100 years ago today in Spokane: Big storms damage cities and crops across Inland Northwest

Huge summer storms caused extensive damage in Spokane. Basements flooded, roads washed out, sewers backed up and two homes in Peaceful Valley “were in danger of being washed away” until crews cleared the storm drains.

The devastation was even worse in other parts of the Inland Northwest. The town of Wawawai on the Snake River west of Pullman reported “the worst cloudburst in the history of the place.” One orchard of nearly 100 acres “is said to have been swept away,” and cars from the farm were carried into the Snake River.

At Union Flat, near Pullman, “a wall of water 10 feet high swept down the narrow valley, carrying everything in its path. … Several families had narrow escapes from drowning, but no one was injured.”

In Pullman, the wind that accompanied the storm “destroyed the poultry buildings, sheep, horse and bull barns, carrying fragments of the structures a half to three-quarters of a mile.” Two employees in the poultry building were slightly injured when it collapsed around them.

Trains were delayed because the rain washed away a portion of the tracks in front of the Pullman depot.

“Pullman is in darkness tonight, the storm having put the electric service out of commission,” reported a correspondent.

Wheat was uprooted all over the Palouse, but the extent of the crop damage was not yet known.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1921: Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were convicted in Massachusetts of murdering a shoe company paymaster and his guard.