The Times TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1937. “ The Father of Waters ”

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 27, 2 February 1937, Page 6

The Times TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1937. “ The Father of Waters ”

America is the country of big things, and of these the Mississippi is the biggest. Including its longest tributary, the Missouri, it has a length of over 5000 miles. When it is remembered that it is hardly more than a thousand miles from the North Cape to the Bluff, some idea can be obtained of the enormous area of country traversed by “the Father of Waters." America’s disasters, like her vast spaces and great enterprises, are on the grand scale and when Nature unlooses her forces the havoc wrought is staggering. In the last great Mississippi flood in 1927, for instance, the damage was estimated at £80,000,000!

During the last two years almost every part of the country has suffered from floods, droughts, forest and grass fires, and the terrible dust storms that make life a torment to the unfortunate people that are obliged to suffer them. Now one of the greatest Hoods in history is rolling its slow and terrible course down almost the whole length of the vast basin of the greatest of rivers.

Already almost unbelievable devastation has been wrought by the Ohio, the second of the Mississippi’s great tributaries. It is described as the worst flood in the history of the country with a death roll that may be over a thousand and damage to property of more than 400,000,000 dollars. But the surging waters must reach the sea and arc now just entering the great river itself. Cairo, a comparatively small city, is at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi, and there the flood is lipping tbo top of the concrete wall and is expected to rise another twelve feet. Memphis, with a population of a quarter of a million, lies in the path of this moving menace, and neAr the sea New Orleans is preparing to meet the invader. If to the already enormous damage the Mississippi adds its toll of death and destruction the aggregate of human suffering and loss will indeed be colossal.

Floods have always been a menace in the Mississippi region, and in the eighteenth century the construction of embankments, or levees as they are called, was begun. The system has been gradually extended, and to date a sum of more than thirty million pounds has been expended on them. These works have proved valuable as protective measures, but they are incapable of dealing with an inundation such as that which is now being experienced.

One distressing feature is that it is winter time in America, and though the temperature in the flooded regions will not be so low as it is further north, there is no doubt that the winter conditions will add to the privations of the peojfle.

The drought which afflicted a great portion of the country in July, August and September last was described as one of the major catastrophes in American history. Terrible heat, causing many deaths, was accompanied by great forest fires and dust storms, and the Government had to take special measures to protect and help the farmers. The crop damage alone was estimated at a thousand million dollars.

Great as this disaster was it will probably be exceeded in destructive effects by the present flood visitation, which will put a big obligation on the Roosevelt Administration and call for heavy expenditure in ameliorative measures.