Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1903-06-05
FLOODS AND FIRE IN Topeka
OVER 200 PEOPLE DROWNED,
5000 WITHOUT HOMES.

Property Losses Will Amount to More
Than Five Million DoIlars-city Wa.
ter Works useIess-Provisions Are
short-Water Was to is Feet
Deep Over North Topeka.
Topeka, Kan, June 1.-Briefiy
state, the present condition of the flood
is this: One hundred and seventy to
200 people drowned; 5000 people with.
out homes; $4,0O0,0OO loss of property
destroyed; identified dead, five; float.
ing bodies seen, 20; people missing,
200; houses burned, as result of fire
in lumber yards from Stacking lime,
probably 200; banks collapsed, 81;
wholesale grocery stores flooded, q;
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 flood and all its
conditions and as a result of their in
vestigation they give $50 as the prob
able number of lives lost. A more
conservative estimate places the num-
Der Of dead at ITS. The higher num-
Der is as likely to be correct as the
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 food, 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 hope that 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 It's 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 its existence. To this un-
comfortable condition of affairs was
added cold and dismal rain. The ar
dor of the rescue work of the heroic
rescuers was not abated in the least
by the conditions which confronted
them.
For long dreary hours, knee deep in
water and sometimes in water up to
their necks, they worked with might
and main. Tonight they can proudly
point to 800 or more rescued ones who
otherwise might have been swept away
in the current. Large contributions
have already been received for the
benefit of the sufferers. The amount
given by Topeka citizens alone will
aggregate 100000. To this is to be
added an immense quantity of clothing,
provisions and general supplies. Out
side towns have generously offered aid,
among which is Galveston, Tex.
Offers Of Aid.
Among the other messages was one
from the Galveston Tribune reading:
IF we can do anything at all in the
aid of your city please feel free to call
upon u.s."
Other messages from Kansas towns
authorize the commission here to draw
upon individuals for stated sums, and
as soon as the mails arrive a great
number of contributions from outside
towns are expected to materialize.
Topeka is doing nobly by her suf-
ferers. The wealthiest city in Kansas
is proud to acknowledge that no calls
on outside help need to be made. It
will be necessity to raise a great fund
for relief work. Weeks must elapse
before order can be restored from the
present chaos. Hundreds of houses
will have to be rebuilt entirely.