wall, which was designed to manage a flood higher than the June 1903 flood. The onset of floodwaters reached Kansas City, Kansas on July 12, and the Kansas River rose rapidly, reaching its peak stage on July 14. Water rose an hour until within a meter (3 ft) of the top of the dike. The piers of bridges were battered by debris and whole farmhouses which had been swept downstream. Weak areas of the levee were reinforced with the help of hundreds of workers sandbagging. Shortly before midnight July 13, the Kansas River broke the levee protecting the Argentine district, and residents were forced to flee to nearby bluffs. Early that morning, after the Armourdale district had been evacuated, a long wave of water began to cascade over the levee and inundated the district with of water. Many people were rescued by boats, out of trees, ledges and rooftops. Later that morning, the Central Industrial District was flooded even while Mayor Roe Bartle of Kansas City, Missouri was on an aerial inspection of the flood scene. The livestock industry was paralyzed as packing plants were flooded and thousands of hogs and cattle were swept away. floodwaters made a canal out of Southwest Boulevard. A 23,000-liter (6,000-gallon) oil tank, caught in the current, struck a high tension wire and exploded, causing additional mayhem. The burning oil ignited the Phillips Petroleum Company oil tanks, which went up with a roar that rocked downtown Kansas City. Soon, eight city blocks were aflame as dozens of oil tanks exploded in a chain reaction that lasted five days. The Hannibal Bridge and A.S.B. Bridge were the only two highway bridges still operating. Several barges were torn loose and caught in the current about a kilometer (0.5 mi) upstream from the Hannibal Bridge. These barges threatened to destroy the remaining bridges but, fortunately, two of the barges arrived at the Hannibal Bridge at the same time and wedged against the bridge. The barges were quickly secured to the bridge with chains. The Missouri River and the Kansas River threatened to spill into the Municipal (now Downtown) Airport, the Fairfax District, and North Kansas City that Friday night. Planes were evacuated, and North Kansas City residents were ordered to leave immediately. Thousands of men, with the help of trucks and bulldozers, worked through the night to support the dike, but the collapse of the Jersey dike early