FLOODS STILL RISE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19626, 3 May 1927, Page 9

FLOODS STILL RISE.

MISSISSIPPI CALAMITY.

fUBTHER LIVES W DAHGER. of the tourent. PENETRATION FAR INLAND. FOREST AREAS DESTROYED. sjt Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received May 2, 5.25 p.m.) A. and N.Z.-Sun. NEW ORLEANS, May 1. The Mississippi flood waters have swept, pver many move thousands of acres of fresh territory and have rendered homeJess 'housands of additional people. The artificial break in the embankment jt Poydras continues to widen under the steady pressure from the racing waters, but the State engineers say there will bo no relief for New Orleans until the breach js much larger than it is at present. They point out. however, that the natural breaks in the embankments in Arkansas and Louisiana, far above New Orleans, will do more to save the city from inundation than the artificial opening below the city. The embankments all through the Bnton Rouge ;egion are undergoing a terrific gtrain as the waters continue to rise. The crest of tho flood moves slowly, but vith terrible precision. • Reports to-night (state that the Vicksburg region is feeling the full force of the waters which are pouring through the banks and spreading flown the Yazoo Valley. The rescue work is now well organised, but many refugees are still hovering about the crowns of the embankments in many districts or on the tops of houses. Some of these people may not be able to hold (rat against hunger and exposure before yelief can reach them. The lives of hundreds of settlers who disregarded the warnings given them are endangered in six parishes in Louisiana (jind Mississippi. Tho embankments broke at f >ur points on Sunday opposite to Natchez. Four oersons were drowned from a rowing boat which was capsized in the floods north of Vicksburg. The floods are penetrating so far inland that they have reached the forest districts, where the whole wooded areas *re standing in 20ft. of water. The valley for the greater part has been deforested. The Secretary of Commerce, Mr. H. C. Hoover, will arrive at Washington to-mor-row to consult the President, Mr. Calvin Coolidge, as to further relief for the sufferers.