Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1909-07-23
FLOOD IN MIDDLE WEST;
SANTA FE TRAIN UPSET
Coaches in Eighteen Feet of Water
at Pomona, kanSas-Chicago
Child browns.
800 ARE RESCUED IN BOATS
Unprecedented Rains Swell River
and Do Great Damage in
Missouri Valley.

Weakened by excessive rains and
covered with water to a depth Of two
feet. the road of the Santa Fe line,
one-half mile east of Pomona. Kan.
gave way under the weight of the sec.
ond section of w~est-bound passenger
train No. s at 8 o'clock Wednesday
afternoon. Three coaches turned tur-
tie on the right of the em~bankment
and now lie in eighteen feet Of water.
The 4-year-old daughter of Mrs. Car.
RE Rose of Chicago was drowned. Two
of the 800 passengers on the train
were injured.
Coaches Toppled Over.
The train had beer detoured from
the main line to the Emporia cutoff
to avoid a flood blockade and encoun-
tered rising water a mile from Pomo-
ma. A stop was made to examine the
track and the train slowly entered the
flood. Half the distance to the depot
had been traversed when the baggage
car left the rails. The smoking car
and the day coach followed, turned
from the rails and slipped gradually
over the embankment and down into
eighteen feet of water that filled the
slough at the side of the roadbed. The
turn was made SO slowly, however.
that the passengers, previously warned
of the dangers Of the track, succeeded
In gaining the tops of the coaches tina
still stood upright in the food.
A relief train from Ottawa came in
sight through the rising waters at 5
O'Clock, but was compelled to return
for additional boats and coils of rope
to steady the boats against the swift
current. -Four boats, manned by ex-
pert crews, took the passengers off.
Homes were found for all the refugees
at the farm houses and in the village
of Pomona.
Boat Is Swept Away.
One of the first of three boats to
reach the spot was caught in the
wreckage and lost. The rescue train
on its second trip plowed through two
feet of water for th~reequarters of a
mile before it reached the point from
which the boats were launched.
In Pattonsburg, Mo, the dead are
oSoi So oihiSl' d Idi llCSS-IldhSI, ana
Harrison Walker, a section man, and
D. Bower and wife, e. c.. Nelson, a gro
Gerry clerk and a man named Scott are
missing. During the n-s d N"4i
for aid was sent ont from Patloh0pulS
a town of 1000 in DaViess county
,,bicb roc ra,--vrd under seven to
ten feet of water. and relief trains
were made up at St. Joseph and Kan
sas City.
A dispatch from Santa Rosa, Mo,
stated that the St. Joseph relief train
was narooned between that place and
Pattonsburg. Teh water had gone up
until it was two feet Over the track.
Two Kansas City boats which started
from Pattonsburg TO the train are
missing. But one St. Joseph boat got
through. The engine whistled all
night to guide the boatmen.
The worst flood of the year is raging
In the Des Moines River Valley. The
river has reached the fourteen foot
mark and threatens to go higher.
Thousands of dollars worth of corn
has been swept away. Residences in
the southern part of the city of Des
Moines were surrounded by a foot of
water. Every railroad running rains
into Des Moines is hours late.