Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 61, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 April 1898 — A LEVEE BREAKS. [ARTICLE]

A LEVEE BREAKS.

Torrents of Water Sweep Over the Little City of Shawneetown, IIL Appalling Loss of Life and Enormous Damage to Property Results. The Number of Victims of the Awful Flood Estimated at from 200 to 500. The Stricken Community Is Cut Off from Communication with the Outer World. JHiandreda of Survivor. Seek Safety on House Top., Tree* and Hlgk Hilla. Cypress Junction, 111., April 4. —Two hundred and fifty persons were drowned Sunday by the inundation of Shawneetown, six miles from this place. The north levee broke at 4:20 o’clock Sunday afternoon and the Ohio river flowed over the town many feet deep. Scores of houses are floating about and many persons are clinging to the wreckage in the hope that rescuers will soon appear with boats to take them to places of safety. All communication with the town is cut off. Trains cannot reach there and. telephone and telegraph wires are down. i The levee was built by the government and was regarded as impregnable, hence the people had taken no precautions against a possible flood. It is reported that the flood now extends four miles inland, and people are fleeing for their lives from all the lowland hamlets. ! [Shawneetown, 111., has a population of about 2,000 inhabitants, and Is situated on the west bank of the Ohio river. The streets were parallel with the river, the principal business street being but two blocks distant from the water. The level of the river Is about 15 feet above the city, and the levee bank Is about 20 feet thick. Situated on this bank and level with the river Is the Riverside hotel, a large, fourstory building built by Henry Docher. When the river Is at its normal stage it la 1,000 feet wide at this point, and the cltlsens have long feared a catastrophe such as occurred Sunday night, as a tremendous pressure is brought to bear on the levee during freshets. Several years ago during a flood the water flowed over the levee and the streets were under two feet of water.. The levee was strengthened and built up afterward, and the town has since considered there was no danger.] Latest Estimate, Carnii, 111., April 4, 3 a. m.—Another courier has just reached here from Shawneetown. He estimates the loss of life at from 200 to 500. His name is Jackson Phillips, and he has lost a wife and two children by the flood. Avalanches of Water. Evansville, Ind-, April 4.—Shawneetown is 62 miles below Evansville on the Ohio river. Jt is situated in a valley, high hills skirting in the rear and a 20-foot levee in the front, the levee running from hill to hill. The river is unusually high and went through the levee a mile above the town, 20 feet wide, like an avalanche, catching the people without warning, overturning houses in its path and creating general destruction. All wires are down and details are unobtainable. A telegraph operator traveled three miles in a skiff to high land and sent word here for aid. He said the water was 20 feet deep all over town and that as far as known 200 people were drowned; that the number might reach 500. No word has since £een received. Two steamers have started from here to the scene with food and supplies.

Send Skiffs for Assistance. i Those at home sought refuge in second stories and on housetops. Those in the streets were carried before the avalanche of water, and probably a majority was drowned. Citizens came from the place by skiffs to lelephone several miles away and asked for aid from Evansville. They said that more than 200 people were drowned, and they had reason to believe it would ’Teach 500, or even 1,000. The water stands over 20 feet all over town. There are, of course, no fires or lights in the jilnce and total darkness envelopes the desolate scene. Consequently It was Impossible for them to have anything like definite information. The men quickly left the telephone and no communication has since been had with the place. All telephone and telegraph wires are now down and outride communication appears to be impossible. Cuushl Unawares. The disaster came when tlhe great majority of the people were in their homes eating supper. The break in the levee occurred a mile above the town and was within ten minutes more than half .a mile wide. A stream of water 12 to 20 feet deep, carrying half of the current of the flood-raised Ohio, descended on the unsuspeoting people. It came down In a great rush, like a tidal wave. There wob no slow rising of the waters to give warning. The houses on the outskirts were lifted up and rolled over and over. .

Ilonuri Turn to Splinter*. Most of them were torn into splinters. Tlielr inhabitants were drowned in them. Nearer the center of the town some brick structures stopped the onrush of the water for a few minuteK, but abdut two-thirds of the dwellings wl*re lifted from their foundations and floated careening out into the black current of the river. Lights were In-

etantly extinguished and the townapeople climbed on the slippery roofs or sought to keep alhre o« floating objects. After a few minutes the horror of the situation was added to by the catching fire of a large house that had started down stream with, the others. Added to tho Horror. The people on the roofs were already in danger of being thrown off by collisions with other floating houses, but the appearance of this floating firebrand added horror. As it struck one house after another in its zigzag course some caught fire and their unfortunate people were compelled to intrust themselves to the mercy of the swirling water on tiny floats of wood to avoid a more terrible death by fire. Many Take to the Roofs. The first rush of the current did not do all the damage. When the black water had slackened somewhat many houses were still standing, but it was quickly seen that the frame ones would not last in the steady crush of the flood. By means of plank rafts and swimming in the cold water 70 or 80 people were transferred from their garret windows and roofs to the flat tops of the Gallatin county bank, a brick and stone building, and the courthouse, which is of brick. It was hoped that these would withstand the pressure and the undermining, but when the single courier who rode for help to Cypress Junction left Shawneetown only those two buildings showed above the broad sheet of the flood in the lower part of the town, and its full, sullen force was being thrown against them. It was doubtful if they would not collapse and throw the refugees into the river. Took Refuge on Hlvk Land. Beside the hundred or more who were on the roofs of the two sound buildings it is known that nearly 1,000 of the Inhabitants managed in one way or another to make their way to the high hills back of the town or to houses in the higher section of the village itself. A few of these survived the sudden burst of the waters, but their first and sometimes their second floors were under water. Those who made their way to them went only in the clothes they were wearing when the water came. None had time to secure either treasure or clothing. The property loss is enormous. Merchants will lose their goods which had not been moved to upper stories of buildings, as no danger was apprehended. Awful Scenes. The scene in the streets at the upper end of the town where men and women were painfully fighting their way against the muddy water to higher ground, some carrying babies on their heads, where water was up to their necks, others half-swimming, half-float-ing on odds and ends of [umber from homes that had gone floating down the river, many struggling in vain and sinking in the roaring waters, was one that will live in of every beholder. It was perhaps more terrible than that on the bosom of the flood, where membeft of families clung in at least temporary security to the roofs of their floating dwellings. At one place a mother had reached a safe spot and turned to help her husband, who had followed with their child. As she reached down from a window for his hand he was thrown from his footing and h£ and the child were swept away in the zigzag current. The woman saw him sink the second time and then threw herself into the water. Another family paddled half way to safety on a broad plank that but half held them out of the water. A side current caught them and sent them out toward the middle of the stream, where in the rougher water they were seen to capsize and sink. An old man of the name of Griffin, living on high ground, stopped in the upper story of his trembling house to secure a hoard of money hidden under the bed. His son, a young man of 21, had to climb up the porch to rescue him, so quick was the rise of the water, und when the two attempted to swim to safety 7 , the younger man supporting the other, a floating house that came rolling and tumbling on the current overwhelmed them.

Died Helping ner Mother. A school-teacher whose nnrue Is supposed to be Josephson, was warned of the danger In time to get to the high ground, but in turning back to help her mother was caught with the elder woman in an eddy nnd both were drowned. One woman made an effort to save her lover by throwing a clothes line to him from the roof of her house. His house was swept away at the moment and he was thrown Into the water. ' He swam manfully to aid the girl, but she was standing on the side of a gable roof nnd was pulled from her insecure footing. Both were drowned. Story of an Eye Witne**. These are some of the incidents of the disaster witnessed personally by John Graham, the single survivor of tlhe disaster, who reached the wires Sunday night. Ha made his way to Cypress Junction, from which place he telephoned here for help. He said that he had heard that In the first rush of water 50 houses were carried away In one lot. He said, when closely questioned, that It was possible that half of the town was lost In the great disaster. He was of the impression that nljout 1,000 people escaped to high ground, hut he could not be sure of his statements because of the darkness, the confusion of the scene nnd the horrors that were everywhere before his eyes. He had himself, he said, pulled 12 persons out of the water.

On the levee close by the landing place stood the largest hotel In that section of the country—house—and it is feared, nlHnmgh -not positively known, that 'this has been parried away by the grndnal destruction of the levee. When Graham left the water-swept village the levee was fast disappearing under the action of the water nnd there wns every prospect that the Riverside house would be undermined before two hours had passed swaj