Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1896 — COLORADO FLOOD VICTIMS. [ARTICLE]

COLORADO FLOOD VICTIMS.

Twenty-nine Persona Known to Have Been Drowned. The cloudbursts in the foothills west of Denver Friday night, resulting in floods in which-twenty-trine people are known to have perished, was followed Saturday afternoon by'auother terrible storm, the like of which has seldom been seen. At Morrison, seventeen miles from Denver, in the foothills, where twenty-two persons were drowned in the flood Friday night, people were terror-stricken when they saw the second storm approaching. Hail began to fall soon after 1 o’clock. The storm kept on with steadily increasing force till nearly 4 o'clock, when a black cloud of unusualdeusitybegan to gatlher in the vicinity of Mount Vernon, a few miles from Morrison. Then the cloud burst, and in an instant a wall of water came down the gulch fully six feet deep. Everything in its path was carried away. The raging torrent carried along with it houses, barns and debris of all kinds. Morrison is indeed a stricken city. The dead number twenty-nine. Numerous parties from Denver, camping out at Evergreen, Idlewild, Idledale and other places in the montntains near Morrison aie safe. Many hairbreadth escapes and thrilling rescues are reported. Damaging floods have also swept down the valleys in some of the Eastern States. The general conditions throughout the Monongahela valley is critical. In many places the rains Were the heaviest known Ip twenty-five years. The 'Ohio valley will-experience a flood its entire length. Reports from West Virginia. Kentucky and Ohio show all the tributaries of the Ohio river overflowing their banks. The damage to railroads and other property is general and very great. The wheat and crops that were in sltock are generally ruined. The loss oh Highway bridges and the-railroads is the heaviest ever known •in the Ohio valley.