The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-06-22
BUILT A LEvEE.
People of North Topeka Prevent
an Overflow.
Volunteers Work Effectively
Near Updegraff Farm.
KEPT OUT THE WATER
North Side Consequently Was
High and Dry.
kaw River Is Receding and All
Danger Is Past.
KEPT OUT THE WATER


small food by narrow margin for
If it had not been for the work done |
Saturday afternoon and night and
Sunday morning by. volunteers who
erected levee west of the city, a
stream 200 yards wide and two. feet
In depth would have passed through
section of the North Side. The levee
was constructed almost entirely by
volunteer labor from North Topeka
and while it was less than three feet
In height 1t answered the purpose and
held the waters of the river within
it's banks at the low point near the
Updegraff farm where it has in the
past first left the banks of the stream.
The high waters predicted by the
government weather bureau Satur-
day arrived according to schedule,
late Sunday, the crest reaching To-
peka at 5 o'clock in the afternoon
when the government. river gauge
recorded 20.6 feet, Since that time
the waters have been gradually reced-
ing though the rate has been slow,
the measurement at g. o'clock this
morning being 2O.2 a fall of but a
of foot since 5 O'Clock Sunday af-
ternoon.
The waters which passed Topeka
Sunday afternoon and are passing to-
day are the last of the flood waters
held by the streams west of this point.
The fall which will be slow for a day
or so will dispose of most of the sur
plus water which has fallen in the val
ley of the Kaw and it's tributaries
during the past two weeks
That a portion of North Topeka was
not again inundated Sunday afternoon
is due entirely to the determination
and foresight of less than half hun
dred residents Of that section of the
city adjacent to the river on the west
News of another rise in the river was
carried to the residents by the To-
peka State Journal late in the after
noon and an hour later plans were
formed for protecting that portion of
the city and twenty-five determined
men were at work building a tempor-
ary levee to keep out the flood waters.
Sunday the working force was dou-
bled. and all day the men, most of
them unused to outdoor labor pushed
wheelbarrows loaded with dirt or
shoveled with a will to construct a
levee which would prove protection
to the property of the residents of
North Topeka. The bulletin issued by
the government weather department
indicated rise perhaps of two feet
depth over the lower portions of the
section of the city adjacent to the
river on the North side
Happily much of this water was ta-
ken care of west of the city where it
spread out over the broad bottoms al
ready twice flooded this spring By
the time the flood waters reached To-
peka the rise amounted to little more
than a foot though this amount would
have broken over the river banks west
of the city where they have been
| weakened by the recent floods had it
| not been for the levees which were built
| Saturday afternoon and Sunday.
| Just west of the tie treating plant
| where the waters overf1owed last week
are two low places in the bench which
| forms bank for the river at this point
during high water periods. The Union
| Pacific railroad grade just north of
this point which in the past has acted
| as levee is washed out in two places
and no longer affords even this meagre
protection to North Topeka from the
floods.
1t was at the low places in this bench
| which was acting as a bank of the
river that the levee builders directed
their energies which has won for them
fame as undying in North Topeka as
that of the little Dutchman in Holland
s. d. Flora, assistant weather observer
was one of the first on the scene with
S. E. Seger of the Merriam Mortgage
company who lives at 1882 North Har.
rison street.
A reading of the government river
gauge indicated that the water woulG
overflow the bank at 1876 feet and thi.
was the reading when the party lef
the Union Pacific depot on a switch
engine. When they reached the frs
break which is about three inches low
er than the upper the water was trick
ling over in tiny streams and the hand
full of men at once began t>Se work o
strengthening the weak points whil'
more men were sent for.
Twenty-Five men responded to tn,
call, bringing with them three wheel
| barrows which were picked up at on
of the mills and a dozen shovels ant
this was the equipment of the frs
gang of men who had set out to save
North Topeka from an overflow. They
worked for four hours without though
of supper and some of them returned
afterwards to watch TO see that ths
water did not find weak points in th'
improvised dyke.
They had raised the bank of tn,
stream a foot in the low place which
threatened to let in the flood water.
for a space of go feet and returned t
their homes satisfied that their worl
would protect them until Sunday af
ternoon when it was expected that thu
crest of the flood would reach Topeka
Bright and early Sunday morning thi
same body of men reinforced by a.
many more were at the danger point.
equipped to make better fight agains
the flood waters which were approach
ing.
The attention of the workmen wa
directed to the upper break which ha
commenced to show signs of weakness
and the water was almost ready I
overflow at this point. This break
| about a block west of the first an
200 feet in width and here as at tn
| first break a temporary levee was con
| structed which answered the purpose
/, The waters crept up inch by inch o
| the dykes and more dirt was wheele
: | and the low places strengthened.