Disastrous Floods

Tacoma, Wash., Nov. 18.- Never bcfore has western Washington had such a visitation oL floods. There is water everywhere. The Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and Canadian Pacific railroads are blockaded, and it wil) be several days before traific can be resumed. The total damage to date is estimated at $2,000,000. Business has j not suffered alone, for scores of houses are floating about in the devastated fields. Many families have barely escaped with their lives by means oí boats. Steamers have been sent out in Snohomish, Columbia and Cowlitz valleys to reseñe persons ivho would otherwise have drowned. The steamer Florence Henry went down Snohomish river Sunday and rescued twenty-flve familier, living on marsh and low land.-!. Monday she started again on a i far mission. In Snohomish county the damage is estimated at $400,000. Entirr Family Drowned A Snohomish special says the river there is now twenty-one feet above regular water mark at high tide. Henry j Johns, a rancher, was crosslng the river near Monroe with his wife and three children 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 cut. Many log booms have been broken and the logs are being swept into the sound. Between Snohonjish and Everett the j river is six 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 j is under water. Men were working all day and all night making dykes to kep the town here from being overflowed. "o Trains Iiuiniinff. Beaver and Olympia marshes are inundated. No trains are running, the track being under water from here to Stanwood. The Great Northern railroad bridge is in a precarious condition. Í "West Mount Vernon is flooded. Families are fleeing to the huls to escape the water. Many head of stock are drowned and the farmers will suffer untold losses. The Cowlitz, Chehalis, White, Nooksack, Stillaguamish and Snohomish rivers are all from half a mile to two miles wider than usua'. Hundreds of heads of cattle and horses are drowned. Millions of feet 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 j 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 Center at Portland. Portland was directly in the storm center Monday, and the temperature i feil during the day to 34 degrees, an . most unprecedented temperature for this time of the year. The rainfall during the twenty-four hours ended at 5 o'clock was 2.66 inches. In Portland the storm did considerable damage. I Sewers and gutter proved entirely 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 lines were seriously interfered with in many places where water surged over the tracks, clogging the ties and rails with wreckage, but all lines managed to maintain a moderately regular service throughout the city. The telephone companies kept their linemen out all day untangling the jumble into which the wind blew their wires. The tunnels which carry the wires underneath j the streets became filled with water, and required the constant services of men with pumps to keep them clear. Clara JDawson Scott Married. Des Moines, Ia., Nov. 18. - Mrs. Clara Dawson Scott, widow of Walter Scott, who was murdered last Christmas -eve by his father-in-law, S. R. Dawson, the inventor, was married Monday to Willard McKay at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Scott, Rev. D. A. Wickizer offlciating. McKay is a son of Willard McKay of this city, and has lived here eighteen months. He is a confectioner by trade. He carne here from Michigan. Every effort was made to keep the wedding secret. The ceremony was performed in the room where last Christmas day the remains of Walter Scott, her husband of less than a day, lay. McKay was Scott's firm friend.