The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1916-07-20
Freshet in Byrd Creeks Car
ries Away Thresher's Sep
orator and Smashes 1t.
DOWNPOUR LIKENED
UNTO CLOUDBURST
Cape Was on Outskirts of Rain
That Will Make Corn
Crops.

In the severe electrical and rair
storm that passed over the northern
part of Cape County yesterday after,
noon, one barn filled with new-mown
hay was destroyed and a threshing
outfits separator was smashed to
pieces in freshet that caught it as
it was trying to ford Byrd Creek.
The rain fall was so heavy in parts
of that end of the county that many
persons believed it was cloudburst.
The streams were swollen out of their
banks and considerable crop damage
was reported.
/ News of the accidents in the country
was brought to the Cape late yester-
day evening. In the Cape, the north
ern end of the city reseiveG the heav-
lest rainfall. The rainfall was COM
paratively light in the Cape and in
some places the dust that was several
inches in depth, was not allayed by the
downpour.
Although the storm was severe, it is
believed that where the storm hit with
the most of its fury, the crops will be
better for the water soaking they re-
ceived.
In many parts Of the county corn
! crops now are at a stage where the
ears are in the making. Farmers say
it is the crucial p~iod for their grain
crop. A rain at this time meant the
ears will be well formed and large,
whereas the lack of water would mean
the ccrn would be stunted.
Lightning struck the barn of John
J. Steeg, three miles south of Egy,
Mills, about o'clock yesterday after
noon and resulted in the complete de-
struction of the barn and its contents.
Mr.. Steeg had just filled his barn with
hay, crop taken from his own land.
Several horses inside the barn were
saved by the men, but virtually moth
ing else was saved from the fire that
was started by the bolt of lightning.
The barn and its contents are esti-
mated in value at. $1,000 and Mr.. Steeg
had his property partly covered by in
surance.
The storm in the immediate vicinity
of Egypt Mills was severe.
A freshet in Byrd Creek wiped out
the separator of James Howard, a
thresherman, who was trying to get
his outfit across the creek at the bridge
on the Oak Ridge road.
Mr.. Howard and his men had select
ed the sandy floor of the creek bottom
on which to ford the creek rather than
attempt to cross the stream over the
iron bridge at that point.
When his engine had virtually cross
ed the stream, the separator became
mired down and he could not move it.
While he and his crew tried to extri-
cate the separator from the bed of the
creek, the storm arrived.
The men made last effort to pull
the separator out and as the waters
of the creek rose rapidly around the
machine, Mr.. Howard ordered the sep
arator cut loose and he drove the
tractor engine out of the danger of
water.
The creek banks soon were filled
high up and the rushing freshet seized
the separator and carried it 800 feet
downstream where the flood smashed
it completely in two against side of
the stream.
None of the men of the threshing crew
was injured as the water carried off
the part of the machinery.
At noon yesterday a slight rainfall
mile on the other side of the County
Farm between the Cape and Jackson,
which is believed to have done much
benefit for the crops in that vicinity.
The rain began falling in the Cape
about 4:30 o'clock yesterday afternoon
and lasted but comparatively a short
time. The rainfall and storm north of
the Cape was accompanied by drop
of several degrees in temperature.
Frank Kimmel and Dean Kimmel
were caught in the storm that swept
over the northern part of the county
when they went to a farm six miles
north of the Cane to buy some stock.