Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-25
OUTSTRETCHED PALM
'OF THE RECENT
HEAVY FLOODS IN THE WEST.
The Nominal Rainfall Of Three Months
Precipitated in the Kaw Val
ley in Two Days.


In seven fearful days the waters of a
prairie slope racing into the lower MIS-
souri, river have brought to the middle west
the greatest loss in life and property OF all
it's history. Hundreds of lives and perhaps
$40, 600, 600 of property have been sacrificed.
Farmers, manufacturers, towns, cities, rail-
roads have all shared in the tremendous
damaee-and because fire was seldom pres
ent there is no recompensing insurance to
make the blow lighter. The Kaw valley Of
Kansas is like an outstretched hand. The
finger tins are 200 miles from the end Of
the wrist. where is situated Kansas City.
Mo. They are, too. 800 feet higher than
the city. and down their converging lengths
flow the prairie streams. AS the river Joins
the Missouri it makes q turn to the south,
and in the bend is Kansas City, Kan, the
little sister of the Missouri town. The latter
has $1,000 people; the former 10000. In
the former are the stock yards, the pack
ing houses, among the largest in the world;
car shops, manufactures and wholesale
warehouses and grain elevators. Sixty
miles westward, at the Joining Of palm
and wrist, IL Topeka, the capital OF Kan
sas. OF it's 81, 600 people nearly one-third
live on the level ground north and south
Of the river, rather than on the high slopes
where Is the state house and where are
the beautiful homes of leading citizens.
Cause Of the Flood.
From the middle of May until the 9th
all of Kansas received far greater rainfall
than customary. The ground was satu-
rated. tornadoes and hall storms did dam
age here and there; the state seemed IN
the center of an atmospheric disturbance.
Then came the rain. Over the slope des-
TI,a u, Fall tp fnr
rents-drenching, terrifying sheets-without
intermission. Hour after hour it came all
day and into the dark In the streets Of
my home town, on one OF the streams,
the middle finger of the OutStretched hand,
the surface water alone was by evening
a lake. Ten inches of water had fallen.
Out on the far-reaching prairies that
received the downpour the gathering wa
their irresistible force overcame all obsta-
cles What happened in my town happened
in all. The little stream became a torrent;
it left its banks and spread out into the
town and upon the wheat fields that gave
promise of fair harvest. 1t stood eight feet
deep in main streets, 1t undermined the
foundations of brick buildings. 1t filled cell
lars and Easements, 1t carried away stock
and ruined homes.
Down at the Wrist.
But that was only the start. Down all
the other fingers the same sort Of a food
was racing. The combined force was tre-
mendous and overwhelming. At the wrist
the Kaw became a wall of water, rising
five feet in a single hour. In the smaller
towns 1t. had caused anxiety; in Topeka it
was a source of terror. Over all the lower
parts of the city 1t spread, rising to the
second-story windows 1t swept away
strong buildings, 1t wrenched railway
tracks as though they were cords of silk.
Here as in other towns had happened the
water reached the lime stored in a lumber
Office. and flames cast their weird glare on
the rushing waters that poured in unac-
customed currents. Boats rescued families
imprisoned in houses. RATS took away
hundreds from roofs: the state house be-
came a hospital for refugees. the city
buildings were filled with terror-stricken
sufferers. Ten thousand people were out
of their homes, and hundreds Of them, If
not thousands, would never find their
dwellings habitable. Farther down the
wrist went the rising water. On the way 1t
tore out mills and dams, 1t covered fertile
fields. At Kansas City its coming was ex-
pected. but 1t followed 30 quickly on the
news OF its coming that not all could es-
cape. It flooded the lower portion Of the
city, swept away all bridges over the Kaw
but one. and SO swelled the Missouri that
others went out on the east. At the union
depot. through which have gone so many
million home-makers of the west, the water
was eleven feet deep at one end and fifteen
floating in the yards like paper boxes. The
entire bottoms were one raging torrent,
taking with it the labor of years, the for
tunes OF business firms, the savings Of fam
lilies.
Enormous Sunday Losses.
II stood on the high bluff opposite the
depot" said q friend of NINE ION Sunday