The Lamar register., 1921-06-08
been easily avoided if any one had
just thought of it in time.


Sunday night when people were be-
ginning to breathe u little easier came
reports of the second flood at Pueblo.
The minds of most of our citizens'had
already became SO panicky that reason
had no place in them and as the hours
of the night wore on and Monday
slowly dragged along its weary hours
of waiting the people became frantic
and all the trucks in town were kept
busy hauling people to the hills. They
dumped their goods on the side Of the
road and stayed there until Tuesday
morning Rain added to the misery of
their situation and the worst of it was
that it was all uncalled for as the of
ficials Of the railroad. who had the
situation well sized up, all along pro-
claimed the second flood to be a much
smaller one. When it finally came
early Tuesday morning it did not even
moved back as fast as they could on
Tuesday.
With the wires down to the west
and the railroad shut off both direc-
tions Lamar was without communica-
tion with the world from Saturday
morning until the afternoon of Tues
when plug train came in from Syrs-
cuse with the mail Of Sunday. II
could go no further west and when il
started back east found the way block
ed by washout and Is still with US.
In this respect we are not quite as
bad off as we were in the big flood
of 1908 when the first train that came
in after the flood was No. and It was
days hours and minutes late ac-
cording to the official time
For the benefit Of the newer citi-
zens OF our city We will say. don't let
any alleged old timers put anything
over you about seeing the river high
er in '95 or 81 or IT or any old time.
There were natives here of the early
days Of the valley who years ago told
Of seeing the river from hill to hill,
and we don't question their veracity,
but they are all dead now and the
present inhabitants never before saw
anything to equal it. John Mcdowell,
who came here first in 1877, inform
ed US that II had never been so high
since that date. The town of Lamar
was established in 1886 and since then
the river was never before in the bound
ary Of the city. There have been
floods in town but they came from
Willow Creek and did little damage.
The dixie constructed years ago across
the Cooper and Goodale farms have
prevented a recurrence Of thes floods.
The flood Of this year is the record
for the present generation and let us
hope it will continue to be the record
as no one cares to see anything even
approaching it again.
Lamar and Prowers county have es-
capped very lucky under the terrible
circumstances and should feel thank
full that matters are no worse. The
awful loss of life which is the most
distressing part Of the calamity all
along the valley has been spared US.
So far there has been no report of
death from the flood in this county
and it is the only county in the val
ley to escape this loss. On account of
better construction the loss to bitches
and bridges and roads has not been
nearly so bad as in many of the lesser
floods of the past. The losses are
great but when we think Of these
facts and especially the absence of the
grim reaper in our county we should
all feel that Prowers county had been
especially favored.
The tressle bridge Of the Santa Fe
railroad over the Arkansas river at
Lamar stood the strain but q portion
of the approaches washed out. The
rails held up the ties, however, and
foot passengers can cross on these
ties, and this at present is the only
means Of travel between the two sides
OF the river here.