Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1912 — Chicago Tribune Reporter Magnifies Dyke Flood Report. [ARTICLE]

Chicago Tribune Reporter Magnifies Dyke Flood Report.

A reporter for the Chicago Tribune was sent to Shelby Sunday to write up the flood which followed the breaking of the Williams’ dyke. He made a mighty story of it and places the damage at 3500,000. 41 The reporter was sent out to get a story and wanted to make good. As a matter of fact, the breaking of a section of the dyke simply let the water flood over the low country that was a constant swamp prior to the building of the dyke. There are practically no buildings within the flooded country and the water had not reached the Monon railroad tracks Sunday and; at that time seemed to be slowly receding. The Tribune article tells how the cities of Kankakee and Momence are ehdagered by the breaking of the dyke, whereas the dyke is many miles up the river and in no manner served aa a protection to those cities. On the other hand, the water that overflows the low lands within the dykes is withdrawn from the channel and reduces the danger below instead of increasing it. John Bowie, of Wheatflelrf, editor of the Kankakee Valley Reviews, published at Wheatfield and Roselawn, and who is thoroughly fa- ( miliar with the river country, informs us that he has seen the water four: :nches higher than it is at this time. He says that there is not a house within the large tract protected by the dyke which gave way. At Thayer not many houses are surrounded by water and the article in the Tribune is in no manner dependable.