The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-07-07
THE HEPPNER DISASTER
Remarkable Effects Of the Ore.
gon Cloudburst.
STRANGE INCIDENTS TOOK PLACE

Girl Saved From the Flood by Cling
ing to a Horses Tafl-Safe That
Weighed One Thousand Pounds
Floated One nIile-Mother Rescued
Another's Child and Lost Her own.
Dogs Pathetic Devotion. M
A survey of the scene of The terrible
cloudburst at IIcppner, Ore. gives i'm
pressiveness to this brief legend. which
the Indians of this section have repeat
eddy told the white inhabitants, says
the New York Hcrald's special CORE
spondent: 'Many years ago big food
he come. and he fill whole valley" That
legend is regarded 10Y as having been
an u%nheeded warming. The big food
came again. and it made the valley one
Of death. .a a ~. "A
Heppnar is east of the Cascade noun
tains ara in a district"where Il small
amount of rain falls during the sum-
mer. Fnr three months 1t had been
very dry; then suddenly on Sunday
afternoon, June II. Il heavy cloud was
seen hanging over the hills a few miles
away from the town There was a ter.
rible roar, and down am Il mighty
avalanche of water that pushed before
it l1ous"s. trees, pnrsons-everything.
rs onr stands on top of the hill above
the town and gazcs owe the valley of
Willow creek below there lies before
him !, scene Of devastation. Crushed
like cggshells are the dwellings of the
have been clearing away ihe debris.
Beneath piles of wreckage We're dug
out the beloved ADMINISTRATORS. wives,
children. Sometimes Il child was found
at ONE. place and one or ten miles below
were picked up the bodies of the par
ents. . 2 ....#
Some say the rushing water was fif-
teen feet high. others that it was fifty.
Fields it laid waste. cattle it destroyed:
but, saddest of all. it took away be-
tween 200 and 800 human lives,
The singular thing about this cloud
burst was that the flood tide moved
more slowly than would be expected.
The horrible rush lasted about an hour
In passing a given point, and it re-
quired twelve hours for it to travel
thirty-one miles.
The water did not tiow. but rolled.
Friction held the bottom of the current
back. AS the food rolled along it
picked up dust. fences. everything. and
ere it had proceeded very far it was
Il stream of liquid mud mixed with
debris.
In some places it curled in eddies and
its force was terrific. A safe weighing
1000 pounds was foated for a mile.
The water stripped the bodies Of
clothes. Only two buildings We're. able.
to withstand the terrific force of the
flood. s.-
The most striking evidence of the
strength of the flowing stream was it's
effect upon the railway tracks. The
food picked up the heavy steel rails
and bent them as a boy would a pin.
One of the rails was hurled like a jave-
lin into a bank of earth and only two
feet of it remained protruding from the
ground. Another section of the rail-
way track was contorted until 1t
formed almost a perfect figure 8. Some
rails were bent in the middle and 9th
ers were turned at the ends SO that
they resembled fishhooks.
There We're many narrow escapes
from death. A young girl chung to the
tail of a horse and was saved. A child
rested all night on a heap of debris.
A cat c%omplacently 1oated down the
| stream for a mile and was unhurt.
One mother lost her own babe and
saved that belonging to another.
Near where the steel rails were twist
ed was found the side of a house with
the window glass in it unbroken. A
house was turned upon its side and on
the top of it lay a galvanized wash tub
unsecured.
Two Of the dead We're recovered in q
singular way. A dog standing on q
pile Of debris was barking wildly. The
rescuers wondered why and. tearing
away the heap, they discovered the
body of the dogs master. When the
body was removed the dog would not
leave. Continuing their search, the
party found the dogs mistress.
MAN BEAUTY'S TROUBLES.