Destructive Floods

Tacoma, Wash., Nov. 17.- Never before has western Washington had such a visitation of floods. There is water everywhere. The Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and Canadian Pacific railroads are blockaded, and it 11 be several days before tra'fflc can be resumed. The total damage to date is estimated at $2,000,000. Business has not suffered aione, for scores of houses are floating about in the devastated fields. Many families have barely escaped with their Uves by means of boats. Steamers have been sent out in Snohomish, Columbia and Cowlitz valleys to rescue persons who would otherwise have drowned. The steamer Florence Henry went down Snohomish river Sunday and rescued twenty-five families living on marsh and low lands. Monday she started again on a similar mission. In Snohomish county the damage is estimated at $400,000. lLntire Fiimily Drownoil. A Snohomish special says the river there is now twenty-one feet above regular water mark at high tide. Henry Johns, a rancher, was crossing the river near Monroe with his wife and three ehildren when their canoe upset and all were drowned. Peter Jackson, a logger, feil from the boom at Cheery Valley and was drowned. Many families have remained in the upper stories of their homes and are safe for the present. Monday morning several houses went whirling down Snohomish river and were destroyed by crashing into the bridge near Snohomish City. At Lowell both the Great Northern and Monte Cristo roads were washed out. Many log booms have been broken and the logs are being swept into the sound. Between Snohomish and Everett the river is slx miles wide, being two feet higher tnan ever before. A Mount Vernon special says Skagit river is ten inches higher than ever before in the history of this county. Dykes below here are nearly all washed away. Avon is under water. Men were worklng all day and allnight making dykes to kep the town here from being overflowed. No Trates Running. Beaver and Olympia marshes are inundated. No trains are running, the track being under water frorn here to Stanwood. The Great Northern railroad bridge is in a precarious condition. West Mount Vernon is fiooded. Families are fleeing to the hills to escape the water. Many head of stock are drowned and the farmera will suffer untold losses. The Cowlitz, Chehalis, White, Nooksack, Stillaguamish and Snohomish rivers are all from half a mile to two miles wider than usual. Hundreds of heads of cattle and horses are drowned. Millions of f eet of logs have been lost through the breaking of jams at Kelso, on the Cowlitz river. Two million feet of logs and 3,000 cords of shingle bolts are missing. The houses and buildings of August Julesburg at Stockport are gone, and thirteen head of cattle are drowned there. The floods have been caused by the four days' almost continuous rain, together with the chinook winds, which have melted the heavy snowfalls in the foothillls. Storm Cenierat Portland, Portland was direetly in the storm center Monday, and the temperature feil during: the day to 34 degrees, an almost unprecedented temperature for this time of the year. The rainfall during the twenty-four hours ended at 5 o'clock was 2.6S inches. Tn Portland :he storm did considerable damage. Sewers and gutter proved entlrely inadequate to carry the great volumes of water which swept down from the hills back of the city and passed through every street. The several street car Inés were seriously interfered with in many places where water surged over the tracks, clogging the ties and niils with wreckage, Uut all Unes managed to maintain a moderately regular sitvce thróushoüt the city. The telephone companies kept thelr linemen ut all day untangling the Jumble Into which the wind blew their wires. The tunïels which carry the wlres underneath he streets became filjed with water, and required the constant services of men with pumps to keep them cl irt Iiansr Orders Steel KaiU. , Pa., Noy. 1T. - Li Hung 'hang has sent Andrew Carnegle an order for 10,000 tona oí sti el ;;i]s the Edgar Thompson plant rèsvi Monday morning it starled ! 1 these rails. The company alo eceived ;. big order from . hipan. It is or 5,000 tons of T rails, which are to be user] in levcl country djstricts for light traffie. It is said thi rates to the I'aclflC would be more than the ' ■■[' the order, and foi ,ison they will he sent around by water from ] New York. I