The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-06-12
EMBANKMENT SWEPT AWAY AND
EAST ST. LOUIS INUNDATED
BY THE FLOOD.
ELEVEN PERSONS DROWNED
PARTY OF NEGRO LcoTERs SAID
TO HAVE BEEN SHOT DOWN
BY THE GUARDS.

Va LdAoL oJs LOuISS Ill, ID uAACl
from two to fifteen feet Of water. Be-
tween twilight Tuesday night and
dawn Wednesday, eleven lives were
sacrificed to the angry waters, and
damage which no man attempts to
estimate was done to property. Not
q wheel OF industry is turning in
East st. Louis, but the food waters
whirl and suck at the foundations of
many buildings, which have been de-
serted.
The vast railroad yards are ap-
parent by half-submerged cars and To-
comOtives.
Huge grain elevators stand sur
rounded by running water. To the
south beyond the railway yards, are
thousands Of cottages, owned by Labor
ers and containing their all, submerg-
ed to the caves.
In Northern East st. Louis the con-
dition is not so bad.
The business portion of the city and
the district containing the better resi-
dences Is still intact, but for how long
is not known. Broadway, running
from Eads bridge east to the city
limits, q wide street built Of sand and
walled with stone, fifteen feet high,
divides the city in halves. Over ten
feet OF water is pressing against
Broadway from the South and in many
places is seeping through in streams
as thick as a mans body.
Traffic Rendered Dangerous.
Traffic over certain portions OF the
thoroughfare has been prohibited. and
ever pedestrians are not allowed to
traverse those threatened portions.
II Broadway breaks, the water will
rush owe much of the city until Mis-
souri, avenue, running parallel one
block north, is encountered.
Along the river front to the West
q levee of sand bags from two to six
feet high and two miles long keeps
the river out.
Tuesday night the river suddenly be-
gan to rise. Tired men worked with
frenZied energy to strengthen the
sand bag levees. The city was made
safe along the river front, but a new
danger menaced. Word was received
that the Illinois Central embankment
skirting the river along the Southern
boundary of the city, was threatening
to give way. Couriers were sent on
horseback and afoot to shout warnings
to the inhabitants of the southern halt
Of the city, and hundreds of laborers
and citizens FASTENED to the embank-
ment. Locomotives rushed carloads
Of sandbags to the place and work was
hurriedly begun. Accustomed by this
time to warnings Of impending danger
the Inhabitants did not leave their
homes. Higher and higher crept the
water until a thin stream began to
pour over the embankment, and sud-
denly it broke.
Tore Away the Embankment.
The break occurred at 11:4O o'clock.
D. Fl. Sherwood, a laborer, was swept
away and drowned. The water cut q
section of the embankment out and a
stream twenty-five feet wide rushed
through. Another section Of the en-
bankment went out a few minutes
later and then that portion standing
between the two streams went down
and the river poured through. It is
believed that many men, especially
negroes, were drowned.
The alarm spread like wildf1re and
whistles were blown, bells tolled, shots
fred, and cries of warning were
sounded, but even with ali this pande-
monium many of the inhabitants failed
to leave their homes.
Within an hour the houses stood in
water that reached to the roofs Of the
one-story cottages. Many fed to
large brick buildings. Rescue boats
found many people in second stories
and on %housetops, but there is grave
fear that when all the living have
been transferred to land, the boats
will bear bodies Of dead from the
flooded cottages and the desolated
quarters.
In the turmoil 1t has been impossible
to verify reported deaths, but from ap-
parently reliable sources it is claimed
that the following eleven persons were
drowned:
Eleven Persons Drowned.
John Koolish and three children.
drowned on North Side; an unidenti-
fed baby, d. HI. Sherwood, Lawrence
Day, two unidentified women, and two
unidentified men. '
1t is currently reported that seven
negroes caught loOting houses at night
were shot to death. They were all on
q raft and we're surprised by guards
who shot them down n threw their
bodies into the water. While this
was not confirmed, it is known that
there was heavy firing on the North
Side, where these negroes are said
to have been killed.
The deaths of John Koolish, a Pol
ish carpenter, and his three children,
two boys. aged five and seven years
respectively, and a girl OF twelve,
were caused by trying to save three
kegs-Of beer.
When boats were rowed alongside
homes whose occupants were ma
TONED in second stories and on roofs
many at first refused to leave. They
feared river thieves and would stand
guard. Women were most unwilling
to be rescued, although some of them
were wringing their hands and weep
ing in terror. Promises of militia
salvation.