The Sentinel=record., 1913-12-07
REFUGEES CAUGHT THREE HOGS IN DRIFT WHICH KEPT THEM
 FROM STARVATION
DEATH LIST NOW OVER 5O
Stock Takes Refuge on Better Parts of the LeVee, but ,There Is Pushing and Showing by Animals When the Water Laps Close to Their Heels.

Bryan. Tex, Dee. 6.-The verified death l.-t in the Texas floods tonigti was 53. but this did not Include any of more than a score of reported drowmnes.
 As the BIazos and the Colorado riy. CTS reccded slowly all day in lhe more poDulous portions of central Texas the estimates of about $I000.000 dan. age was confirmed.
 Fully 3.oo0 persons have been com. pelled 10 spend hours. and in some instances more than two days. on ur Ter floors. on roofs, or in trees.
 One of the deepest oyereduws was in the Bfazos bottoms Of this section, where boatment reported not even the chimneys of houses showed above wa ter when they made their final trip before dark this evening
 Both floods tonight were beginning to Tass out into the Gulf through the last Hundred miles of their courses. In the remaining territory there were few important towns, but additional drownings in remote settlements to- night or tomorrow were feared. Town after town which had been cut off for one or two days reported today. each time telling of great property loss over wide areas. but of few drown. inrs.
 At Allewon a small place on the laWer Colorado, tonight the water was t1ree feet deel over the highest ele- vaton A few miles north Of there, at Columbus, one negro was drowned and a lime house was burned up when the flcod mixed with it's contepts
 Pay City on the Colorado about 20 miles from it's mouth. reported water witlrin eighteen inches of the top cf it's protection levee. and that a break would overflow a considerable part of the town Columbia, about fifteen miles from the BrazOs mouth, was surrounded by water, but reported no great damage was feared
 Railroad losses were very heavy. President w. R. Scott of rhe Sun Set Central lines of the Southern Pacific, said the floods Were the most serious his north and sou,h Hines have had 10 contend with in years.
 The worst single catastrophe was che breaking of the 3O-mile levee on the Brazos, opposite here. for mor- than 1000 persons had refused to be- lieve it would give way eDscrihing his experiences yestereday and last night in rescue boat in the overflow from this levee break W. W. Griges of Houston said:
 God knows how many there wore left in the bottoms When we left last night we could hear cHes and ehorts in the darkness They are all hlddled together in cctton gins ard high places. There were 1S0 people in one gin house on Mooring's pIanta- ton. We caught three hogs drifting down the river, and the people killed and skinned them in the gin, but they had no bread to eat with the meat.
 The leyee is broken in three places. On top Of the safe portions of the lcyee horses and mules and cows have gained a footing, but when they get frightened at the rush of water. there is pushing and showing until some of them are knocked off.
 We saw horses floating down the river all tangled in the wires and trash
 Griggs said his boat found one white man and woman in a tree top, where they had been for twenty-four hours. This was on the first trip, when Glfggs still had a little food left, con- sisting Of four apples and two sacks oi peanuts.
 He gave it to the couple and it was the first bite they had in more than a day
 The Brazos bottoms, one Of the richest land sections of the state, were th'ckly populated. The overflow scat tered many familhies, who will not be able to tell whether any of their mem' bers were drowned until the flood sub