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page 16 railroad fill, backed water up over an area some five miles long and several miles wide, from Atwood to Sterling No. 1 dtich, just south of Sterling before it gave way. Many county bridges on Pawnee creek had been ,,,ashed out today. For a time I~onday night highway crews halted travel on the sand road south of the river between Sterling lmd Atwood, and also on the north road from Atwood past the Timberlake farm. The flood water had carried away a portion of the fill at the Sterger bridge. It was stated this afternoon that county road crews hoped to have the bridge in condition for travel by tonight. The south road was being used today by all kinds of travel, though several large trucks became fast in the sand. Second Flood Greater Close upon cloudbursts of Sunday afternoon wh:~ch flooded a region north and west of Sterling and swept away banks of the Sterling No.1 and North Sterling intake ditches in the Springdale region, Pawnee creek showed a fast rise Sunday night which shifted railroad and highway crews to the crossing near Atwood. The water rose Monday morning to the ties of the Burlington grade and flowed over the pavement from Atwood to Riverside cemetery south of Sterling. Borrow pits carried great streams into the Sterling No. 1 ditch just south of Sterling. Though bankfull, the ditch did not brea}, Monday and carried away water which otherwise might have flooded parts of Sterling. Torrential rains fell Monday, however, over the great watershed drained by the Pawnee. Henry Kaepernik, road superintendent in the Sterling district, who was surveying the situation beyond Pawnee Pass late Monday afternoon, saw a second and greater wall of water following the tortuous course of the creek. He hurried to Sterling, notified Commissioner T. F. Moore, the railroad illld highway crews and others, and returned to the crossing of the creek and highway No. 14, at 6 o'clock, when he estimated the flood would reach the crossing. The water arrived in a wall some eight or ten feet high and soon had spread over an area a mile wide. It rose and swept' over the highway grade and billowed out into the old course of the creek, which described a half circle to the north. Approximately a hundred yards of the fill was swept away, a half mile east of the concrete slab. The flow of the creek, as seen by a number of Sterling persons Monday evening resembled the Missouri river. This morning there were two gaping breaks in the road fill, each perhaps a hundred yards wide. The one was a half mile east of the concrete slab, the other at the west end of the slab. The road was closed. Pressure at Bridge Approximately six hours after the crest of the flood re~ched Pawnee Pass the rise became apparent at the bridge oni highway No. 6 between Sterling and Abrood. Coming upon an existing flood, it piled up quickly against the railroad fill and soon was pouring over it. Soon portions of the railroad grade were being carried away and as the water found additional exits the level slowly receded and it became