ROOD DEVASTATION

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 6 May 1927, Page 5

ROOD DEVASTATION

THREE STATES AFFECTED

TWO MORE LEVEES BROKEN,

RICH COUNTRY LAID WASTE

BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. NEW YORK, May 4. A message from New 7 Orleans states that the devastation of 4000 square mild? of Louisiana by the flood was completed by two additional breaks in the banks of the Alississippi. _ The waters cover fifteen thousand miles in three States, and 250,000 are homeless. The property loss has been increased to a- staggering total. News from New Orleans states that the Alississippi broke through two more levees in Northern Louisiana today, and these will release the full force of the waters into the region ali’eady partially inundated. The liver, from a point 30 miles north of the Arkansas border, has become an inland sea, being at many points 50 miles wide. The water pours upon nine parishes from three directions. Rail traffic is prostrated and communication is failing rapidly. Thousands of exiles are scattering over the countryside in a wild dash for high ground, and approximately 5000 square miles of the richest agricultural land in the State is laid waste.

A hundred small steamers are cruising over the area in an endeavour to reach the danger points and remove isolated inhabitants caught by the suddenness of the onrush of the waters. The Red Cross has announced that the relief subscriptions now total 6,310,000 dollars. Two more Senators have telegraphed to President Coolidge asking that a special session of Congress be called to deal with the situation. Senator La Follette pointed out that Congress alone was competent to provide relief funds adequate to cope with the disaster and provide proper rehabilitaiton. Air. H. Hoover and Seev Davis (Labour) left Washington to-night for Vicksburg. It is believed the culmination of the flood, when the crest reaches the immediate vicinity of New Orleans and the low-lying delta region, will probably mark a high point of damage, necessitating the widest efforts for relief.

MORE TERRITORY COVERED ANOTHER TOWN MENACED.

FIGHT TO SAVE THE LEVEES

Received 10.15 a.m. to-day. NEW YORK, May 5. A New Orleans message say.s :—The crest of the Alississippi River flood is moving -southward -at the rate of fifty mile per day, leaving am increasingly large expanse of inundated territory in its wake. The water is pouring through the new 7 breaks, covering the entire north-west portion of the State. Although the crest isi already past tout point, the flood waters there are joining the backwaters of the Arkansas River. . Thousands of labourers are working to save the levees along the Old and the Red rivers, and the Bayou des G buses whic-h are already virtually doomed. Breaks at any of these p aces would add thirteen parishes to the inundated area, -bringing hai’jf the State under water. A fresh break occurred in the levee protecting Rayville, and the waters are pouring into the negro section. It is estimated that the whole, town will be covered before to-morrow. The itesh inundation., it is expected, will bung the total flooded area to the vicinity of eighteen thousand .square miles, and to swell the number of homeless to over half a million. (Meanwhile the authorities are concentrating on rescuing 14.000 persons who are marooned on high ground in Tensas parish, and who refused to ’cave l their homes when warned. They will have to be removed in boats. Rescue workers report that the greatest was experienced in persuading the victims, especially negroes, to leave many danger points. These, when ultimately removed, are invariably suffering .severely from exposure and luinge.T.