Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1891 — HOUSES BUT BUBRLES. [ARTICLE]

HOUSES BUT BUBRLES.

TREES BENT AND BROKEN LIKE REEDS. Detractive Floois in Town—Many M ies of Kai way Tiack 11 ashed Awsr and Many Families Mad. Homeless—Gravity or the situaton Increasing Hourly— Scenes an! Incidents of the Deluge. Northwestern lowa has been visited by the heaviest rainfall in twenty years. An eye-witness of the recent floods in the vicinity of Cherokee, states that it is necessary for one to see to have the least idea of tho great amount of damage, done. “Why," he exclaimed, “It is simply terribly wonderful the way that immense body of water swept things before it Houses were but bubbles on its crest. I was at Cherokee when the cloud-burst came, aud in less time than it takes to tell it a flood was upon the town. Houses were seen to tremble, swing half around, and then carried along by the torrents. Trees were bent and broken like reeds and not a thing could stop the terrific onward rush of the water, and all this occurred before the people could possibly realize what had happened. The most remarkable feature of the disaster is that any of the people in the track of the flood escaped with their lives. As far as I know no lives were lost at Cherokee and tho Immediate vicinity. ” The storm rendered between 300 and 400 families homeless in and about Cherokee. These are being cat ed for in the Masonic, Grand Army of the Republic and Knights of Pythias halls at ■Cherokee. The Illinois Central lost 12,777 feet of roadbed end 085 feet of piling. This does not include the bridge taken out over the Sioux River. The amount of damage will reach $250,dt)0. As tho waters recede the carcasses of catt e are landed and to-day the stench from them permeates the air. It is estimated that hundreds of head of stock have been lest. Two miles of track of the main line of tho Illinois Central has been washed out between Cherokee and Sioux City, and it will take a week to repair the damace. The Onawa and Sioux Fall branches of the same road are in a worse way. and it will be about ten days before traffic can be resumed. Both wire connections aro still broken. The Sioux River is subsiding, but it is still forty feet deep, and covers a quarter of a mile of country. The average depth of the river when in its channel is about four feet The work of clearing away the debris is now in ptozress, and aid is being rendered the unfortunate inhabitants. The town of Moviilo is still flooded and not one of the 200 inhabitants is able to occupy his house, and all are camping out. There is only 250 pounds of hour in the town. The town is almost completely cut off from succor. Hundreds of horses and other live stock out in tho fields in the valley were fearfully lacerated by the barbed wires carried down by the swollen torrent, in which the beasts become entangled. The damage at Cherokee is estimated at over 8500,000. The river fell about ten feet, but was still twenty feet above low water mark. At ordinary stage of water the river is only about 200 feet wide, while it is row 1,200 feet The engineer of the relief train which was the first to go from Fort Dodge to Cherokee after the big storm, has returned to this city, says a Waterloo special. It took them eight hours to run from Aurelia to Cherokee, and many times they were compelled to stop on account of tho rain, which came down in torrents. From Storm Lake to Cherokee the country resembled one vast lake almost as far as tho eye could leach in every direction. Only water was visible, while debris of destroyed buildings, bodies of horses and cattle and other farm animals floated past Cherokee in large numbers. Most of them were still struggling to escape, but the rush of the torrents prevented tlieir reaching dry land. The farmers along the line suffered very much. One farmer living south of Cherokee stated that over 200 catt e are missing from his pasture, and he expects all are drowned. The merchants in the small towns have had their stores undermined, tho basements filled with water, and in many instances the water has come on the first floors aud damaged their goods extensively. At Cherokee seventy-five to one hundred houses are destroyed and many of them have been swept away. The gravel train which was in the p t at Cherokee is buried out of sight, the cnly portion of it that is visible being the top of the smokestack of the steam shovel. Superintendent Gileas reports that the damage to the Illinois Central track already in sight will foot up $200,000, and butl.ttleis yet known of the condition of two branches from Cherokee. The water fell about ten feet at Cherokee, and many occupants of houses in the flooded district were able to regain entrance to day. The ruin wrought made many a heart sick. Where the houses were not destro . ed their contents are all covered with thick, black mud, ruining them. Three hundred poor people in Cherokee are being fed and clothed by the relief committee, and a dispatch from there says outside aid will have to be asked. A. W. Thesher, a mail-clerk on a Milwaukee and St. Paul train that was water-bound, at Hornick, thus relates his experience: “Between Hornick and Hedge’s Siding the track is out iu many places, and so great was the force of the water that the rails were carried far from the roadbed. I got hungry, as did all tire passengers. Our rations were rather slim, and so I made up my mind to come to Sioux City. I put my letter mail in a pouch together with my clothing and started to wade. I waded through fully a mile and a half of water betweeu Hornlek and Hedge's, and in many places it was up to my heck. At Hedge s I caught a construction train and rode into Sioux City. “The low lands are covered with water as far as you can see. Field after field is submerged, and all over the l.ats the water is from one to four feet deep iu the first floors of houses. Tho farmers have moved out to the high ground in nearly all instances. “I saw farmers wading in the water up to their waists pushing rafts, on which were loaded their fa i ilies aDd household 1 goods, ahead of them to the high land. One farn er at Hornick. whose house was flooded, pushed a big he g trough ahead of him in which his wife holding her baby was seated He was making for the high ground near our train." In a single day 75,030 shad were caught In the Delaware River as a result of the hatching jar and its appliances. There has been a rapid increase in numbers during the past three years. i