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The Kansas City Flood of 1908: “The heavy rains during the month of June in the Missouri and Kaw River valleys was the cause of a flood which almost equaled the flood of June 1903.
“The rise reached the height of 29.07 feet in the Kaw and 32.03 feet in the Missouri River.
“The immense drift built a dam at the Missouri Pacific Railroad Bridge which forced the water to back up in all the sewers and drainage-ways of the two Kansas Cities and flooded the lowlands in Armourdale and Argentine as well as the West Bottoms.
“The water reached a depth of two to 10 feet in these districts. Business interests were temporarily suspended and homes abandoned.
No lives were lost but the damage to property, both real and personal, has reached at least a million.”
That was the description inside a postcard folder published by the Novelty Postcard Company of Kansas City, Mo., after the flood of 1908.
This week’s card, the third in our June series of Kansas City flood postcards, shows “Union Avenue at the ‘Ark’ (Union Station).” Several pools of water still exist on the arched street where only the street-car tracks are visible.
Sent to Mrs. Emma Collicote of RFD #4 in Greensburg, Ind., on Sept. 11, 1908, the card’s message reads: “Dear mother, I am in K.C. and will leave here at 9 o’clock tonight. From your son, Clarence T. Collicote.”
Michael Bushnell
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