Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 18, Number 7, DeMotte, Jasper County, 9 January 1948 — FLOODS HIT WEST, SNOW PELTS EAST [ARTICLE]

FLOODS HIT WEST, SNOW PELTS EAST

Oregon Reports Four Are Drowned, Hundreds Made Homeless By High Water Chicago, Jan. 8 More snow fell in New York today and four persons were reported drawned in Oregon as flooding rivers and streams forced hundreds of persons to flee from their homes. The Oregon floods disrupted rail and highway transportation and hundreds of homes in at least 20 communities were flooded.' The broad Wilamette river spilled over its banks at several points along a 125-mile valley. Tributary streams also overflowed after seven days of almost steady rainfall and storms which have lashed the coast. The floods forced 1,400 persons to leave their homes at Glenwood, a suburb of Eugene, Ore. Schools were closed in several communities and highways were under water. A bridge washed out 11 miles south of Roseburg, and several families were evacuated from their homes near Medford where six to eight inches of water covered the highway. Track Damaged. Main line transportation between Portland and San Francisco was shut off when a washout swept away 150 feet of track on the Southern Pacific lines three miles south of Dunsmuir, Calif. Deputy Sheriff Dick Baker of Douglas County, Oregon, reported that Norland D. Wilson, 24, drowned in Ollalla creek when he attempted to ford the stream on horseback after his automobile stalled in high water, Forest service officials said Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lackey and Mrs. Ross Cooper drowned when they attempted to cross the Rogue river in a power-operated crane near Illahe, 40 miles northwest of Grants Pass, Oregon. In New* York sanitation Commissioner William J. Powell said the new snow there 3,070,000 tons of it—was “just a baby after fighting 25.8 inches.” He said it would be cleaned up in fecord time. Except for light rain in the Northwest and light snow in the New England States, fair weather and normal temperatures prevailed across the country. The nation’s coldest area early today was Northern Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, where temperaturcs dropped to five degrees above zero.