FLOODS ROLL ON

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 34, 3 May 1927, Page 1

FLOODS ROLL ON

AMERICA’S CALAMITY NEW ORLEANS IN DANGER HALF A MILLION HOMELESS Moving with terrible precision, the flood waters of the Mississippi are inundating fresh country and it is expected that the roll of homeless will grow to 500,000... Incomplete returns show that 400 people have been drowned. Experts believe that the blasting of the bank has not saved New Orleans, and a terrific calamity is expected if the flood torrents sweep into the city. It will be a grim battle between engineering ingenuity and the greedy river waters.

By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright Reed. 8.40 a.m. NEW YORK, Monday. The flood situation at New Orleans is generally believed to be more serious than is commonly understood, due to the tendency to minimise the city’s danger for the purpose of sparing the feelings of the inhabitants who resent the suggestion that a calamity is impending. Nevertheless, the actual anxiety cannot be over-estimated. The facts are that the levees are practically bank-full, despite the blasting which apparently only lowered the water a little over an inch. At the present stage the water is approximately 20.8 ft. above normal. In the meanwhile there is three feet of the flood crest at present between 150 and 200 miles north of New Orleans, which is estimated to take about 10 days to reach the city. Unless the water lowers the necessary three feet to absorb this before it arrives, the answer is obvious. One of the greatest cities in the United States will be flooded and that would be an overwhelming calamity. The present situation, as nearly as anyone can estimate it, does not necessarily mean that New Orleans is doomed to he flooded, because artificial breaks may yet lower the water by the necessary margin, or other circumstances may yet eventuate to avert the danger, but it is at present premature to declare that the city is saved. Now the water is being watched with the greatest anxiety day by day. In the meanwhile, with new breaks in the west bank of the Mississippi, near the Arkansas and Louisiana border, the devastation there is expected at least to equal, if not exceed, that of the Mississippi region. Three thousand more iViiies are expected to be inundated, and 200,000 persons added to the 300,000 already homeless. The problem of caring for the more recent refugees is causing grave concern, because the established camps are already crowded to overflowing. It is impossible to obtain accurate estimates of the total dead since the flood began, but it is reliably reported that the drowned bodies recovered number nearly 400, while a considerably larger number are missing or uaccounted for.

The Red Cross has now formally appealed to the public to double the relief fund, making their request 10,000,000 dollars instead of the 5,000,000 dollars first asked for. The latter sum proved inadequate for the needs of the sufferers. The decision followed a conversation With Mr. H. C. Hoover, Secretary of Commerce, and President Coolidge. —A. and N.Z. “TERRIBLE PRECISION” WATERS POURING DOWN WOODED AREA FLOODED By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright NEW ORLEANS, Sunday. The Mississippi flood waters have swept over many more thousands of acres of fresh territory and have rendered homeless thousands of additional people. The artificial break in the embankment at Poydras continues to widen under the steady pressure from the racing waters, but the State engineers say there will be no relief for New Orleans until the breach is much larger than it is at present. The embankments all through the Baton Rouge region are undergoing a terrific strain as the waters continue to rise. The crest of the flood moves slowly, but with 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 down the Yazoo Valley. The rescue work is now well organised, but many refugees are still hover ing 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 out against hunger and exposure before relief can reach them. The lives of hundreds of settlers who disregarded the warnings given them are endangered in six parishes in Louisiana and Mississippi. The floods are penetrating so far inland that they have reached the forest districts, where the whole wooded areas are standing in 20ft. of water. The valley for the greater part has been deforested.—A. and N.Z.-Sun.