The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1904-10-01
COLORADO FLOODS
City of Trinidad Swept by
Purgatoire River.
FOUR LIVES LOST, EIGHTEEN MISSING
All Bridges Gone Down-Three Rail-
ways Blocked 80 Lighting Plants
Destroyed, Leaving Place
In Darkness.

DENVER, Oct. 1.--EXtenslve dam
age is reported to have been done at
! Trinidad, Colo, by flood III the Pur-
gatoire river. 1t is reported that -four
persons have been drowned. and elgh
teen are missing. The food swept five
city blocks in Trinidad, and' the loss Is
estimated at 100000.
All wires in the vicinity, are down,
and communication with the city is en-
tirely cut Off. All bridges in and about
the city are said to have been washed
away, and no trains can ge in or out
on the Santa Fe, the Denver and Rio
Grande and the Colorado Southern rail
ways.
Trinidad is the county seat of Las
|. Animas county and the center of an
extensive coal mining region, Its popu-
lation Is 5000.
At the Colorado Southern train dis
patcher's office in Denver it was said
that the last news received from Trini-
dad was that the city reservoir had
been swept away. Railroad men said
it had been raining very heavily in the
vicinity of Trinidad since Wednesday
night
The following report was received Mt
the office of the Denver and Rio Grande
from the general agent of the company
in Trinidad
"'rhe Santa Fe passenger station has
been washed away, and the track be-
tween Commercial street and Anmas
Nstreet is out One coach and one sleep
or and several box ears went down the
river The Colorado and Southern
bridge has gone out. The company has
also lost 1000 feet Of track east of the
station. The ground beneath the track
has been washed away to depth Of
from thirty to forty feet
At the Santa Fe offices here it was
positively stated that the cars which
were washed away were unoccupied.
General Superintendent Coughlin of
the Denver and Rio Grande said he
had received information that trains
. could not be run on schedule time for
four days, as hundreds of feet of track,
W say DulliuE vi Tut DiS sJlIOEeS DtstI
Trinidad, had been washed out. The
mud on the tracks, one message said.
was from one to four feet deep. An
other telegram stated that the Santa
Fe yards were covered by several feet
of mud.
''The Trinidad reservoir. which is re-
ported to have washed out" said Chief
Engineer Cowan of the Colorado and
Southern railroad, sis nine miles above
Trinidad. 1t was built two years ago
and covers forty acres Of ground. Be
tween the reservoir and Trinidad the
country Is taken up mostly with farms
and railroads, and there are not
great many people residing there"
Every bridge in the city of Trinidad
Is out, the Santa Fe station Is demol-
ished. all of the railroads are tied up
and the telephone and telegraphic serv-
ice completely suspended. More than
thirty city blocks in the residence and
business portions were from two to
four feet under water along the river.
The flood was caused by a heavy rain
which has been falling for two days.
The storm assumed cloudburst proper
tions, and the Las Animas river went
over its banks. 1t is impossible TO get
within a block of the river at any
point, and Commercial street is flooded
for three blocks in the heart of the
business district.
The electric light and gas plants have
been flooded and the city is in com
plete darkness.