The Adair County news., 1922-05-16
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:. IN I 'WllNN|D||STORM NJ
Much Property Damage Reported
From Gale Which Hit
LaWton, okla.
ILLINOIS lEvEE is PERILED
Residents Of Beardstown Flee From
Homes-Men Work All Night
in Attempt to Hold Back
the Flood.

Ballinger, Tex, April 10.-Six per-
sons were killed, seven injured and
six homes destroyed six miles north
west of Rowena, near here, in tor
nado. Communication is badly Grip
pied and it is feared the death toll
will be greater when wreckage has
been searched. The known dead are
two children of Joe Hohubek, a child
of Frank Kvatil, an unidentified man
and two negroes.
Lawten, Okla, April 10.-Five per-
sons, including one woman, were re-
ported killed in a severe windstorm
which swept the Mountain Hill section
of LawtOn. A number of persons were
injured and much property damage
done.
Fear Illinois Levee Will Break.
BeardstOwn, ILL.,, April 10.-LabOring
at a nervous pitch throughout the
night, workers on Lost Greek levee,
which was still intact at daybreak, had
the satisfaction of knowing they had
minimized the damage of BeardstOwn's
worst food and that when the moment
arily expected break does come it will
find only empty houses in its path
Damage by the floed is now estimated
at 100000.
Only a near-miracle can save Lost
Creek levee if the Illinois river, as
forecasted by the weather bureau, rises
to the height of 221s feet. Its actual
breaking, however, will cause COM
paratively little additional damage, as
the water at many places in town is
already at river level in sewers and
Easements, and two-thirds of the de-
serted homes have already been
flooded.
5000 Acres Of Wheat a Loss.
Lost Creek .levee protects Boards
! town proper. Nine others within a
stretch of FIVE miles of the city were
strained almost to'breaking point. All
the leVees are constructed circularly
and the collapse of one, it is said, will
not weaken the others.
Five thousand acres of wheat have
already been destroyed and 5000 more
are in danger. Within the city Of
BeardStown, which is comparatively
surrounded by water, the flood is being
held in check by the diking of sewers
Thirty-six individual dikes have been
constructed, like enormous bowls.
about the openings. Water in them in
the lowest parts of the city has risen
to three feet. 1t is declared here it is
the first time this expedient has been
resorted to- in the north.
200 Homes in Floods Path.
Mayor Wesley Perry expects that
between 150 and 200 homes will be
flooded whenrthe levee gives way. Out
skirts of the city are already a solid
sheet of water, dotted by isolated
houses. The water stands from one
to three feet deep, and some residents
who count on living throughout the
high water in second stories, move to
dry lands by means of boats from the
tops of front porches.
Practically a1l families, however.
whose homes WEI be flooded, have va
Gated them, taking along most all of
their household furniture. One man.
unable to move his piano. banked it
on stills on the second floor. Desert
ing their homes they apply at the city
hall for "a tent, hunt a high and COM
paratively dry spot in the south of
town and put it up, move in their fur
niture and are now continuing life.
apparently unmoved.