"Most Disastrous Day"

In a normal July, Kansas is as hot and dry as a wheat beard in the afternoon sun, with searing winds browning the stubble and curling the corn leaves. But this is no normal year. June was the wettest month in Kansas weather records (since 1886), and the rain continued into July. When torrential rains poured down last week, there was nothing for the water to do but run off the saturated soil. It ran with a fury never before seen in Kansas.

Almost every river in the state went wild, and the worst of all was the Kansas, which Kansans call the Kaw. Its waters rolled into Manhattan (pop. 18,996) in raging flood, and businessmen along the main streets had to be taken out in boats. More than 20,000 people were driven from their homes in Topeka, the state capital. Flood water spilled over the Santa Fe railroad tracks near Emporia and for 55 hours stranded 337 passengers in the crack passenger train El Capitan. Rancher Bill Brandt landed his small plane on a nearby highway 15 times to bring in supplies and to take out five sick passengers.

Worse than '03. The roaring tide delivered its most crushing blow at a target that was expected to resist it. The Kaw flows into the Missouri River at the Kansas Cities. There the low-lying industrial districts are protected by flood walls as high as 22 feet, built to cope with high water equal to that of the previous record flood in 1903. The flood of '51 roared over the levees, covered the Santa Fe's great transfer yards and shops, inundated the spreading stockyards, coursed through factories. Rescue workers had a hard time convincing some oldtime residents to leave, so sure were they that the flood would be no worse than in 1903. Mrs. Emile LaBorde, who had lived there 32 years, baked a berry pie for her husband while sirens roared outside. Finally the LaBordes retreated to the upstairs. "I kept counting those 14 steps," said Mrs. LaBorde. "It wasn't so bad until it got up to No. 9. When the water got to the top step, I decided to go out the window." Rescuers in a boat got the LaBordes out. Others were less fortunate: workers heard cries of the trapped as their houses floated away. Water covered 1.384 square blocks of the two cities. It flooded the pumping station which furnishes water to about two-thirds of Kansas City, Mo.

And Then Fire. Then fire was added to water. The flood ripped up a crude oil storage tank and hurled it against a high tension wire in Kansas City, Mo. The flaming tank drifted into more gasoline and oil storage tanks. Flames shot up 500 feet into the air as the tanks exploded. Flaming oil and gasoline raced on top of the flood, while firemen in boats vainly poured flood water back on to the fire. The blaze, fed by more than one million gallons of oil, demolished seven square blocks. The Star called it "Kansas City's most disastrous day."

In all, more than 100,000 people in Kansas and Missouri were driven from their homes, and 41 were killed. Flood waters covered 1,500,000 acres. Major General Lewis A. Pick, chief of the Army Engineers, estimated damage at $750 million, the costliest flood in U.S. history.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.