Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1903-06-04
Worst Flood in the History Of the City
Being Experienced.
Many Reported Lost, and Millions of Dollars Worth of
Property Detroyed-Water Supply of the City Cot Off
and Part of the Flooded District Fire.
All Business Parayzed.


been drowned, and the loss at this
point will be very heavy. All night
the forces of the stock yard men were
at work rescuing live stock. Hun
| dreds of them are being brought up
| into town. All the freight houses of
| the roads entering Kansas City, which
are located in the west bottoms, are
| flooded, and the loss from this source
alone must be great
Fires Are Burning.
| At o'clock this evening eight dis
| tinct fires are burning in the flood
district between Eleventh and Bluff
streets, three blocks west of the Union
depot, and Toadaloup. the latter a
| settlement near Armourdale. 1t is i'm
| possible to reach any of the fires, as
| telephone communication is cut off
and the use of boats is uncertain. The
fires were viewed through a field glass
from the top of high building on the
| bluff.
| All the fires appear to be isolated,
except the one at Eleventh and Bluff
streets, which started in lime ware
house and spread to a fruit warehouse.
| Close to the fruit warehouse, which
| is still burning, is shed containing
| thirty barrels of oil. If this should
catch fire the flames might spread to
| the wholesale district.
| At Toadaloup, three blocks of small
| buildings appear to be burning, While
at another point a string of box cars
| are afire.
Loss of Life.
Notwithstanding the reports of
great loss of life, very few of the
stories could be substantiated late to-
| night and it will be several days at
least before there is any accurate in
| formation in this regard
Edward Blanchard, city plumbing
| inspector, is authority for the state
ment that three women, are caught in
the freight house. of the Union Pacific
Railway. He declared that he saw
| them late in the afternoon waving
their hands and beckoning for help.
1t was impossible for anybody to reach
! them, however, and they are stlll I'M
| prisoned.
People Rescued.
1t is estimated that $50 people were
rescued from buildings in the west
| bottoms during the day. In many
cases along West Ninth street people
were pulled up to the structure OF the
elevated roads by ropes which had
| been thrown to them.
Thirty people were taken out OF the
| Baltimore Hotel at Ninth and Null
| berry streets, most of them being car
ried away in boats. At IL O'Clock to-
day e. K Machette, general manager
of the Schwartzschild & Sulzberger
| packing plant, telephoned that 100
men were imprisoned by the water In
/ the packing house and asked the po-
| lice to try to rescue them. Three
boats were hauled to Twenty-fourth
street near the Turkey creek pumping
station and were launched with two
men in each.
The boats left the Missouri side at
| 12 o'clock. At o'clock they had not
reached the packing house. because
at that hour there were 100 men upon
its roof and they raised the packing
house flag at half mast and let it float.
! 1t was reported late tonight that all
the men had been taken off.
Afloat on a Cottage.
| Among those who are said to have
| seen people drowned was Sergeant
| Couchlin. who is stationed on the
Twelfth street viaduct- From his sta
tion he saw some distance away
woman and three children afioat on
the roof of a small cottage. Suddenly
| the wreckage gave lurch and he
| saw the occupants of the roof no more.
A boat containing five men capsized
later near the same place, but whether
the occupants perished or not the SER
geant could not discern.
| At Q O'Clock seven fires were burn
ing in as many places in the railroad
wards. all of them having originated
| from Stacking lime stored in freight
cars.
AT 4 O'Clock the most serious blaze
of the day broke out in some lime
cars standing opposite the west end OF
the Union station and directly behind
the round house owned jointly by all
tbe roads entering the station. The
flames ran rapidly from car to car,
and within three hours thirty of them
had been destroyed. Among them
were several oil tanks which for
time threatened great damage to
everything in their vicinity.
While this blaze was at its height
frantic cries for help came from the
vicinity Of the fire, but the man who
uttered them could not be found, al
though numbers of men ran out upon
the Twelfth street viaduct to lend
what aid they could. There were no
boats. darkness was rapidly closing
down. and unless the author OF the
cries saved himself an unknown man
went down to death with hundreds OF
people close at hand and unable 10
lend a hand to aid him. There were
rlmors that the total number OF
deaths IN the wholesale district OF the
citv during the latter part of the day
will reach as high as fifty, but there
ia no possible way of determining.
WARNING SENT OUT.