Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1888 — THE MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI. [ARTICLE]

THE MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI.

Bundrod* ot Thou*and* of Acre* of f»nnin* Land Submerged by th* Grant Stream. Specials from several points along the upper MkslMPpi river gives accounts of great loss to property-owners and vast inundations. The (levee that protects the Say bottoms gave way at an early hour Monday morning, and the men who were engaged in strenthening tbe levee had to run for their lives. An opening 100 yards wide was made and the water rushed through and into the bottoms with a roar. Couriers hastened through the bottoms warning farmers of the break, and there was a wild chase driving the live stock to the highlands. The bottoms in Illinois embrace about 100,000 acrei of land, and reach from a point opposite Louisin'a, Mo., to a point opposite Hannibal. At the broadest place they are nearly five miles wide, and the overflow makes a great and turbulent sea. The break occurred at Murphy’s bay, known es Turkey Foot. The last innundation in these bottoms was in 1881. , At 6 o’clock this morning the Indian Grove levee gave way and submerged 14,000 acres of low land, 5,000 acres of which was planted in wheat. The levee broke about six miles above Quincy, 111. For many hours men worked hard to save the levee by sinking barges filled with hay and rock, but to ho avail, and the break came so suddenly that they were obliged to flee for their lives. On the Missouri side the break at Alexandria has caused a great sea, covering 800,000 acres of land, in the midst of which is a modem Venice with impromptu crafts of all kinds and sizes. The water floods the town of Alexandria from two to fix feet deep. The people were in a manner prepared for the flood, and the suffering is not great The bottom was planted in wheat and coin, and the farming community reckon their lossat figures aggregating $300,000. Most of the live stock had been driven to the bluffs. Many excursionists go by steamboat from Keokuk to sse the inundated section. The situation at Keokuk is becoming very serious, the railroad yards being entirely submerged and many mills being compelled to shut down. At the Government works at 9 o’clock the stage of the water was nineteen feet one ineb, five inches above high-water mark of 1881, and within twenty-five inches of the highest mark on record—that of 1851. At Clarksville, Mo., theriver is falling fast, and the bottom on the Illinois side is rapidly filling.