FLOOD RAVAGES

Evening Star, Issue 22559, 29 January 1937, Page 9

FLOOD RAVAGES

LOUISVILLE A STRICKEN GUY VICTIMS BURIED IN SHALLOW TRENCHES DEATH ROLL CANNOT BE ASSESSED Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright CHICAGO, January 27. The sudden realisation that the dead in Louisville alone may total hundreds broke over the harassed city. The Associated Press stated that 120 bodies were recovered during the day in the submerged western area. Despite a strict censorship by the city and military authorities it is learned that nine undertakers were made de-puty-coroners to deal with the situation. Stories regarding the disposal of the bodies are conflicting. The Health Commissioner said that an unknown number of badly decomposed bodies were buried in shallow trenches in the highlands. It is impossible to identify them, even to determine whether they were whites or negroes. “ There is no way of knowing how many are dead until the waters recede,” it was stated. It is agreed by all authorities that many bodies will never be found. New York residents reported to the Associated Press that in telephone conversations relatives in Louisville said that many hundreds of dead bodies were being cremated as fast as possible to prevent the spread of disease. Most of them were unidentified and cremation was making identification for ever impossible. It is reported that the city incinerator was used for cremation, but the authorities denied this. The bodies of two people who committed suicide to escape suffering were removed from one house. A war veteran serving with the volunteer police said that refugees were dying like flies. Other sources said that many looters were shot dead, and painted a word picture 4 of miles of houses with the water as high as the roofs. There is no possible way of knowing how many are dead in these regions. Censorships and the impossibility of communication give rise to the wildest speculation what the number of dead will be in nearly 1,000 miles of the worst flooded area. Observers have been baffled by the relatively small estimate of dead in such vast areas of devastation, and now believe that all the authorities have been cooperating in withholding facts to prevent panic. SEVERE DROUGHT IRONIC SITUATION IN WEST NEW YORK, January 27. Ironically the great plains of the western area, known as the “ dust bowl,” are suffering a severe drought. There has been scarcely any rainfall for a month, and the soil is powdery and dry, causing great dust storms. 130,000 RELIEF WORKERS MILLION HOMELESS—23S DEAD WASHINGTON, January 28. (Received January 29, at 12.10 p.m.) A relief corps numbering 130,000, concentrated on two fronts, is to-day cleaning up the Ohio Valley and preparing for the expected rising of the Mississippi. To-day’s estimate of the known dead is 235, and a million homeless. The property damage is in excess of 400,000,000 dollars.