Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-06-07
The New Orleans Flood.
$500 Houses acknowledgements of
Families HOuscIcss-Gircnt Loss Of
Property, etc.

New ORLEANS, June 6.-Twenty-fve hundred
houses have their ground floors under water,
and more than that number Of families are to-
night homeless and desOlate. The breaR began
to threaten on Hogan avenue Thursday night.
The canal commissioners had sold TO certain per-
sons the right to remove dirt from the evee to
fill up vacant lots. On Friday morning one of
these men was at work with his cart carrying
away the levee at the very point where weak
ness was manifested. cOlOred man, Lucien
FeTegjean, living close by begged him 10 desist,
for an east wind was blowing and the water of
the lake swollen by an immense torrent which
was pouring In from the Mississippi by way of
the Bonnet Care crevasse, and was rapidly
backing up to the city. He was
driven away by threats. The next morn
ing chasm eighty-ive feet wide was opened In
its banks, and Lucien Feregiean made perilous
escape out of his bedroom window. Almost at
the same instant another break occurred a mile
and half nearer the city, where the canal
company had allowed the jackson railroad to
take out earth to ill up between the croSs-ties
of the coal line. This break was stopped with
out much difficulty. The main contest was with
the Hogan avenue chasm. The city surveyor,
with a gang of one hundred laborers, worked
day and night. Piles, fanked by sand-bags and
barely four inches apart, were driven ten feet
into the ground, and canal dredge boat was
kept constantly at work piling up earth.
The waste of waters extended as far as the eye
could reach, broken only by the tops Of trees
and lines of houses and streets. The marine
hospital and the hotel Dieu, with the patients,
were surrounded by water. Cattle, hogs and
goats huddled together on the bridges and high
grounds, which every now and then were
sapped and fell in.
A little colored boy has just been rescued in a
small Loaf from a high fence, to which he had
been clinging for hours. In some streets the
water Is 1--WE feet deep. Gangs of naked lads
waded and swan from house TO house, robbing
and destroying. Ruffians in skiffs and on RATS
broke open the chamber windows and robbed
the ruined people of the scanty furniture left
them. The foreman of the Republican (newspa-
perl saved his wife and babe, and went back to
his house only to find il empty. Mayor Flan-
ders called a special meeting of the council this
afternoon to take measures for the relief of the
distressed. committee of three administra-
tors was appointed TO distribute provisions.
From 5000 to 5000 lOaves of bread day are be-
ing made in the city by the bakeries for gratui-
tOuS distribution among the sufferers COM
mittee of leading citizens are acting with the
council.
At the present hour, eight p. NJ, the break is
effectually stopped, the water on the overlooked
side being nine inches below the surface of the
canal. The damage done, Invested of the eXag-
gerations of some of the local papers, will prob
ably be not less than four to five hundred thou
sand dollars. Suits will be entered against the
canal company for damages.
SECOND DISPATCH.
The water in the lake and canals is receding
slowly. The canal Crevasses have been closed.
The water in the city has receded an inch. The
people in the Overdowed district have suffered
much, and collections are being taken for their
relief.
THIRD DISPATCH.
The water remains stationary one inch below
the highest point reached. People continue
moving from the overflOwed district. The presi-
dent of the gas light company states that if the
water continues at its present height two days
longer, the company will be unable to supply
gas. The city authorities and charitable COM
mittees continue the distribution food, &C., to
the needy.