200 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
Professor Moors. In 1897 the live stock was driven out of the Yazoo 
Valley by a five-day warning. The last census showed $7,000,000 
worth of live stock in that valley. ; 
Mr. Grarr. What was the proportion of rainfall last year, the last 
calendar year; you take it by the calendar years? 
Professor Moorr. Well, yes; we take it by the day and put it 
together by months and years. ; 
Mr. Grarr. I merely wanted to compare the present year with last 
year. 
Professor Moorr. Do you mean generally? 
Mr. Grarr. The rainfall inthe Mississippi Valley; that would cover 
a large number of States? ; 
Professor Moore. I can not answer that question offhand. 
Mr. Burieson. There has been no increase in the rainfall in the 
Brazos Valley, or the country tributary, but there isa rapid rushing 
of the current of the water in the later days which did not obtain 
formerly. ; 
Professor Moors (reading)— 
The floods of late May and early June, 1903, in the upper Mississippi, the lower 
Missouri, and the Kansas rivers, were by far the most destructive, and, with the excep- 
tion of that of 1844, the greatest ever experienced in these localities. The warnings 
for the upper Mississippi were equally as accurate as those for the previous flood in 
the lower river. Ample time was afforded to everyone to make all preparations that 
might be necessary, and if some delayed until too late, their failure to act more 
romptly certainly can not be attributed to lack of emphatic and accurate warnings. 
At St. Louis, on June 5, one week or more after the flood warnings were begun, a 
special warning was issued that in about four days a stage of water in the néighbor- 
hood of 38 feet might be expected, the gauge reading at that time being 33.5 feet. 
On June 10 the water reached the height of exactly 38 feet and then began to recede. 
That area was inhabited by over 5,000 people, and under that warn- 
ing the houses were deserted and property removed. 
The floods in the Kansas River and in the Missouri in the vicinity of Kansas City 
could be forecast only in a general way, owing to the fact that no river service was 
maintained on the Kansas River, it having heretofore been found impossible to obtain 
sufficient funds for that purpose. The warnings issued stated that serious floods were 
probable, higher than had occurred for twenty years or more, but no definite fore- 
casts could be made on account of lack of information of any description from points 
above the threatened districts. 
We failed to make a warning of that flood in the Kansas River, and 
it created great destruction, as Mr. Scott knows. 
Mr. Bowrr. Do you not state in your report that it amounted to 
millions of dollars—the destruction at Kansas City ? 
Professor Moore. Yes, sir. 
Mr. Scorr. The estimate of the cost of the destruction of that flood 
through Kansas, including Kansas City, in the State of Kansas, put it 
at not less than $20,000,000. 
Professor Moore. Yes, sir. 
Mr. Bowrr. How much damage could have been mitigated if sucha 
notice had been given? 
Professor Moorr. A good many lives could have been saved, and 
oiled fourth of the loss was movable property that could have 
een saved. 
Had the Weather Bureau possessed an adequate river service within the State of 
Kansas during the recent flood, there is not the slightest doubt that, while some 
lives might have been lost, others that were lost would have been saved by the 
warnings that could have been issued, and property to the value of hundreds of 
thousands of dollars rescued from the general ruin. It is strongly urged that Congress 
