The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1903-06-05
FLOODS AND fire IN Topeka
OVER 200 PEOPLE DROWNED,
5000 WITHOUT HOMES.
Property Losses Will Amount to More
Than Five Million Dollars-City Wa.
ter Works Useiess-Provisions Are
Short-Water Was 6 to is Feet
Deep Over North Topeka.

Deep Over North Topeka.
Topeka, Kan, June 1.-Briefy
state, the present condition of the flood
is this: One hundred and seventy to
200 people drowned; 5000 people with
out homes; $4,O0O,OOO loss of property
destroyed; identified dead, five; float
ing bodies seen, 20; people missing,
200; houses burned, as a result of fire
in lumber yards from stacking lime,
probably 200; banks collapsed, 2;
wholesale grocery stores flooded, 2;
big business blocks almost ready to
crumble. so; wholesale commission
houses deserted, 6; Rock Island trains
containing $50 passengers held here by
high water; city water works plant
useless.
The known drowned: Carl Rupp.
Orville Rupp, two Rupp girls, G. H.
Garrett and year old son, 20 uniden-
titled bodies.
Leading men have made a careful
examination Of the food and all its
conditions and as a result Of their in
vestigation they give ESQ as the prob
able number of lives lost. A more
conservative estimate places the num-
Der of dead at 175. The higher num-
lower. The number, of dead is mere
ly an estimate. Twenty members of
rescuing parties tell of how they saw
people drop from houses to be swept
away by the flood, and others 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 can not otherwise be
accounted for. Neither does it in
clude the number who are supposed to
have lost their lives in the fire. In
the latter class there is absolutely no
means of arriving at even an approx
mate number of victims. The water is
SO high and the current so strong that
all can be done now is to rescue those
in the buildings surrounded by water.
There is ground for hopesthat the
worst has passed.
Waters Receding.
City Engineer McCable has issued a
bulletin giving out the cheering intel.
ligence that the waters had subsidized
to the extent of exactly seven and a
half inches. 1t may be few hours be-
fore another drop will be noticed.
With ITS or 200 lives lost, millions
of dollars worth of property destroy
ed; hundreds of pistol shots as signals
of distress, blended with the agonizing
cries of unwilling inhabitants in tree
tops and roofs of houses, and the wa
tiers creeping upward and then slowly
subsiding and alternately changing
from hope to despair, the capital city
has passed the most memorable Sab
bath day of it's existence. To this I'm
comfortable condition Of affairs wa.
added a cold and dismal rain. The ar
, dor OF the rescue work OF the heroic
rescuers was not abated in the leas
by the conditions which confronted
them.
For long dreary hours, knee deep il
!, water and sometimes in water up t.
their necks, they worked with nigh
|. and main. Tonight they can proud!
.. point to 800 or more rescued ones wht
otherwise might have been swept ava.
!, in the current. Large contribution
have already been received for tn
benefit of the sufferers. The amour
given by Topeka citizens alone will
: aggregate 100000. To this is to b.
added an immense quantity of clothing
: provisions and general supplies. Out
side towns have generously offered aid
, among which is Galveston, Tex.
n Offers of Aid.
s Among the other messages was on
from the Galveston Tribune reading:
l. ''If we can do anything at all in tn
g aid of your city please feel free to ca
g upon u.s."
Other. messages from Kansas town