From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for July 17, 1915:

• “When North Lawrence farmers and gardeners asked the City Commissioners to cut the dike near the Union Pacific trestle and let the water out of the low ground and into the river, they took it for granted that the big stream would keep on falling. But in this way they made their error and when the Kaw started coming back up last night the water rushed through the opening in the dike and back into the old river bed on the other side. Now the residents of this section are threatened with a worse flood than ever. This morning at 10 o’clock the water was back over all the low country; the homes of many people were surrounded, and the flood was coming up at the rate of seven inches an hour. In the old river bed which crosses Kansas street in North Lawrence between the Petty farm and the Pine home the water has cut the road square in two and is running out into the fields in a channel estimated to be six feet deep…. Had the original channel through the dike which was constructed by City Engineer Herbert Dunmire been allowed to stand the second flood might never have occurred, officials say, but the hurry to get the water out caused the cut to be enlarged and now there is no way to stop the inrush of the flood from the Kaw. The opening made by the City Engineer was only about eight feet wide and was constructed with wooden walls and a floor of sand bags. The ends were thoroughly sandbagged to prevent cutting and the whole construction was made with an idea of preventing the loose soil from washing away. However the cut was later widened and a second cut made just north of the first opening with no provision to prevent washing. As a result of the erosion from the current the opening was widened to about fifty feet and the railway fill upon which the track is laid is now threatened…. The great rush of water through the cut in the dike made any attempt to stop the water by the use of sandbags impossible. ‘The only thing that can stop it now,’ said a North Side farmer this morning, ‘is for the Union Pacific to haul in crushed rock by the carload and dump it into the opening. Neither the city nor the township has the apparatus to fight the water with.’ City officials said this morning that in their opinion the city run a great risk of having heavy damage suits on its hands if the careless opening of the dike Thursday night had washed away the railroad’s fill. It is feared now that the railway company will object to the rebuilding of the dike.”
• “With the close of the first term of the summer session many of the instructors will be relieved of their school work due to the fact that there are not so many students enrolled in the second term as there are in the first. Most of the professors will immediately go on their summer vacation and in the usual case they will be gone until the beginning of the school next September…. Stenographers in many Lawrence offices are leaving for their summer vacations, while business is dull during the hot weather. Many Lawrence people are away from the city now and more are going away every day.”
• “Members of the Lawrence Country Club say that their new house is going to be ready to move into in a few days and that with several new members the club is growing rapidly. Several applications for membership have been received from out of town and will be acted upon soon. The golf course, which has been a great attraction to most of the members, has not been used as much as formerly during the past week on account of the weather.”
• “The Red and White lines west of town are in better shape than ever and are as smooth as a boulevard, according to Otis Perkins, who drove out a few miles into the country last night. Merril Coleman and Wilbur Day have been dragging them and getting them into shape for traffic. A number of overland tourists are taking this route to Topeka since the recent rains which have put the Golden Belt road in bad shape.”
• “Eudora shoppers who came to Lawrence today had to leave their horses and automobiles at home for autos can’t wade and when a horse does his going is necessarily slow. In telephone conversations with people in the village to the east this morning, a Lawrence business man says he didn’t find anybody who was coming to Lawrence in any way but on the train. Ordinarily a large number of the people there come over in cars and with teams. Roads to Eudora are almost impassible, farmers say, and are the worst they have been this year.”