Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1918-08-21
Terrible STORM HITS
NORTHEASTERN iowa
CLOUDBURST CAUSES IMMENSE
DAMAGE TO RAILROADS AND
CROPS LAST WEEK.
r. r. TRAFFIC Is DEMORALIzED
Damage Done to Construction Work
At Dyersville. Grain in Fields
Is Damaged.

One of the worst storms in twenty
two years visited northeastern Iowa
last Friday night, and as a result
traffic on the Illinois Central and
Chicago Great Western Railways was
thoroughly demoralized, and much
damage resulted to corn in the low
lands, and grain in the shock. The
storm broke north and east Of Dyers-
vile about ten o'clock Friday night,
and for four hours the water fell in
torrents. 1t is claimed that Sc inches
|of water fell in four hours.
In the hilly country near Dubuque
|every small stream became raging
torrent, carrying destruction in Its
path. At Julien several miles Of track
and abutments to several bridges,
were washed away, and when freight
train No. 72, east bound. came along
east Of Julien, the heavy engine roll
ed over on its side, down into the
swollen stream. Engineer w. F. Reis-
|ner, Fireman C. Book, and Head
Brakeman H. Yarnell, all of Water
loo, were carried to their death as
the engine rolled into the stream. All
were instantly killed. All Of the Sec
tion crews between Waterloo and
FreepOrt were summoned to julien
and have been at work since building
a temporary roadbed on timbers, and
it was not until Monday evening at
IS o'clock that the monster engine was
hoisted onto the track.
The Great Western suffered much
damage at Durango and other points
near Dubuque. Miles of track in the
vicinity of Durango, as we'll as the
abutments to the long bridge, were
washed away, and it was not until
Sunday afternoon that trains we're
operated on that line. All Illinois
Central passenger trains were detour-
ed over the Great Western line since
Sunday afternoon, but freight traffic
was practically at standstill since
Friday night The first trains over
the Illinois Central between here and
Dubuque were operated this after
noon. It will require many weeks
of work and many trainloads OF crush
ed rock and gravel to make the neces-
tsary fills where the roadbed was COM
pletely washed away east OF Julien.
Immense damage was done to corn
fields in the low lands. and grain in
the shock has been damaged very ser
iously in the northeastern part Of
the state.
At Dyersvlle a heavy loss was in
flicted on the contractor who is erect
ing the concrete bridge across the riv-
er at that point. Carloads of lumber
were piled in the flat just north of
where the bridge is being erected,
and when the flood waters came from
the north every piece of lumber was
carried away. The contractor also
had his tool house in this flat. 1t too
with all tools, was washed down
stream. A part of the forms and foot
ings for the abutments to the bridge
had been put in, and all that work
has been ruined, and the forms wreck
ed. The contractor had been handi-
capped seriously because of the short
age of labor during the summer, and
and now that the floods have played
havoc with what work he did do, will
further retard the work. The people
of Dyersville were obliged to use the
railroad bridges as foot bridges to
go from the east part of town to the
west all day Sunday because the tenn
porary bridge one block south OF the
Main street bridge was also washed
AWAY