Several horse-and-wagon outfits and one rowboat make up the street traffic in this scene of the Kansas City flood, in June, 1908. The post card was included in a folder of pictures of the disaster, in which the lowlands in Armourdale, Argentine and the West Bottoms were inundated, and where, according to the folder, water reached a level of from two to ten feet. Stranded pedestrians in front of the People's Ice Storage & Fuel Co., 1300 W. 8th, are waiting for the boat to rescue them.Water stood in the buildings more than a week and pumps were kept busy in business-house basements. Many fences, stock pens and outbuildings were washed away. No lives were lost, but the property damage was heavy. In terms of total damage, both the 1903 and 1951 floods were more disastrous, however.Convention Hall was used as a refuge for evacuated residents and tents were set up in many places in Argentine. Two thousand families in Armourdale moved their possessions to higher ground.P. Connor, U.S. Weather observer, gave daily reports of river depth. The flood shared news space with the Republican convention, which was busy nominating William Howard Taft for U.S. President, in the Coliseum in Chicago. Kansas City Times, June 29, 1971.
Reproduction (printing, downloading, or copying) of images from Kansas City Public Library requires permission and payment for the following uses, whether digital or print: publication; reproduction of multiple copies; personal, non-educational purposes; and advertising or commercial purposes. Please order prints or digital files and pay use fees through this website. All images must be properly credited to: "Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri." Images and texts may be reproduced without prior permission only for purposes of temporary, private study, scholarship, or research. Those using these images and texts assume all responsibility for questions of copyright and privacy that may arise.
