ARRIVAL OF THE MARIPOSA THE ENGLISH MAIL

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 475, 28 May 1890, Page 4

ARRIVAL OF THE MARIPOSA THE ENGLISH MAIL

GREAT FLOODS.

(VIA SAN FRANCISCO).

THE MISSISSIPPI OVER ITS BANKS. The heaviest hailstorm on record passed over Baltimore on the 26th of April. Many thousands of windows in the. city were broken. Some horses and carriages were abandoned in the streets, their owners leaving them to seek shelter. It is probable that numbers of people were injured, bb the stones were very large, some measuring more than two inches in diameter, and weighing more than four ounces The hail went through thick panes of glass as though they were tissue paper, and the amount of damage will run up into the thousands. Some of the hailstones were ragged and as sharp on the edges as a steel blade. JBens’ eggs were nothing to them in size. Many of them were as large as a man’s fist. There was a perfect Niagara of water, with the hailstones or, rather, chunks of ice—weighing, some of them, a quarter of a pound. In an instant the streets were rivers, the pavements were flooded from two to three inches deep. The hail drove horses wild. Those that pull the street cars became uncontrollable, and the drivers were compelled to let them have their own way. The people in the cars became panicstricken, and many of them crouched trembling on the floors, praying for rescue from the elements, while the drivers dodged the aerial missiles as best they could. The floods in thejcountry were terrible, From New Orleans district, reports were Bent saying that the situation had changed rapidly for the worse, and the condition of affairs was never more gloomy and threatening. The crest of the great wave of the Mississippi has been passing from Vicksburg down, and the most extraordinary efforts were made to hold the levees against the high water. A large sum of money was raised by subscription for this purpose and a levee relief boat was sent out to the scene of danger with supplies, material and men. In Point Coupee and West Baton Rouge 8,000 men have been at work for Boveral days strengthening the levees, and between here and Bayou Sara probably 20,000 more have been trying to hold the line of dykes. Continuous rains have fallen all over Texas for three days. The rivers and bayous in many places are over their banks, bridges having been swept away and travel delayed. A great deal of stock in the lowlands has been drowned, but no loss of life.