Omaha daily bee., 1909-07-08
Missouri and Kansas Towns Suffer
Severely from Water.
NUMBER OF TOWNS SUBMERGED
Efforts Made to Relieve Beleaguered
Residents by Boats.
SUPPLIES SENT TO SUFFERERS
Food and other NecessAries Being
Hurried TO PattOnshurE, Chilli
cOthe and Points where
Help is Needed.

ST JOSEPH. Mo-, July 7.-Northwestern
Missouri is experiencing the worst flood
in it's history.
The '1O2" Platte and Grand rivers are
five to six miles wide in places. Two
persons are known to be dead in Pattons-
burg. Three others ore missing. Crops
valued at hundreds Of thousands OF dol
lars have been destroyed, Hundreds of
head of live stock have been drowned.
The dead are:
GEORGE PALMER, harness maker,
HARRISON WALKER, section man.
Pattonsburg
Tho missing three are q. Bowner and
wife, f. c. Nelson. a grocery clerk and a
man named Scott.
During the morning a call for aid was
sent out from Pattonsburg, a town of 1.OM
in Daviess county, which was reported
under seven to ten feet of water. Relief
trains were made up at st. Joseph and
Kansas City. The ST. Joseph party
reached Pattonsburg about o'clock and
began to aid in the rescue. 1t was found
that most of the people had sought refuge
in the mill, school house and upper stories
Of business houses. There are 400 per-
sons crowded in the school, which is sur
rounded oy five feet of water. Many had
no food for twenty-four hours until the
arrival Of the st, Joseph and Kansas City
rescuing parties Six men swept from a
railroad track, hung to fence all night
until rescued with boat built at McFall
A large number of women and children
have been moved to the hills, where tents
have been provided for them.
River is Rising Again.
Tonight the river was reported rising
again.
AT Maryville there has not been a train
In or out Of town in twenty-four hours.
Telephone service is cut off. bridges
valued at 100000 are washed out, and II ia
raining again tonight.
The Maryville water supply will he sh,,t
off by morning. Five trains are marooned
in different parts of Nodaway county. More
than twenty miles of track are out. A coal
famine is threatened In MaryviIle. Ten
inches Of water have fallen In three dayp.
AT Barnard, Avenue City. Platte City and
other towns the lowlands are flooded
At Gallatin the Grand River is five miles
wide and the lighting plant lie submerged,
Train Leaves Track.
KANSAS CITY. July 7-Train No. OF
the Atchison Topeka g. Santa Fe railway.
which left Kansas City at s:26 this morn
ing for Denver, was wrecked at Pomona,
Kan or the ten coaches which made up the
train four, baggage car and three day
coaches, left the track and rolled into
eighteen feet of water. The roadbed was
covered with water, and the train was pro-
ceeding slowly, when the rails spread and
overturned the coaches. The overturned
coaches are supposed TO have been empty
Cars Sink slowly.
1t appears that the train which had been
detoured from the main line over the Em-
poria branch, was running along smoothly
through the water, when It began to sink
on the undermined tracks. The coaches
sank so gradually that the passengers and
crew were able to get into the Pullman
cars before the other coaches finally
toppled over and sank from view.
People from the surrounding country, at
tracted by the cries OF the 300 marooned
passengers, Immediately endeavored to start
on rescue. Rats were hastily constructed
and the few boats available were pushed
out but by this time the current was so
swift around the train that only the most
venturesome were able TO reach the people.
1t was after dark before a rescue by
means of a series OF boats tied with ropes
was affected. Boat trips of from one to
two miles were made to the nearest farm
houses free OF the flood and the passengers
all were finally taken to safety. The
passengers probably will have to remain at
the farm houses until the surrounding
floods subside.
Child IL Drowned.
A telephone message from Pomona, Kan,
shortly before midnight said the wreck Of
the train In the flood there today resulted
in one death, the 4-year-old daughter OF
Mrs Carrie Rose of Chicago being drowned.
Communication with the town was In
terrupted. Although railway officials
denied that anyone was killed or injured,
telephone message tonight reports two
people injured. They are:
| Laura st. Clair, Boston, back wrenched
and right arm wrenched at shoulder.
Mamie ST. Clair. Boston. minor bruises
and cuts.
from Boston to Perry ok. Miss Mamie
ST. Clair is an elderly woman, and II was
while trying to assist her the other woman
was hurt.
Pomona is almost completely inundated
the Marias Des Cygnes river at that point
being three miles wide. A relief train was
sent from Ottawa tonight with food and
other supplies for the passengers. who
were said to have had to climb on top
OF the coaches for refuge from the rising
water.
In Kansas City Bottoms.
In Kansas City the situation is threaten
ling, II not yet serious. In the bottoms
in the western section. where are located
the stock yards, wholesale warehouses and
manufacturing plants. the waters from
the confluence of the Missouri and Kan
sas rivers tonight are tapping the danger
line and precautions we're taken against
further rise
In what are known as the eastern bot
toms the authorities hope TO avert damage
by the closing Of the sewer flood gates
and the CNerauon Of a gigantic electrical
pump.
Six Men swept Away.
At Chillicothe Mo-. on the Grand river,
six men we're swept from a bridge this
afternoon and we're seen floating dSwn tAa