The Mena weekly star., 1921-06-16
NENA COUPLE IN
 PUEBLO FLOOD
MT. and Mrs. M. Burgett Have Thrill ing Experiences During the Horrer in Colorado City--Some
 Things They Saw.

A night of terror in the great flood at Pueblo was the experiences of Nr. and Mrs. M. Burgett, former Mena residents. Mrs. Burgett, who was formerly Miss Vera Stuckey, writes graphically of their experiences to her mother and sister in Mena and The Star is permitted to use the following portion of the young woman's graphic description:
 "Poor old Pueblo has been almost totally ruined and you can't imagine how awful 1t is. l had supper nearly ready (Friday) when the fire whistle blew the signal for high water on the Arkansas river. Merrill said leave supper and he would get the car out and we would go down and see it. We. did and Mir. and Mrs. Veal, who live upstairs over us, went with us. We went down to see all the different bridges, where everybody was looking and the river sure was high and com ing with much force. Still we never dreamed that it could ever come over the banks. We stayed little while then decided to come home and eat supper.
 We did so and when we started back to the river l think every car and ev- cry person in town was down at the river The whistle kept on giving signals and everyone was excited and ears coming and going every way. The whistle blew seven times for the water raising and 10 times when it broke over. We drove by the store and Mir. and Mrs. Cramer were there. also several other men. We got out and went in. Mir. Cramer was calling places above Pueblo to see what he could find out about more water coming. He learned there had been another cloudburst above Flor ence with two feet of water coming. so he said if the river really broke it would fill the basement, so the men started bringing fruit up to the first floor.
 They were still working when the whistle blew ten times and we also | got word the water was in the Vail hotel and coming our way. was So scared then and just begged them to go; even went to Mir. Cramer, but he and Mrs. Cramer kept saying, Don't worry" fer if the water comes on up 1t will never get over the platform outside.
 Our car was outside, so they drove I 1t up the sidewalk, onto the platform and into the store, where they thought 1t would be safe, but by that time the water was coming so fast and with l such force, that before we hardly knew what to do, it was over the | platform and rushing into the store. xryn fAA lnt1 Ea.t 4. ~~& we ran onto the second floor of the Brinkley Douglas building. The water kept rushing ifi below and sounded like roaring river As the water ] kept coming up we went on up to the l third floor and by that time the water was getting so high that the build | ings across the street were washed across and struck us and we were all so scared and screaming and praying. Then the men said that the Colorado Bedding Company's building was a much better built building than the i briIkiey Douglas and they were afraid that all of the other buildings that were being washed down against us might wreck this building so they took us up thru the sky lights to this other building and down their sky lights onto their third floor, then on down to their second floor where the people of the Colorado Bedding Com pany were. We were there all night watching the flood. Oh, but it was | terrible seeing all of those houses and large box cars going along like paper boxes. The water was about nine teen feet deep, just few feet below the second story windows where we were standing. All of the lights were out so the only lights that we had were the lanterns. In T short time fires began to break out around us and we were all frantic for fear that sparks might set fire to our building and if it did we would have no hopes left. The water finally started to go down about one-thirty in the morning and the men were busy looking and keeping watch over our building the rest of the night. About four-thirty next morning, when it began to get daylight, the water had gone down to about six feet but it was still too high for us to even attempt to get out so we had to stay there in the building. We heard one voice that came from a distance calling for help. We had heard this voice all i thru the night necessarily calling. There were calls for help from all sides. As soon as the water went down low enough and daylight came, there were several boats or canoes in the flooded district to help people to places of safety We stayed in the building that we were in until about 9:30 Saturday morning and by that time the water was down to a depth of three feet. The men secured a small boat and took us up third street to Main street and before we got to Main street the water was so shallow the bottom of the boat was dragging on the pavement. Main street was such a terrible sight All | of that street down to Fifth street was almost completely demolished. The street cars were stalled aild wrecked, all of the big show windows were broken out and the things that
 were inside the stores were washed
 completely away. I'll tell you that have read about terrible floods and
 have seen pictures of them but never
 realized what they really were be- fore. After we got up town we dis
 covered that all the bridges over the
 Fountain river had been washed
 away. We finally got home and Il brought with us six others, and as we have no gas, lights or water makes it | q bit inconvenient to get our meals,
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