NOAH EMULATED.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 113, 16 May 1927, Page 7

NOAH EMULATED.

. NEGROES BUILD ARK. ' Desperate Measures in Flood Areas. RISE AT NEW ORLEANS. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright) NEW ORLEANS, May 15. Reports to hand yesterday state ■ that the flood waters surged over the 1 countryside through the honeycombed levee along Big Bend at a rate estii mated by the engineers at well over i 7,000,000 cubic feet a second. 1 Some parishes are already under water and others are rapidly becoming part of the huge lake which soon will - stretch from Louisiana's northern border to the Gulf of Mexico. The members of a coloured commnn- . ity in the lowlands near Baton Rouge, ; exhorted by their parson, emulated the i example of Noah, When they heard the flood was ap proaching they built an ark. Into this they carried all their worldly belongings, also their chickens, dogs, cats and mules. They then waited and prayed for the flood to come and float the ark. However, the latter would not float, as the I water poured in at a hundred leaks. Finally, when the flood-strained craft was covered by 2ft of water, the occupants fled to the safety of a railway embankment. As a result of the breaks in the levee at Bayou and Des Glaises the continuation is threatened of the evacuation of the doomed sugar lands. The majority e of the inhabitants have already left their I farms, but straggling groups are still 3 moving along the highways toward the refugee camps. Severe suffering is reported from the Tensas Basin among families who refused to leave. The Governor of Louisiana reports that the situation of several marooned families is serious. The river at New Orleans has shown a surprising rise of nearly half an inch in in the past 48 hours. This Iβ attributed by the weather bureau to the effect of the winds and tide. The crest of the river is now 20.6 ft high and it is predicted that it will reach 21ft. Apparently nothing can divert the flood between the brea&s In the levee and the Gulf of Mexico, but the crest should have passed into the gulf within a few days. After that, unless unexpected developments occur, it should be possible to begin the work of rehabilitation in the valley. But before this happens 40,000 or 50,000 farms are doomed and the entire territory must be evacuated. This will bring the total number of persons forced from their homes in 3 Louisiana alone to 300,000. T