BIG FLOODS IN CALIFORNIA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 71, Issue 36, 22 November 1950, Page 5

BIG FLOODS IN CALIFORNIA

RESIDENTS LEAVE HOMES RIVERS BECOME RAGING TORRENTS (N.Z P A.—Copyright) (Rec. 9.25) NEW YORK, Nov. 21 Governor Warren, of California, declared a state of emergency today because of raging floods in the State’s central valley. The Adjutant-General’s office alerted 5000 national guardsmen for emergency duty in the valley. Thirty-five hundred residents of East Linda, near Marysville, were ordered to be evacuated in the face of a threat of flooding by the Yuba and Bear rivers muddy torrent, which had already smashed through levees in three places and inundated the towns of Hammonton and Marigold, and were continuing to rise. •' r

The American river burst its banks near Sacramento, the capital of California, and flooded thousands of acres of suburban land, driving 1000 people from their homes.

Eight deaths in California were attributed directly or indirectly to the floods.

In Nevada the main section of Reno was under six to eight feet of water today as a three-block wide muddy torrent raced through the business district, sweeping trees, benches and automobiles aside.

Two luxurious hotels had six feet of water in their main floors. Thousands of dollars worth of Christmas goods in flooded basements stores have been ruined. The State National Guard was called out to prevent looting. All of the city’s eight bridges across the Truckee river are completely under water.

GAMBLERS CARRY ON

(Rec. 10 a.m.) NEW YORK, Nov. 21. The swollen Truckee River flooded the multi-million dollar downtown gambling area of Reno, Nevada, early to-day, hut the gamblers kept right on playing. “We will gamble with our boots on,” said the manager of the Riverside Hotel gambling casino as the water flooded into the lobby. The flood came from the same storm that has deluged California with nine days of steady rain, causing seven deaths and an estimated 12,000,000 dollars of damage in that State’s richest central valley.

All five bridges spanning the Truckee River in Reno are under, water, and the river is spilling over the top of 30-foot high levees, while national guardsmen and civilian volunteers pile sandbags along downtown buildings.