MISSISSIPPI FLOODS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 27 April 1927, Page 5

MISSISSIPPI FLOODS.

HEAVY DEATH ROLL. VAST AREA DEVASTATED. Press Association- Electric Telegraph-Copyright. (Received Wednesday, 9.55 a.m.) 'WASHINGTON, Tuesday. A message from Memphis states that Governor Simpson O’Keefe, of New Orleans, asked the War Department’s approval to break the Mississippi embankment to relieve the Hood situation. The proposed break .would be created below New Orleans to divert the wall of water rushing down the great stream. Governor Simpson’s message to Secretary Davis declared that Louisiana and New Orleans -had pledged their faith to compensate for any damage caused by the break, and urged that the present conditions require immediate action. In the meantime the Red Cross -organisation, under Air Henry Baker, national director of the disaster relief work, has established a large depot here for the distribution of 'Supplies to refugee's. Mr Baker has requisitioned the War Depnrtament for a large qua 11tty of supplies. These include 25,000 tents, 25,000. cots, 100,000 blankets, and 200 field kitchens, all of which, will bo rushed to. relief camps wherever needed. Mr Baker has also asked the Navy for four more hydroplanes, which will be used to make daily surveys of the Hooded sections to locate marooned refugees aiid carry supplies. The evacuation of the inhabitants from their homes' in the delta region is continuing on q large scale. Relief camps will be maintained, until the last of the victims can return home, which is estimated to be at least a month, after which the ’Red Cross plans to aid rehabilitation by providing clothing and a small amount of furniture. In the meantime, Mr Hoover is proceeding down the Mississippi, surveying the desolated areas. Estimates of the dead in the Hoodstricken area vaiv to-day from 200 to 500. Refugees from the newly-inundated sections of the Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana, have swelled the ranks. There are 150,000 homeless at the concentration camps. In a statement issued from a steamer proceeding down the Mississippi, Mr Hoover declared that the great question was what; would, happen to the embankments of the lower river on the arrival ■of the 1 crest of the i Hood wave. ■■ '• Vy' : ' !