Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1902 — JOWA UNDER WATER. [ARTICLE]

JOWA UNDER WATER.

Flood in the Central Section the Worst in Ten Years. Ihe flood situation in lowa is more serious than at any time in ten years. 1 he Des Moines, lowa, Raccoon, Cedar and Skunk rivers are from seven to fifteen feet above low water mark and the low lands are submerged. Hundreds of people have been made homeless. Near Des Moines 2tKl persons have been compelled to abandon their homes and have suffered loss of horses, cattle and hogs. Truck gardeners have suffered the loss of crops of an estimated value of $3,000. Similan scenes were reported at Marshalltown and elsewhere. Throughout the central section of the State rain fell steadily for twenty four hours, the precipitation at Boone and Fort Dodge being reported as nearly four inches. Rivers rose rapidly and tilled with driftwood. Half of Kxira was inundated and Bnrrytown was in similar condition. Ottawa experienced a rain tilmost amounting to a cloudburst. At Marshalltown the lowa river reached its highest point, and numbers of washouts delayed trains on the Northwestern and Great West ern roads. As a result of a terrific storm south and west of Waseca, Minn., two members of the family of Adam Bisliman, Jr., were killed. June 19 Philip Bishntan, the son. was murdered in a wedding row at Wilton. The younger brother, Adam, his two sisters and the hired man were in the basement of the large ham milking when the storm burst in all its fury; the barn was wrecked and the mass of farm machinery and hay with which the upper floors were fillet! crashed upon them. One of the daughters was killed instantly, and Adam was so crushed that he died from his injuries. The other two oeupants were rescued from suffocation after long hours- of work by the neighbors. Eight horses and six head of cattle were killed.

The storm caused more destruction, but so far as reported no other deaths occurred. The damage was heavy around Wanda and at Perham the storm leveled a circus tent, which caught fire from the lights. Several people were burned and bruised, but no one was fatally injured. A terrific rain and electric storm swept over Peoria and the adjacent countryin Illinois. Rain fell in tioods for several hours, and the damage done is great. The damage to timothy and oats is heavy, Several inches of rainfall was recorded As a result of the heavy rains a Lake Erie and Western east-bound freight train went through a bridge at Farmdale. The engine fell into the creek and half a dozen cars were piled on*it. A cloudburst in the upper BushlTill district of Northampton County, Pa., did great damage. Charles Abel, a farmer, who with his wife was returning from the field, was struck by lightning and killed. Bushkill creek overflowed its banks and many fields of grain were almost wholly destroyed.