Rocky Ford enterprise., 1911-10-13
FoLLov"-'G cLoUDsuRsT FLOODS
DEVASTATE SAN JUAN
DISTRICT.
LOSS OF LIFE UNKNOWN
RAILROADS, HIGHWAYS, TOWNS,
BRIDGES AND CROPS RUINED
DAMAGE is 100000.
western Newspaper Union News Service.

Durango, Colo.-The San Luis val
ley and the San Juan country have
been damaged millions of dollars with
a loss of life that is yet unknown be-
cause of the meagreness of detail in
the first dispatches received from the
flood-devastated districts. Railroads,
state and county highways, towns,
bridges and crops in the last few
days have suffered as the result of
cloudbursts and torrential rains here
tofore unprecedented in Colorado.
The burden of special dispatches
from Durango, Ouray, Alamosa, Anto-
nito, Rico. CorteZ and half a dozen
smaller towns is ruin and desolation
that will take months to repair
Buildings of every description were
torn bodily from their foundations;
haystacks. heavy logs and railroad
and bridge timbers were swept away
and tossed like straws on the crests
of surging waters; miles upon miles
of Denver G Rio Grande track were
ripped from the roadbed in various
places and twisted into hopeless
tangles of steel and wood, and a little
fifty souls, is reported to have been
wiped off the map. Hairbreadth es-
capes were numerous and hundreds
have been made homeless throughout
the flooded districts which extend
from the center of the San Luis val
ley westward across the San Juan
ranges and down the Animas valley
clear across the borders of New Mex
leo.
From Durango, which has been cut
off from the outside world, come re-
ports of a loss of 100000 to the rail
road; 100000 to the farmers of the
region, and 100000 in the destruc-
ton of bridges. Only one bridge is
left standing in La Plata county. Fiji
teen miles of track between Durango
and Silverton are reported gone.
Losses of life are feared at Dolores
md Cortez. Efforts to get into COM
pnication with these towns were fu-
tile.
From Telluride comes the report
that the little town of Hesperus was
saved only by miners dynamiting a
dam and changing the course of the
floods.
The breaking OF the d. & r. C. levee
threatened the entire business district
of Alamosa. Only the Herculean eff
forts of the inhabitants prevented dis
aster. So great was the force of the
waters that cement sidewalks were
undermined and carried from ten to
twenty feet away. Scores of families
living along the south side Of the Rio
Il l..
places of safety in wagons.
Among the hairbreadth escapes re-
ported is that of train of mule teams
in the Uncompahgre canon, near Du-
range. At Mineral park the mule
teams that had left Durango to get
supplies for the town had just crossed
a section of road supported by 800
feet of cribbing when the cribbing sud
denly gave way and plunged sheer for
depth of coo feet into the bed of the
canon.
A stretch of fifteen miles of track
between Durango and Silverton is re-
ported completely gone.
The effects of the flood at Durango
will be more far-reaching than was
thought at first. 1t has been reported
that the damage done locally to the
Rio Grande railway can be repaired
in from one to three months but until
the officers of the road can make the
estimate it cannot be said with any
degree of certainty just how much
time will be required to repair the
damage.
The storm continued with un-
abated severity for twenty-four hours
throughout the Animas valley and
over the entire San Juan ranges. The
rainfall in Durango was a little over
three inches, but in the mountains sur
rounding it was from seven to eight
inches. Only one bridge is left stand
ing in La Plata county.
At Laboca the section house of the
railway company was washed away
and the tracks also washed away for
a short distance.
From Durango to Pennington, N. NJ,
the roadbed of the Denver & Rio
Grande Southern is out completely.
At Mancos the damage reported is
slight comparatively.
Officials have estimated that at Du-
range and surrounding country the
loss to the railroad will total 100000
and that the farmers of the territory
have sustained loss to their property
close on to 100000 The valley was
flooded to depth of fifteen to twenty
feet throughout, the storm seemingly
being a series of cloudbursts.