RUSHING FLOODS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 112, 14 May 1927, Page 9

RUSHING FLOODS.

$&ST AREAS AFFECTED Farther 60,000 People Rendered Homeless. CREVASSE 70GTT WIDE. py Cable.— Press Association.— Copyright.) (Eeceived 11 a.m.) ; NEW ORLEANS, May 13. As a result of the breaking of the ] e vee at Moreauville by the MissisE ippi flood, 60.000 more people have Dee n driven from their homes and 1,000,000 acres threatened with inundation. The fiocd waters clipped a great section of the Bayou des Glaises levee at Bordelonvillc, in the heart of the • Big Bend. Engineers and relief workers have declared that the crevasse is already 150 feet wide, and the levee is gradually cracking eastward and dooming the socalled "sugar bowl" lands of Louisiana, where 150,000 people lived. Property worth over £2,000,000 lies 5n the path of the flood and the pent-up vaters are now streaming through a 'Uries of crevasses between Cottonport and Bordelonville, ranging in width from 20 feet to 700 feet at Moreauville, midvay between. The small towns of Cottonport and Bordelonville are under water. No loss of life is expected, and all immediately affected areas have been cleared of vromen and children. Refugee Problem. The farmers themselves manned the Jevees until the usclessness of the task became apparent. Engineers have predicted that the good would flow southward at the rate pi 15 to "0 miles per day. Meantime reports from Tensas Basin reveals a serious refugee problem throughout Louisiana. A wireless message from Jonesville stated that the water there has risen 13 inches in the last 24 hours. Refugees were found on rafts and 30 pen in small boats. It is reported that near Acme a large lumber of women and children on flat ioats, who are said to have been without food, were rescued. A member of the Governor's staff immediately notified the Bed Cross of the urgent need for food and tents in the flooded parishes. The first break in the livee system which guards central and southern Louisiana occurred when the embankment at Baton Rouge crumpled near Cotton Port. This released part of the inland sea which has spreak over the north-eastern portion of Louisiana. The effect of the break upon the city of New Orleans is at present problematical, but the Meteorological Bureau has issued a renewed warning that every precautionary measure should be taken to save the city. The guards were withdrawn from the levees in the neighbourhood of the break, and the work of raising the tops of the embankments'was suspended.