STILL RISING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19830, 3 May 1927, Page 7

STILL RISING

MISSISSIPPI FLOODS Thonsands of Lives Still Endangered in Louisiana. LEVEES UNDER TERRIFIC STRAIN [By Telegraph—Per Press Assn.—Copyright] Received May 2, 8.30 p.m. (A. & N.Z.) NEW YORK, May 1. The lives of hundreds who disregarded the flood warnings are endangered in six parishes of Louisiana. The Mississippi levee broke at four points on Sunday opposite Matchez. Four persons were drowned when a row-boat overturned in the overflow waters north of Vicksburg. The crest of the flood moves slowly but with terrible precision. Reports to-night indicate that the Vicksburg region is feeling its full force, the waters rushing through the levees and spreading down the Yazoo V alley. Many Refugees in Peril While rescue work is now well organised many refugees are still hovering on the levee crowns in many districts or on tops of houses. Some of them may not be able to hold out against hunger and the exposure before relief reaches them. The water is penetrating so far inland that it has reached the forest districts, the whole of the wooded areas standing under twenty feet of water. The valley for the greater part has been deforested. Mr H. C. Hoover, Secretary of Commerce, will arrive at Washington to-morrow to consult with Mr Coolidge regarding further flood relief.

Meanwhile the waters have just swept over many more thousands of acres of new territory and made thousands more persons homeless. Desperate Measures The artificial break in the Poydras levee continues to widen under the steady pressure of the rising waters, but engineers say there will be no relief for New Orleans until the crevasse is much larger than at present. They point out, however, that natural breaks in the levees in Arkansas and Louisiana far above New Orleans will do more to save the city from inundation than artificial opening below the city. The levees all through the Baton Rouge region are undergoing terrific strain as the water continues to rise.