The Springfield herald., 1908-05-29
OKLAHOMA and
TEXAS FLOODS
VAST TRACTS OF LAND COVERED
AND THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE
HOMELESS.
DA M AGE IN DALLAS
THE ENORMOUS RAINFALL IN OK
LAHOMA BREAKS ALL
RECORDS.

Dallas. Texas.-Four lives are
known to have been lost, more than a
million dollars worth of property de-
stroyed, and four thousand people rem
dered homeless by the overflow of
Trinity river Sunday night and Mon
day.
The flood at nightfall passed the rec
rord made by TIE rise in 1866. fifty-two
feet.
Only one street car line is operating
to a part of North Dallas. The water
works plant is out 3f commission and
the light plant is swamped.
Mayor Ha- has issued Il proclama-
tion closing all business houses at 1880
p. m. at night until 5 O'Clock in the
morning. Funds were raised this after
noon for the relief Of the homeless.
At night two companies of infantry
and one of artillery are patrolling the
streets of the city under the direction
of the police and no one is permitted
to go on the streets without a permit
from the authorities. In the residence
sections the patrol consists of two vol
unteer citizens frcm each city block.
This is made necessary by the Grip
pling Of the water works and to pre-
vent incendiary fires. AL objection
able characters We're given until sun.
down to leave the city ana many OF
these mad to walk out.
There is not n street light burning
in Dallas tonight. One hundred spe
cial policemen were drafted and sworn
into service.
The noteworthy feature of more than
thrilling interest today happened this
morning when. pressed on the north
by weight of debris the trestling west
of the steel bridge Of the Texas & Pa
cifc railroad over Trinity river gave
way ard ten men We're thrown into
the water in full view of 10000 spec
tators. Seven of these men were res
cued at great hazard.
Oklahoma City. Okla.-Six persons
are dead, from 400 to 500 are home
less. thousands of acres of lowlands
are inundated, hundreds of houses are
washed away or damaged. railroad
and wagon bridges are gone over a
large area of the southern part of
the state. several railroad bridges are
damaged and the tracks of nearly ev-
cry railroad company operating in the
state are either washed away entirely
or disarranged in those sections Wis
tied by the heaviest rains and most
disastrous of floods.
Along the valleys of the North and
South Canadian rivers. the Cimarron,
the Arkansas. the Washita and Red
river thousands of acres of growing
crops have been damaged ,nd many
homes washed away
The railroads most seriously af-
fected are the st. Louis & San Fran
cisco, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas
Midland Valley, Rock Island and
Santa Fe. All the principal streams
are out of their banks at some points
along their .,ngth.
The owns that have suffered the
greatest damage and inconvenience
are West Guthrie, Tulsa, jerks. a
small town near Tulsa. Muskogee,
Shawnee and sapulpa.
West Guthrie. parts of Tulsa. jerks
and Sapulpa are inundated; Shawnee
is surrounded by water and isolated
save for telegraph and telephone com
munication; Muskogee has suffered
considerable damage to outlying prop
erty and its gas plant was flooded last
night and closed down. and much low
land in other parts of the state is un-