The Tupelo journal., 1905-09-29
|ARE COUNTING Up
| FLOOD LOSSES
Will Amount to Millions Of Dollars
to Missouri Farmers Alone.
RAILROADS HAVE SUFFERED
In Addition the Various Counties
Affected Have Suffered Serious
Losses In the washing
Away Of Bridges.


every part of the state come reports
of heavy losses Of crops, principally
corn. When the returns are all in
the total will be several millions of dol
lars.
The Usage and Gasconade rivers,
which empty into the Missouri river
near here, are both falling.
The st. Francis, White and Current
rivers, in the southern part OF the
state, are still high, but it is believed
the worst is past.
There is no estimate yet Of the dam
age to railroad property, but it is
heavy. The Missouri Pacific system
alone estimates their losses at half a
million, but are not sure that they
will not exceed this amount.
No through trains between st. Louis
and Kansas City have passed through
here since Sunday.
No additional losses of life have
been reported from any part of the
state.
Heavy Losses.
Cooper. county lost $500,o00 worth of
wagon bridges. The loss to crops in
that county will reach an equal
amount.
Howard county has suffered heavy
loss. Bottom corn is all gone, and
many bridges wasked away.
Carroll county is heavy loser The
loss 10 farmers will reach half mill
lion. Wagon bridges are gone. The city
of Carrollton was partly under water.
The total loss in Cooper, Howard
and Carroll counties will reach almost
81 5000
In Livingston county 16 inches of
rain fell in three days. Lowland crops
were submerged, and the damage will
aggregate thousands of dollars. County
bridges are gone.
In Shelby county, the Salt river
wiped out cornfelds, and continued to
do it's destructive work throughout
Monroe and Rails.
Cause OF the Rapid Rise.
The Maries des Cygnes river, which
heads in Kansas, and forms the head
waters of the Usage, was on great
rampage. overfiowing farms in Miami
and Linn counties, Kas., and in Bates
county, Mo. The Marmiton, in Yer
non county; the Sac in Cedar ane
Dade; the Pomme de Terre, in Polk
and Hickory counties, have caused
hundreds of thousands OF dollars
worth of damage.
The rivers in south Missouri head in
the Ozarks, and as the downpour along
that watershed was very heavy, the
water poured into the creeks and
rivers. and in few hours the larger
streams were miles wide. Farmers on
| low grounds abandoned everything and
fed to the hills for their lives. What
were ordinary rivers on Sunday morn
ing were miles wide Sunday evening,
and farm grounds ten feet under wa
ter.
The Missouri is slow-rising river.
It will come up few inches day'
and often it will be two or three weeks
before it reaches its crest. But this
flood was unique. The river rose ten
feet during the night, and in the morn
ing was miles wide. A foaming sea OF
muddy water, with current OF elgnf
to ten miles an hour, with its surface
covered with trees, logs, timbers, dead
animals, corn, hay, portions OF farm
buildings and bridges. One curious
sight was the great number OF pump
kins. an evidence that the Missouri
bottom farms had been swept clean.
A Phenomenon.
A phenomenon was seen at the mouth
Of the Missouri that old river men de-
clare they never saw before. The Mis-
sissippi at the mouth of the Missouri
was at ordinary stage. The flood wa
ters from the Missouri poured into the
trough Of the Mississippi from such q
height that they made cataract. the
Missouri there was almost mile vide,
and trees and logs and other debris
shot over the falls and were carried
across the Mississippi to the Illinois
shore right across the current OF the
Mississippi by the force OF the MIS-
souri, current. This terrific outpour
from the Missouri caused rise in the
Mississippi Of ten feet in twenty-four
hours. and continued until the levee at
| St Louis was submerged, carrying
away merchandise to the value OF