Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1911-10-12
FLOODS IN
WISCONSIN
Black River Falls, Wis, Has
Thirty Business Blocks on
Main Street Washed Away.
BUILDINGS UNDERMINED, FALL
Water Twenty Feet Deep in the
Streets---lt is Believed Dam
Will Hold.

dam of the Water and Power COM
pany across the river at Hatfield, Wis,
went out this moraing. The officials
Of the company telephoned the people
in the valley to flee for their lives and
it is believed that nearly all have
escaped.
Hatfield itself is flooded and all tel
egraph and telephone wires are down.
The damage will be enormous. @
La Crosse, Wis, Oct. 6.-Thirty
business blocks in the business dis
trict have toppled over, about thirty
residences have been carried away
and buildings are being undermined
and are falling one after. the other,
according to the latest communication
from Black River Falls, secured when
Harry Gettman, telephone lineman,
swan to telephone pole, and with
test set gave added details of the
disaster which shows situation far
worse than estimated.
| Two are reported missing in Black
River Falls, and Gettman said the
only reason there was no heavy loss
Oh life was because the warming came
| in time to permit people to escape to
the higher ground. aG&
Business Section Raced.
The havoc wrought on Water street
and on Main street is terrific. Gett-
man declared not single building re-
/ manned on Water street and that
practically every building in the first
block on Main street had fallen.
There are some twenty to thirty
| feet of water on Water and Main
streets. Two-story buildings were al
| most entirely submerged before they
| collapsed.
City in Darkness. 80
| The power house which furnishes
the city light is entirely under water
and the city is in darkness.
The Omaha railroad bridge is for
t. feet above the water normally, and
now the flood is within ten feet of the
rails, and the water is still rising. All
traffic over the structure has been
stopped.
Buildings on SAND Undermined.
The section of the city where the
greatest havoc has been wrought was
! built upon sand, and when the floou
swept over and around the citys pow
Ell dam this land was eaten away and
the buildings undermined. s
Many persons have had nothing to
eat since morning and the city's sup
plies of food are all submerged. Z.
Farm buildings and houses continue
to come down with the flood, indicat-
ing widespread destruction thruout
the valley between Black River Falls
and Hatfield, and possible loss of
life.
No communication can be establish
ed with Hatfield and it is impossible
to learn whether the main Hatfield
dam is showing signs of giving away
and releasing the larger volume of
water. - -f.
Some Facts About the Stricken City.
Black River Falls is one of the pio-
neer cities of Wisconsin, having had
its origin in the numbering operations
of the early days in which many CT
the first settlers of the Badger state
reaped large fortunes. Later it grew
into a boarding station for rivermen,
when rafting their logs down for the
great sawmills Of Onalaska and La
Crosse, more than a score of which |
we're in operation at that time. It's
strategic location at the falls of the
Black River, however, was soon rel
scognized by manufacturers and mer-
chants and 1t grew into a lively little
city, altho lack of transportation fa-
ciIities by rail handicapped its early
Development and prevented it becom-