Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 May 1888 — A CLOUD-BURST. [ARTICLE]

A CLOUD-BURST.

Startling Atmospheric Phenomenon in Kansaa—A Wnole Family Drowned. A strange atmospheric phenomenon was witnessed a Maize, Kansas, Sunday. Astorm-cloud burst, and extended over a space, parallelogram in form, about five hundred yards wide and one mile in length. For half an hour the rain came down in torrents. The heavens were black, and a darkness almost equal to that of night covered the entire area. People ran frightened from their homes, many crying that the end of the world had come. Maize is situated on the south bank of the Arkansas River, and the streets were turned into rivers, which fort unat el y son nd outlets into the Arkansas. An eye-witness describes the rain as elining down in torrents, washing away a number of house?, and moving otheis from their foundations. A bouse in which a family named Rockby__lived was picked up by the floods and carried into the Arkansas River, where it sank, drowning Rockby, his wife and two children. A number of narrow escapes are reported. The water from the cloud seemed to come straight down, and could not have been thicker had it found its source from a lake in the air. The bodies of the Rockoy family have not yet been recovered. The amount of damage will be very large. A great many head of horses and cattle were dJbwned.