Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 80, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1903 — Great Flood at St. Louis. [ARTICLE]

Great Flood at St. Louis.

The flood situation at East St. j Louis is now surely something j fierce. The Mississippi levee broke at midnight Tuesday night and a great portion of the oity is now under water. A number are known to have been drowned and the death list is supposed to reaoh large numbers. Levee workers were caught like rats in a trap and drowned. The state troops from Alton are on guard and relief boats are being sent with all possible speed to the inundated oity to the rescue those who are imprisoned in upper stories or on the roofs of buildings. River thieves are nnmerosn in the stricken oity and it is reported that guards shot down a number of looters who they snprised at their fiendish work and threw their bodies into the water. All railroad and train connections are out off between East St. Louis, and St. Souis and no one bnt the refugees are allowed to cross the two bridges between the cities.