The Evening Star. FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 1937. FLOOD HAVOC

Evening Star, Issue 22559, 29 January 1937, Page 8

The Evening Star. FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 1937. FLOOD HAVOC

Though the United States is extremely fortunate in its freedom from international complications and perils, it is visited by serious troubles m other ways. They are, in fact, in the aggregate on a scale not experienced in any other land, and are due largely to the unloosing of natural forces. In the last two years almost every part of the country has suffered greatly from floods, droughts, forest and grass fires, and the terrible dust storms that make life a torment to the unfortunate people that are obliged to suffer them. At the moment the great Mississippi Valley and surrounding low-lying areas are in the grip of a disastrous flood, which is at its worst in the Ohio River, a tributary of the Mississippi. It is described as the worst flood in the history of the country, with a deathroll probably of at least a thousand. The number of people driven from their homes is set down at 800,000, and the damage to property more than three hundred million dollars. Great rivers, though an asset to a country, are dangerous also. It is seen in this instance, and has been noted on previous occasions in the Mississippi area. The only other land that has floods on anything like the same scale is China. Occasionally the Yangtse-kiang and the Hoang-ho overflow their banks, resulting in terrific losses in life and in destruction of property which brings famine afterwards. The United States, which is so rich in material wealth, will not have insuperable difficulties in providing for the stricken people The chief problem for the authorities will be in combating the outbreaks of disease that have already reached alarming proportions. The area that is inundated is in the southeastern portion of the country. Further west, in what is called the “dust bowl,” a drought is being experienced, with the result that the inhabitants are being afflicted with the dust storms that make life almost intolerable while they last. The Ohio River is commercially the most important, and, next to the Missouri, the largest tributary of the Mississippi, which river it joins after flowing for nearly a thousand miles through rich country. During its course it separates West Virginia and Kentucky from the States of. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Floods have always been a menace in the Mississippi region, and in the eighteenth century the construction of embankments, or levees as they are called, was begun. The system has been gradually extended, and to date a sum of more than thirty million pounds has been expended on them. These works have proved .valuable as protective measures, but they are incapable of dealing with an inundation such as that which is now being experienced. On© distressing feature is that it is winter time in America, and though the temperature in the flooded regions will not he so low as it is further north, there is no doubt that the winter conditions will add to the privations of the people. The drought which afflicted a great portion of the country in July, August, and September last was described as one of th© major catastrophes in American history. Terrible heat, causing many deaths, was accompanied hy great forest fires and dust storms, and the Government had to take special measures to protect and help the farmers. The crop damage alone was estimated at a thousand million dollars. Great as this disaster was it will probably be exceeded in destructive effects by the present flood visitation, which will put a big obligation on the Roosevelt Administration and call for heavy expenditure in ameliorative measures.