AMERICAN TOWN ENGULFED

Evening Star, Issue 19588, 21 June 1927, Page 5

AMERICAN TOWN ENGULFED

FLOOD HORROR [Fkoji Oca . Special Correspondent.] SAN FRANCISCO, May* 21. Tlio Mississippi disaster, continuing its menacing attitude to the hundreds of - thousands of residents of its unhappy valley, wrecked havoc in Louisiana, when a raging torrent of muddy flood waters in six hours completely inundated Melville, a town of 1,000 inhabitants on the west bank of the Atchafalaya River, approximately. 120 miles north-west of New Orleans, under Bft to 10ft of water. Pouring through a crevasse 2,500 ft wide, with a rushing current of thirty miles an hour, waters 20ft deep tossed about and demolished thirty-live to forty houses directly in its path. Ten negroes, trying to wade through the surging waters, up to their necks, to the railway embankment, were swept from their feet and drowned.

In addition to this thirty-five persons at the nearby Roa’s plantation, including several whites, were trapped by the swift How of waters before they could reach high ground. Striking swiftly in the early hours of the morning, tho gorged river tore aside Jevce barriers and turned its full force on tho town, driving residents from their homes into tho streets, attired in night clothing. With one mighty rush tho waters engulfed the town hotel, ripping it from its foundations and tossing it aside to strike residences adjoining. The fife whistle and the Standard Oil plant shrieked warnings as the levee guards sped through the streets, I firing pistols and rifles, and shouting “Crevasse! Crevasse!’’ Women aroused from slumbers frantically clasped children in their arras and fled before the waters to embankments and upper floors of buildings. REFUGEE TRAIN ENGULFED. Warnings to evacuate had been given on the previous day, but the inhabitants had clung' to their homes, con’ l *- fident that their _ levees would hold back the racing tide. The Texas and Pacific Railway had held a train ready to take them out, but the water came so quickly that the whole train was marooned with the refugees before it could pull out of the town to the west. Hundreds of persons made their way to the railway bridge, crossing the river on the span, which provided their only- link with dry land. Special trains moved toward the scene from different directions. So swiftly did the waters come that few person’s had opportunity to save even the most precious of personal belongings. In the flight to safety property was abandoned in the effort to save lives. The Weather Bureau said its stages were 3ft above those of tho memorable flood of 1882. It was estimated it would require from three to four weeks to reach Morgan City, at the edge of the Gulf of Mexico. The Weather Bureau said investigations showed that St. Martin parish was under 17ft to 20ft of water. At Plaucheville the current was so strong that it overturned large houses, and smaller ones collapsed before the flood like eggshells, or rose with the waters to be carried along and pounded to pieces by the waves. A widow and her eight children were swamped at Plaucheville after they had fled from the invading waters to the attic of their home. Wherever the waters. Receded in other parts of the Mississippi Valley the disconsolate farmers were, returning to their muddy fields and starting work of 1 preparing and planting in the al-"oady-advancod season.