Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-04-13
Writ HE. FLOOD McEDINf
The Havoc WROUGHT
bEcortES MoRE AReAREN1

bridge at Kansas City-that is. out of sew
enteen it 6 -ept away sixteen and half.
The bridge of the Missouri Pacific line
was weighted with the heaviest engines in
the roundhouses. The bridge stood. but
the waters, which surged about the SEN
tinel engines, lifted some. of them from
the track. The bridge was in doubtful
state for some time after the flood, the
construction engineers not being certain
whether it had remained internally Sc
cure"
A gentleman in the employ of the
weather bureau interrupted the above
conversation with the following story of
the freakishness of floods in the Rocky
mountains:
Bear creek, a stream that comes out
Of thu foothills near Denver, Col, drains
large extent of mountain region" he
said. "Just before it debouches from the
hills upon the plains the valley is COM
pressed into what is called out there a
box canyon'-that is, a canyon with walls
almost perpendicular. For the distance
Of a hundred yards the canyon is SO mar
row that there is only room for the TWEEN
ty-foot-wide creek and an eight-foot
wagon road. About the center of this de-
file there rises in the space between the
road and the stream a tall shaft of
granite. obelisk in form, towering fully
forty feet above the roadway. It's top,
which has never been scaled, is about
three feet square.
x X
I'm 1896. while the valley and canyon
were filled with campers and picnickers.
a storm occurred at the headwaters of
the creek and in less than an hour a
roaring wall of water swept down.
drowning some thirty persons. When the
waters subsidized there was seen balanced
on the top of this forty-foot shaft, like
the bar on the letter T. huge log about
four feet in diameter and thirty feet
long. The stream, which at that point
was normally not over six inches deep,
had deposited it there. 1t has remained
there ever since, and the county commits
sioners, to emphasize its warning, fas-
tened a metal tablet to the foot Of the
pillar with this pregnant inscriptions:
If you knew what put this log up
above here you wouldn't camp in this
canyon!"
II think the best methods of protec-
ton against floods are the following"
said Prof. Henry, in conclusion: IAN ed
ucation of the people who dwell In dis
tricts liable to sudden floods into an ap-
probation Of the dangers that threaten
them in periods of heavy rainfall. and a
full appreciation Of the value of warn
ings that the weather bureau may give.
Those who live along the seacoast have
long been alive to the great advantages
to be obtained from the forecasts of the
bureau, but those in the inland country
are less quick to grasp their value.
with this education in sentiment there
would be begotten an increased interest
in the construction of levees that will be
Of real service-and 1t is in these that tho
most practical benefits will be obtained.
But levee must be made strong enough
to Withstand any possible flood that may
reasonably. and. indeed, unreasonably,
be expected to press upon it: otherwise
by bursting at an inopportune time and
releasing a vast quantity of confined
waters, 1t may bring about the very de-
struction it is intended to prevent
las to whether it Is possible to con-