Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1911-08-16
ON RAMPAGE
RISES HIGHEST
IN FIFTY YEARS
Storm of Saturday Night Spreads
Over Wide Territory.
DAMAGE TO CROPS AND STOCK
Reports From Over the County Indi.
cate Much Loss. Bridges, Gull
yerts, Trees, Stock, Etc. WASH
Down i'm the Torrent. Light
ming Strikes in Many
Places.


ming Strikes i'm Many
Places.
The almost continuous rain storms
of the past ten days wound up on
Saturday night with one of the most
terrific lightning and thunder storms
and one of the heaviest rainfalls we
have had in many years. About
eight o'clock in the evening the
thunder and lightning started, and
continued almost necessarily until
morning. Flashes of lightning fol-
lowed one another in quick success
sion, thunder rolled and roared as
we have never heard 1t before, the
skies seemed to be on fire, in the
grasp of the elements. Before mid
night it commenced to rain, and
how it did rain. In the memory of
the oldest inhabitant there has never
been anything to equal it. 1t came
in torrents, and at intervals hail
peltered the roofs and stripped the
trees and stalks OF corn, in some
parts of the county. 1t continued
throughout the night, and there
were many throughout the city who
did not sleep a wink that night.
Sunday morning the Upper Iowa
river was on rampage. Way out
of its banks, higher than it had been
in many years, almost a continuous
succession of trees, logs, brush and
shocks of grain came down, with
now and then a hog, and once a
horse. 1t was not long until it had
covered the fat in the rear of the
stores, and by noon had cut across
the road between the concrete
bridge and the Burdick place on the
west side. 1t reached its highest in
the afternoon, and then gradually
receded until Monday morning it
was confined again to it's banks.
Z, But on Monday 0rniS,~ about
i've clock long distance reIe-
phone message came to Sheriff Quail
ley from way up the river some
where, that it was higher than it
had ever been before. and to notify
the people on low ground to look
out for it. He at once 'phoned to
Bluffton and Mr.. Brittendall inform
ed him that it was about seven feet
higher there than he had ever seen
it. The word soon spread through
out the city, and the river banks
were lined with people; the resi-
dents of the low places in the fiat
near West Decorah prepared to leave
their homes, and pick up everything
movable. All day long the water
o;, tci In noh
every ten minutes, until II attained
higher stage than has ever been
known here. The old residents say
that in 1856, when the old court
house was built, at this same time of
the year, it was about the same
height, but never since that time.
Water nearly covered the sweep
encircled by the Dugway from the
BernatZ dam across to Pulpit Rock,
the entire fiat in the rear of Luther
College, the fiat north of the stores
in Decorah; it swept across the road
in West Decorah west and north OF
the concrete bridge, four feet deep,
and flooded the lower portion of a
number of houses near the West De-
corah stores, where it has never
been before, some of the residents
being carried out to safety. On the
Curtin" fiat, near the Ice Cave
water rose to within few inches
of the top of the dixie, and men
with shovels were stationed along
the dixie, filling up the lower places
as the water trickled over Out in
the field, several rods from the dixie
I ,tA hnrct fort IN
and soon that part of the fiat was
| flooded, water coming about the
! Biddinger house near the Twir
! bridges, the water running over the
! floor of one of these bridges. Every
where in the low places near the
river there was water, and it woulo
require columns of space to mention
! the various points the water over
| flowed. 1t reached its highest stage
about five o'clock in the afternoon
and has been rapidly receding eVel
since.
The cause of the second higl
stage of water is reported 70 b'
from an immense damming up OF th'
water at Leroy, Mimi, where bi:
dam was formed by the brush, trees
grain, ETC., which backed the waite
over the farms for a distance OF tel
miles or more, and this giving wa,
came down on Sunday.
But the best of il all is, that witt
all this immense fall of water, com
paratively little damage resulted
and there was no loss of life. Near
ly every farmer in the path or tn
river lost some grain or stock. an
many others throughout the count
had losses from lightning, but whe
it is all summed up, it is nothin
compared to what might have bee
expected, and We all have reason
be grateful.
Mr.. F.. II. Bakers governmer
| gauge showed that In the few hour