The Tupelo journal., 1903-06-12
THE Scene HAS SHIFTED.
The Point of Interest in the Flood
Situation is Now In the
Illinois Lowlands.
LEvEE At GRANITE CITY HAS BROKEN.
A Thousand People Driven From Their
Homes In the Illinois Lowlands and
Given Shelter In Box Cars-Men at
Work Endeavoring to Stop the Gap
With Stone.

ST. Louis, June 6.-The levee at
Granite City has broken.
One thousand persons have aban-
doned their homes in the lowlands
and are seeking shelter in box cars.
The Wabash railroad has trains of
freight cars waiting on the tracks at
Granite City for the use of refugees.
Two hundred men are at work try
ing to fill the breach with bags OF
crushed rock. The railroad companies
have sent work trains to the place
loaded with rock.
The railroad companies have given
shelter to 700 homeless. Each family
is given the use of a ear.
Long trains of thirty and forty in
habited cars are on the sidings at
Madison, Granite City and Venice. AS
the water ~encroaches on the tracks
they are switched to higher ground.
This is, in brief, the flood situation
to-day across the river from ST. Louis.
First Break in the Levee.
The first break j the levee occurred
about four o'clock Friday afternoon
near the pumping station. The men
who had been watching the rise of the
water did not heed it at first, as the
hole was but a few inches in diameter.
When the danger was realized the
alarm was sent to the police. Tele-
phone messages were sent to Madison,
Venice and East ST.. Louis for assist
ance.
Wagons and conveyances of every
description were pressed into service,
and the furniture and household
goods of the families were moved to
the cars. By the time the first relief
train arrived the opening was as large
as a hogshead and the water was
rushing through like a whirlpool.
The a~dvisability of cutting the Mad
ison county levee above is being con-
sidered to prevent a dangerous thrush
of water, which, it is feared, would
break the cross-levee.
The chief menace to East ST. Louis,
aside from the Madison levee break
ing, is the backwater of Cahokia
creek. For several days the water
has been rushing up this stream from
the Mississippi with the speed of a
mill race, and spreading wherever it
could find an outlet. 1t will continue
to rise as long as the river rises, and
it is at its east shore that East St.
Louis must grapple with the flood.
Already the fight has begun. Work
has been started on a levee between
the Relay depot and the Broadway
viaduct, and this will be extended
north and south.
On the st. Louis Side.
Every hour now the water mounts
higher in the stores it has entered on
the levee and creeps closer to those,
situated a little higher, which it has
not quite reached. Every hour it
spreads further over the low-lying
territory north and south of the bus
mess part of the city.
Every hour increases the present
and prospective property loss in St.
Louis, and every hour increases the
peril of the cities on the east side of
the river.
To ST. Louis nothing worse can hap
pen than the gradual encroachment
of the waters over the lower portions
of the city. To the east side there is
reason for grave fear hat the waters,
breaking their restraints, may come
with a rush.
The Madison levee is all that holds
back the waters, gnawing angrily at
their barriers, hungry to spread de-
struction through the east side com
munities.
1t is said that this levee is capable
of withstanding 3S feet.