected them.
Some of the people," the officer said
| with a weary smile today, II had to
pull off from the telegraph poles this
| morning" ..-
1t was not more thap half an hour after
the lieutenant had driven the crowd from
the embankment that the flood began to
weaken 1t. Soon a hole was made here and
| there, and then, all at once, the embank-
| ment crumbled away, the east bottoms for
| miles were under water ana people were
crying for help and shooting pistols from
the roofs and upper windows of their dwell
| ings.
The brewery, the police station Itself,
stores saloons and scores of cottages were
| flooded, and there was not boat within
miles. Lieutenant Adams promptly trans
ferred headquarters to a four-by-eight shed
and began working wires in every direction
to get boats. A few people, nearer the nigh
ground than others, were rescued on RATS
during the night, but the active rescue
work began this morning when wagons
with fifteen boats arrived.
Housed at Any Safe Place.
Men, women and children were rescued
from tree branches, telegraph poles, box
cars and roofs. Twenty people who spent
the night in a school house were taken out
during the afternoon and about thirty more
were rescued from OBrien's lodging house
In many instances the rescuers had fairly
to drag people into the boats. They seemed
to fear to leave their homes, although the
latter in most cases appeared unequal to
the task of standing long against the flood
Seventeent people in an elevator refused to
be taken away during the day. but Lieuten-
ant Adams declared that he would take
them tonight. ,Hst =,
Once on shore, the refugees were cared
for in elevators, private homes and some
in tents. Food and hot coffee was served
| to them by the relief committee. A. number
OF men were quartered In freight cars, the
floors of which just cleared the water 80. -
Approximately $50 refugees from Armour
dale were rescued at the Twelfth street
viaduct. They were brought to this point
in boats by rescuing parties that had gone
up stream and picked up their passengers
| as they fioated down.
The first direct information from Armour
dale since the flood drove the citizens Of
that suburb from their homes was brought
to this side of the river today The informa-
ton is contained in the following interview
with Louis ]. Wilbur, representing Swift
and Companyi
Conditions at ArmOurdaIe.
The principal property loss at Armourdale
plants there. The three packing plantss'
swifts, Cudahy's aud Schwarzschlld q
give way to the force Of the current - tfbe Tloe
| flood came on light day as regards the
volume Of business and much dressed beef,
of considerable live stock were saved IN the
upper stories Of the plants The only peo-
proper are there Of their own acSoed district TSaT
are about twenty of them distributed
through these plants for the purpose of
possible looking out for the plants them
| selves cannot speak so positively OF
p9ruSnS nntv Gt AFmGSrdss At iSa not in the immedi
no doubt that there are still numbers Of
| refugees waiting to be rescued. i believR
there have been no more deaths since last
night -,.-. 80
Late this afternoon c. Z. Dickinson and
a policeman fioated down through the
wholesale district of Armourdale.- From
the windows OF several high buildings they
saw white flags, but could not get near
enough 10 distinguish what was behind
them. .-.
From other sources IL was learned that
many of the $50 people brought into the
Twelfth street viaduct today had been in
the buildings, but had been rescued be.
fore Mr.. Dickinson's boat approached. The
flags had been put up as signals of dis,
tress.
$500 Homeless at Argentine.
At Argentine. Kan, where the Santa Fe
yards and buildings and two-thirds of the
dwelling houses are under water and $500
people homeless. a number of houses were
washed away today. Many hundreds of
freight cars stand submerged, and the
boxes break loose from the trucks and
float away. The cars now moving down
the Missouri river are from the Argentine
yards.
Not one inhabitant of Argentine Is miss
ing. No further damage can be done there,
except that more houses will be carried
/ Nha hax -