Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1892 — DISASTROUS FLOODS. [ARTICLE]

DISASTROUS FLOODS.

MANY ILLINOIS TOWNS IN UTTER DARKNESS. Vast Damage to Manufacturing and Agricultural Interests Pitiable Plight ol Alexandria, Missouri—lt Will be Weeks Before the Damage Can Be Bepalred. A Second Deluge. Seas of water are over and in the five unfortunate Illinois cities, Ottawa, Marseilles, Peru, La Salle and Utica. The Illinois Elver rose steadily for twentyfour hours, commencing Friday, and the cities are in total darkness, the result of the flooding of the electric light and gas plants. Boats were used for communication, and their twinkling lights glistening over the unbroken expanse of water add to the appearace of ruin which is all around them. Despite all efforts, the manufacturing district was totally covered by water. As the waters rose building after building would close down, and the employes leave to await the subsiding of the flood. Ottawa will be helpless for a week at least. Marseilles, La Salle and Peru are in an even more desperate condition. At Marseilles the river, steadily rising, is more and more dreaded as the levees weaken. There is little hope they will stand much longer and every one in the district threatened has removed all property to high ground. At La Salle the situation is even more desperate, the water having advanced from two to three feet all around the city and the manufactories, the water works, street railway, and electric light plants still being under water. The same condition Is present at Peru and in both cities ail business is practically suspended. At Utica the waters have encroached still further upon the lower end of the village from the river and the outlets east and west are blocked by water. Ottawa, Marseilles, La Salle, and Peru are without either electric light or gas, and are.in total darkness. The waters still cover Ottawa’s parks and her street railway is useless.

The thousands of acres of rich tillable lands lying in the bottoms south of Warsaw, 111., and reclaimed by a system of levees forty miles long are threatened with inundation. The rains have caused a heavy rise in the Mississippi, and the river now stands at eighteen feet and above low water mark, with the tendency upward.’ A rise of five feet within twenty-four hours was unpcecedented. At Lacon the Illinois Biver is higher than it has been for a qua rter of a centifry. The long-continued rains have swept out nearly all the 'small bridges in the country. Travel between Lacon and Sparland is suspended except by small boats, the bridge across the Illinois being covered with water and liable to-be carried away. The track of the Chicago, Bock Island and Pacific E ailroad is badly damaged between Peoria and Bureau and all trains stopped. The bottom lands are all under water and no corn will be raised on thousands of acres.

The heaviest rains for the same length of time ever known fell at Hennopin. Three and one-lialf inches of water fell Sunday night, one and three-quarters inches Monday night, two and one-half Inches Wednesday night, a total in the three nights of seven and three-quarters inches. The Illinois Biver is the highest it has been since 1849, rising at the rate of two' inches an’ hour. Bottom lands are all submerged aiid great damage has been done to bridges and fences. No mall has arrived for two days. At Eock Island there were no trains from the east on the Book Island Eoad for seventy-two hours in,consequence of the washouts in the vicinity of Bureau. It is the longest period of suspension of traffic in the history of the road. Arouhd Bushneil the roads are impassable and streams are away out of their banks. Crooked creek is a mile wide, and Spoon river is higher- than it has been for years. Trains on the Toledo, Peoria and Western could not run, as a half-mile of track was washed out. Passengers were transferred each way. The river is rising rapidly and great loses of property are reported up and down it. Business is suffering. * ALEXANDRIA IS INUNDATED. The Des Moines River Breaks the Levees and Sweeps Through the Town. Alexandria, Mo., is under water. The levees which _ protected the town ordinarily from the waters of the Des Moines Biver succumbed on Thursday night, and as a result the town is a lake, dotted here and there by houses in which the water is standing from two to six feet deep. The disaster was anticipated. All the prior day the Des Moines Was booming, the result of heavy rains along its course through lowa. The advices from above showed that it would reach high-water mark. Those residents who had upper stories to their buildings moved their household goods there, and extended the courtesies of storage to those not similarly favored. When the water broke it found tenantless floors over which to splash. The town was a Venice. All communication was by boat. The waters of the Des Moines leave that river above town, and, flowing through Alexandria, join the Mississippi below. It will be impossible to. transact any business whatever until the floods go down and the levees can be repaired. The tracks of the St. Louis, Keokuk and Northwestern and the Keokuk and Northwestern have been washed out, and traffic is at a standstill.