Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 April 1898 — PERISH IN THE FLOOD- [ARTICLE]

PERISH IN THE FLOOD-

Bursting Levee Causes Awful Sacrifice of Life. KINDREDS SWEPT TO DEATB. Shawneetown, 111., the Scene of an Appalling Catastrophe. INNOVATION IS COMPLETE. Extends Over a Region Embracing Many Square Miles. Waters of the Hiver When Released Bashed Down with the Force and Swiftness of a. Tidal Wave-Houses Are Torn from Their Foundations and Tossed About in the TorrentHundreds of Survivors Seek Safety Upon the Hoofs or in Trees.

Shawneetown, 111., was inundated by a raging flood at 4:30 o’clock Sunday afternoon, and over 250 persons are reported drowned. Flood waters from the swollen torrents of the Wabash and Ohio rivers rushed down upon the city through a broken levee and swept away everything in their path. The waters swept through the place with the speed of a race horse, giving the people but little chance to reach places of safety. Many hastily mounted to the upper stories of their houses, while others endeavored to reach high ground out of reach of the swirling flood, buit the swift waters speedily engulfed them and they were swept away. Numerous small buildings were carried from their foundations, with their inmates clinging to the roofs. Houses were overturned and tossed about like boxes. The people had no warning of the break and for that reason so many were caught. Those at home sought refuge in second stories and on housetops. Those in the streets were earned before the avalanche of water and probably a majority were drowned. Telegraph and telephone wires were swept down and communication with the outside world was almost immediately cut off. ; Reports of the enormous loss of life, however, amounting to 10 per cent of Shawneetown’s population, came from survivors who reached points of safety down the river. ■ The number swept away is estir mated all the way from 200 to 1,000. City on Low Ground.^ Shawneetown is in Gallatin County, and is a city of 1,800 inhabitants. Its houses are reared on a river bottom ten feet below the normal level of the great stream. A huge levee has been built from near the mouth of the Wabash, ten miles from Shawneetown, to a point below the city to protect it front inundation. It was this levee that gave way a mile and a half above the little city. The Wabash and Ohio have been full to the top of theiir banks for several weeks, and great vigilance has been observed by the people living in the riveT cities to protect themselves from an insweep of the raging waters. Watches have been ob"ocTfPl 1 Jjnd day, and wherever a break hlULbeen tnfea'tefled moai-ures have been adopted mak . The break came at an unexpected point. Earlier in the day the gossip over the telephone wires with neighboring cities had brought the inforuyition that the water in the Ohio, was rushing pell mell toward the Mississippi and was full to the brim, but that the levee at the doomed village appeared to be all right. Cypress Junction was the first place to hear the news. The bulletin came by long-distance telephone. It was of dramatic and horrible brevity. “The levee has broken! The water is rushing in from the bend a mile and a half up the river. Already 250 people are drowned in the lower part of town and ” At this point the operator sending the message ceased speaking. 3’he flood rushed in upon the doomed dwellers of Shawneetown without more warning than a terrible roar. The sweep of the mile and a half from the break to the town was made in a few minutes. The town was inundated to a depth of fifteen feet. Houses were swept from their foundations. The flood came down so suddenly that escape was made well nigh impossible, and people were drowned by scores.