New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-05-03
THE BONNET CARRE CREyAssE
ITS DAMAGE TO THE CROPS
4 TRIP UP THE RIVER

Last Sunday afternoon the steamee Viii
liam S. Pike left her landing with an excur
sion party numbering some two or three
hundred ladies and gentlemen, who availed
themselves of that opportunity to see the
famed Bonnet Carre crevasse and the de-
yastation it created. Many, or ALL who
went up as passengers, while they were
anxious to see a crevasse of this magnitude,
f1hoped never to have chance to see another
| like it..
When the steamer had sped on her way
up the river to the distance of eighteen or
twenty miles, belt of water some distance
back from the levee, on the left bank, could
be seen, with the dense forest or swamp in
the background A considerable portion of
the cleared land from thence up to a point
near the crevasse was uncultivated, and
| there did not appear to be much cane under
water even in the cultivated portions.
Many of the plantations seemed to be
almost entirely undisturbed by the inunda-
ton. Still, the losses in the aggregate will
prove pretty large, though the prompt en-
ployment of the most powerful steam drain
age pumps will prevent an accumulation of
water to any great extent.
Occasionally, as we neared the scene of
great disaster, cabins, sugar houses and
planters residences were seen, SO far sub
merged as to be untenable. But on the
arrival of the steamer at the crevasse, Just
as twilight was merging into darkness, a
of tal hot H.
not beggar description, but can only be sad
ly described
Only a narrow strip of the levee was out
of water and within was the desolation of
submerged buildings, tenantless houses and
ruined crops. The crevasse was evidently
some twelve or thirteen hundred feet wide,
and nothing could prevent it from still
widening. The waters did not rush through
like the roar of cataract, but swept in
with a velocity much greater than the river
flowed. There seemed to be another
river branching from the mighty Mis-
sissippi, and nothing but water,
the roofs Of buildings and forests
could be seen beyond the levee. 1t was de-
ISOLATION and ruin to planters and their
people. a tugboat with a pile driver was
at work short distance below the crevasse,
and the supply steamer Solado was lying
above it. Bags of sand were piled upon
the levee, and workmen were congregated
about there.
The greatest desolation perhaps is be-
tween the crevasse and Lake Pontchartrain,
where crops are ruined, and the poor as
well as the rich are driven from their
homes. But of this little could be seen from
the vicinity of the crevasse.
And now as to the causes of the crevasse.
An intelligent gentleman who assumed to
know, asserted that the levee was cut
through to haul wood, and that it was not
properly repaired. He asserted also that
the party who hauled the wood had no
plantation interest, and that, though plan
ters in that immediate vicinity knew the
levee was weak, they would not repair it,
because it should have been repaired by the
man who cut it down. This same gentle |
man stated that the entire cost of repairing
the levee where it was cut through would |
not have exceeded fire dollars!
The cane ruined by the crevasse, it is es-
-imated, would have made about twenty |
thousand hOgsheads of sugar. 1t is stated |
hat this crevasse occurred on the anniver-
,ary of the great crevasse few years ago, |
when the country, from the Mississippi |
liver to Lake Pontchartrain, was sub
rerged and miles of the jackson railroad |
we're swept away.