FLOODS IN AMERICA

Otago Witness, Issue 3030, 10 April 1912, Page 26

FLOODS IN AMERICA

TWENTY LIVES LOST. THOUSANDS HOMELESS. SHORTAGE OF FOOD. RAIL AND STEAM SERVICES SUSPENDED. NEW YORK, April 2. The worst floods ever recorded are now being experienced in Missouri, Illinois, anl Kentucky. The losses in property amount to millions. Rain is falling continuously, and the Mississippi is higher than it has ever been before. Railroad communication is suspended, the railways having been washed away. April 2. "ho floods destroyed a large section of the Chicago-St. Paul-Milwaukee railroad. Many homes are threatened with a bombardment of ice floes, which are being carried against them by the current. April 5. The City of Cairo, in Illinois, is surrounded by water. It is without trains or street cars. The Mississippi tore a large rent in a protecting embankment, and SCO workmen who were seeking to erect dykes were surrounded, and were in imminent peril of being drowned, but tugs rescued them. One thousand homes are flooded, but no lives have been lost. April 7. Twenty persons who were marooned in treetops and on housetops at Hickman (Kentucky) were rescued in boats ofter all hope had been abandoned. The water covers an area 10 miles wide and 50 miles long. Tents have been erected to accommodate hundreds of people, and scores of farmers have abandoned their homes. The situation is more acute than ever. WASHINGTON. April 3. President Taft is asking Congress for £IOO.OOO for emergency expenditure to alleviate the distress caused by the flood in the Mississippi. April 6. President Taft has ordered the utilisation of army supplies for the sufferers by the floods. Congress is ready to provide monetary relief whenever a clear idea of the losses has been received. Caruthersvillc (Missouri) is threatened A large area, which- is thickly settled, will be affected if the flood defence works give way. Thousands of people are homeless in this country. Over 150 square miles in West Hickman (Kentucky) were inundated when a levee at Hickman broke. Considerable loss of life is reported. All the trains are stopped. The river is still rising at Cairo and in the neighbourhood, and fully 600 miles of country along the Mississippi are affected. Altogether the death list totals 20. ST. LOUIS, April 5. The death list from the floods is growing. Ten are known to have been drowned. The river is ever incresing in volume. All steamer services have been suspended. The water supplies are polluted. "Food also is short in some districts. Five thousand refugees from Hickman (Kentucky) are living in tents on charity. Their homes have been nearly all wrecked. HICKMAN (Kentucky), April 2. The Mississippi broke its banks, and flooded this town to a depth of Bft. The inhabitants are abandoning their dwellings, and boats are being utilised to transport them to Hillsvillc.