AMERICAN FLOODS

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 122, 21 April 1927, Page 7

AMERICAN FLOODS

MUCH LOSS OF LIFE. . THIRTY THOUSAND HOMELESS. RIVERS STILL RISING. (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received April 21. 9.45 a.m. NEW YORK, April 20. The toll of life and the destruction of property by the storms and floods in the Mississippi basin and the south and central states continues unabated.

Seventy-five persons are now dead, 800 have been injured, and 30,000 are homeless. The minimum amount of the damage to property is 25,000,000 dollars.

Over 20,000,000 acres of the most fertile farmland in America, including some of the best cotton areas, are under water.

Bad breaks in the levees have now occurred at St. Louis, Memphis and Tennessee.

The heavy / spring rains have brought the heights of the Mississippi and its tributaries to the greatest in the history of America with the peak not yet reached-. The situation is further aggravated by the periodic windstorms occurring throughout the week, accompanied in many cases by hail, doing vast damage.—A. and N.Z. cable. RELIEF WORKERS HAMPERED. REFUGEES CLINGING TO TREES AND STEEPLES. • Received April 21, 9.25 a.m. NEW YORK, April 20. News from Kansas City states that, beneath overcast skies, thousands of farmers and townspeople in the southern and middle-western states on Wednesday were marooned on the levees on the banks of the Mississippi and its tributaries. They need food and shelter and are faced with the uncertainty of whether the floods which have already taken a toll of scores of lives have reached their crest. The tornadoes which followed the floods increased the death list, which is well over 100.

Tuesday’s freak storm in Illinois alone caused damage estimated at a million dollars. The Red Cross and other relief workers are hampered by the impassable roads. The worst inundations are reported in Arkansas. A special train carried materials to strengthen the dykes, which nevertheless broke away in many places. In some districts the refugees are reported to be clinging to trees and church steeples to escape the rising waters. —A. and N.Z. cable. FAMILIES DRIVEN INLAND. STEADY ENCROACHMENT OF WATER. WASHINGTON, April 19. The Red Cross Society is issuing an appeal for the Mississippi victims, as the result of tornadoes and cloud bursts. The appeal compares the steady encroachment of the flood-waters of this river and its tributaries to an armed invasion.

The greatest danger lies in the devastation of large areas and the driving out of the population, which must be taken care of elsewhere. Shelter, food, and clothing are at a premium. Families, with what property they can move, and live stock are steadily compelled to seek higher ground, and are being driven inland for many miles. Throughout the entire Mississippi Valley, but particularly from Cairo to New Orleans, hundreds of army engineers, besides many volunteer workers, are virtually helpless in anything but rescue work. The series of tornadoes which swept through Illinois and Nebraska, starting at the Mississippi River, near Eldred, spread devastation in many places. Schoolhouses at Centerville, Illinois and Chestnut, Nebraska, were destroyed, but all gave live children were rescued alive.—A. and N.Z. cable.