i ¦ ¦. . ' .- .-„..: .'-. '. ¦ . ' . ' .... --.^ ,"--; .>-;»¦
SCENES, IN MISSOURI CITY WHERE THE DAMAGE • WROUGHT - BY
I THE FLOOD ALREADY, HAS MOUNTED FAR INTO THE MILLIONS,
WHILE THOUSANDS OF: RESIDENTS HAVE LOStItHEIR HOMES.
Continued on Page 2, Column 2,
Continued "on Page 3/ Column 1."
Continued on Page 3, Column 7;
' y^prANSAS: CITY v ;Mo:,
Ma Mav ri. — With the
M waters of : theKaw and
- Missouri -rivers' nearly
four feet above -.the disastrous
levef ofvi88i; and their swollen
tides ' spread over twelve square
miles of, the city and its suburbs,
Kansas {City; to-night , is.enduring
the worst flood of its history. In
tlie valley 'of the Ka<v, or Kansas,
River, between- this city. and KaiW
sasiGity/ : Kahsf;;repbrtiias it;that
a "number '• of ; lives have f ' been
' Encroaching. Waters Cause Enormous Dam=
age to Kansas City 'Packing Houses.
lost; .One' report says fourteen
and another fifty, but in the midst
of demoralization of • traffic and
the ordinary means of communi
cation it is impossible to verify
these reports. . ;
The financial loss has been in
creasing all - day and bids fair to
continue. The : heaviest, loss is at
Armourdale, where the damage
to the packing industry' and others
is. placed ;¦ at T $2,500,000. Argen-
The work of rescuing the im
periled is being prosecuted with
vigor. Better results have char
acterized the efforts of the organ
ized forces since 4 o'clock this
afternoon than the preced
ing twenty-four hours. Two lit
tle steam launches are now puf
fing up and down the river, pick
ing up survivors. A trainload of
small boats was in service to-day,
but they were- useless. in battling
against the mighty current.
A wire cable has been stretched
across the Kansas-avenue bridge.
To this was attached a sand-dip,
and refugees are being brought
across in this manner.
means of arriving at even an ap
proximate number of the victims.
The water is so high and the cur
rent so strong that all, that can
be done now is to rescue those in
the buildings surrounded by wa
ter. At least three days will elapse
before ] a fairly accurate estimate
of the lost can be made.
SA N T A BARBARA,
May 31. — The appall
ing and as yet unex
plained disaster that be
fell the southbound coast limited
train on tlie Southern Pacific line
at Punta Gorda last night when
passenger-laden cars plunged
from the cliff to the surf, was re
sponsible for the injury of nearly
sixty persons and the loss of
much valuable railroad property.
In a number of hospitals, ho
tels and residences here are many
of the unfortunates, painfully cut
and bruised, but slowly recover
ing, under the skillful ministra
tions of a host of physicians and
nurses.. One woman who was
on the luckless train, however, ap
pears to have very little chance of
survival. This is -Mrs. H. C.
Smith of Los Angeles. Frank A.
Christmas, a San Francisco trav
eling man, is also in a very seri
ous condition.
When daylight dawned upon
the scene of the horror the wreck
had not been touched. After the
removal • of the injured a guard
had : been placed about the
Scenes of Horror in Cars
Dashing Into Sea.
wrecked cars and nothing was
removed. Strewn over the sands
and- along the embankment were
scores of napkins and handker
chiefs ' saturated with blood.
They had been used as temporary
bandages to the wounds of the
injured. Up the bank to the track
forty feet above the wrecked cars
was a bloodv* trail where the in
jured had been carried to the re
lief train' which had. been sent to
convey them to a hospital.
Here and there along the
sands were blotches of red
showing where some unfortu
nate victim of the wreck had been
laid after be\ng removed from
the demolished cars. Inside the
cars there was hardly a piece of
metal, seat or other fixture which
was not broken. Through the
roofs of the cars were gaping
holes, and on the floors, sides and
even on the ceilings were streaks
of blood, showing where the
passengers had been hurled while
the cars were turning over in their
plunge down the bank. If there
jplood Waters
'Are,. Slowly
Subsiding.
Baring Work
\of Rescue
Ijj Parties.
floating bodies seen, twenty ; per
sons missing; 200 ; houses burned, 1
as a result of fire starting in lum
ber j yards from lime, probably
20a; banks collapsed, . two ;
wholesale grocery stores flooded;
two; big business -blocks almost
ready to crumble, fifty;- wholesale
commission-houses deserted, six;
Rock Island trains containing 150
passengers held here by high wa
ter; city water works plant use
less.
The known drowned are Carl
Rupp, Orville Rupp, two Rupp
girls, G. H. Garrett's five-year
old son. Twenty unidentified
bodies have been seen in the "tor
rent. ''
Leading men who have* made a
careful examination of the flood
and all of its conditions give 250
as the probable number of lives
lost. A more conservative esti
mate places the number. of dead
at 175. The high number is as
likely to be correct as the lower.
The number of dead is merely
a matter of estimate. Twenty
members of rescuing parties tell
of having seen men, women and
children drop from houses, to be
swept away by the flood, and oth
ers tell of men who, terrified at
the approach of the fire, dropped
into the water, where they sank
and did not reappear.
This estimated number of dead
does not include the large num
ber classed as missing, who can
not otherwise be accounted for.
Neither does it include the num
ber who are supposed to have lost
their lives in the fire. In the lat
ter class there is absolutely -no
rOPEKA, Kans.,
May ii. — There is
ground for the hope
that the worst has
passed. Treacher
ous has the Kausas
River proved itself to-day in the
rising of its waters, but to-night,
so slowly as to be imperceptible,
the five-mile stream is settling
back into its rightful channel. Up
and down the official . gauge
lias fluttered all day. To-night,
however, City Engineer McCable
issued a bulletin giving out the
dieering intelligence that the wa
ters had subsided to the extent of
seven and a half inches. It mav
be a few hours "before another
drop will be noticed.
With from 175 to 250 lives lost
and millions of dollars' worth of
property destroyed; with hun
dreds of pistol shots, as signals
of distress, punctuating- the agon
izing cries of scores of inhabit
ants of treetops and the roofs of
houses ; with the water creeping
upward and then slowly subsid
ing, its alternate moods reflecting
hope and despair, the capital city
has passed the most memorable
Sabbath day of its existence. To
this uncomfortable condition was
added a cold and dismal rain.
The ardor of the rescue work
of heroic men was not abated in
the least by the conditions which
confronted them. For long,
dreary hours, knee deep in water
and sometimes in water up to
their necks, they worked with
might and main. To-night they
can proudly point to 300 or more
rescued persons, who otherwise
would .have been swept away in
the current %
Briefly stated, the. present con
dition of the food is this: One
hundred and seventy-five to 200
persons drowned; 8000 persons
without homes ; $4,000,000 loss of
property; identified dead, five;
Rain Checks
Flames in
Topeka.
FLOOD'S TERRIBLE RECORD
DELUGE IN THE MIDDLE WEST COSTS FIVE HUNDRED LIVES
AND THE LOSS OF TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS IN PROPERTY;
THREE SCORE THE NUMBER INURED IN COAST LINE WRECK
> .; -;,..:¦ THE.DEAD.* -/;,-¦.•¦. ..
North Tbpeka, Kan. (estimated) ... '. ... ". :*$&'
Kansas City and Armourdale; Kan. (estimated).... ............ ga
Council Grove, Kan........... ....... „. ..••..,.. * xa>
Des Moines, Iowa....... «, w .....v........i
Other Iowa cities. ..... . . . . . . . . . '. ....... . . .'., •.. ..... .'. ..... ... 5
Valencia, Kan......... ...:.^.« ............. ...;.. 3
Kansas City, Mo.... .............. ...............%. 5
Qklihoma City, O...T.......... ...^... .................. is
DYING FROM EXPOSURE. j
North Topeka, Kan. (estimated).. .......
: ;v;:::' ;:;_¦¦ .' / -;; , missing.
North Topeka, Kan.. *.....v.. ......../... aoo
1 ', ,- • - V ¦ , ¦: HOMELESS.. ¦' ' /.^ '
Kansas City, Armourdale and Argentine, Kan. ........ .,*» . . 25,000
North Topeka, Kan. . . j . . . ... . . .....* ... .xo.coo
Des Moines, Iowa. . . . ... .............. . ... . .......*..... 6,000
Other Kansas points (estimated) . . ...... .... .... ... ........ 2,000
Other Iowa points. ... ... . .Vi... ....:.......... . . . .. .... . .. 1,000
Harlem and Sheffield, Mo. i>v^> » ; •:•>>«; •••• ••• • • ••• • • • • •;£> I > 00 ! 0
!f : : : -:;;VV^ v .^ ""¦¦:¦ ;^;
< North Topeka/ Kan. (estin^ted).;.i^»V.i^«r..;; ;ViVi> > $te,ooo,ooo
Kansas City and Armourdale, Kani. . •> J-. ............" 4,000,000
Other Kansas points. .-. ..iy^.V;> vV**i?->V >.. : i >V. "'- aioob,ooo;
-D^Moin^ 2,ooo,coc
Lincoln, Beatrice and Madison, Nebfi^ . .« ,. i .-..¦.. . v.-"i«. £ 800,000
Crops in 'Middle West and miscellaneous. ..... 3,000,000
.Total number of^dead;-..;;^^;..^*^...^^.^;^'. . . '£;'. iff';; :"337
Total niimber of missing.............. 1. i. •..,...... . . .*. .'.. . 200
Total number Jdying. 'f, 'J £Viii«&;.«v^«;'i - : - •£§ • • • •>••> • • • • •. . • ¦¦/" 5°
Total number homeless. ... : . . .v . . .V. J4S/>oo
Total- finahciai losses.'': ;.. .... • . . . . i V. r. • ... ......... . $18,800,000
.;:^iv;^ •¦^c-.vv-, ¦¦^v:r.^v ;§^%-^: : .. .^.v-V^ v: : - ; ¦¦ -'^Ai
PBICE FIVE CENTS.
¦&j&18 '^WR'AEpiSCO, ¦. ,: .^pND^Y^jtoNaS^iJ.y'ilboS;
vq&vme ; xeriwra, -i.
The San Francisco Call.