The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-25
A GREAT DISASTER.


Terrible Crevasse In the Mississippi
Levees.-Description of the LOcality-The
Danger to New Orleans.
Those familiar with the southern extremity OF
Louisiana and the Mississippi river will at once
appreciate the character of the disaster au-
nounced by telegraph. Bonnet Carre the point
at which the crevasse has burst through the
levee, is forty-f1ve miles from the city of New
Orleans, on the left bank of the great river. 1t
is remarkable for little except that 1t is a post
town, and the capital of the Parish of st. John
the Baptist. Between it and Lake Pontchar-
train runs the New Orleans and Jackson Rail-
road, which, according to the despatch, is
threatened by the inundation.
This lake is about forty miles long and twenty
four miles wide in its greatest width its greatest
depth being sixteen to twenty feet. 1t commu-
nicates with Lake Maurepas on thew. with Lake
Borgne and the Gulf of Mexico on the east
through the Rigolets, and with the Mississippi
on the south by the Bayou st. Johns. 1t is
Davigated by small steamers, and is connected with
New Orleans by canal. 1t is distant from that
city five miles at its nearest point, the Bayou
st. John, however, a deep navigable inlet reach
ing to the suburbs, is connected with a basin in
the heart of the city by the Canal Carondelet.
Most OF the coastiDg trade with the ports on the
Gulf lying eastward is carried on through the
other canal, communicating directly with the
lake. and lying west of the Bayou st. John. On
the Metaire Ridge, near Lake Pontchartrain,
which is somewhat higher and drier than the
rest of this region of swamps, are situated the
peculiar city cemeteries of New Orleans.
The famous levees of the Lower Mississippi
extend 120 miles above the CITY, and to Port
Plaquemne, 43 miles below it. These levees as
all the world knows, are immense embankments
some fifteen feet wide and six feet high raised
to prevent the inundations which would other
wise follow the floods in the Mississippi These
freshets follow the melting of the snow in the
spring about the sources of the river and its
tributarief 1t is needless to say that these over
flows are followed by serious consequences.
Crevasses are formed in the banks into which
the fiat boats are drawn and whirled through the
swamps.
Levees are raised for the purpose of prevent
ing these Overfows, and even these levees are
sometimes swept away, as in this case reported
by telegraph. Amongst their great enemies
next to the insidious assaults of the water the
amphibious animals the muskrat and the craw-
fish, who burrow through them, making pas
sage-way for the water, are TO be feared most.
The many evils arising from these freshets have
long ago called aloud for remedy. Several plans
have been proposed.
Amongst other suggestions offered are the
erection of higher and stronger levees in lower
Louisiana, which will secure the deepest aud
most capacious outlet the deepeHing of the
channel Atchafalaya. and making it an indepen-
dent outlet for theWashita and Red rivers; the
enlargement of the Bayou Plaquemine, the pre-
yention of additional cut offs in the upper
portion of the river and its branches;
the formation of an outlet of the great
to Lake Borgne, with the view of converting
this ultimately into the main channel of the
river; to form reservoirs on the distant tribu-
taries by placing dams across them, with aper-
lures sufficient for their uniform discharge, SO
as to retain portion of the water till the floods
have subsidized below. This last suggestion is
offered with the view of compensating for the
loss OF the natural reservoirs destroyed by the
leyees, of improving the navigation of the
tributaries, and of moderating the floods below.
Reports of the Crevasse by the Southern
Papers-An Alarming State of Affairs.
The newspapers published on the banks of
hn lGCi elYTat piU f.rn nfr rnEo
the condition of the Father of Waters:-
The New Orleans Bee says that on the 18th
inst. the leyee below Norbert Louques Landing,
near Bonnet Carre Psint, fifty miles above the
city, gave way, and at the latest adviees the
water was rushing through at great rate.
Unless the creyasse be stopped at once, all of
St. John Baptist and st. Charles Parishes Cleft
bank) will be under water.
The Mississippi Pilot is informed that the
high water in the bottom, along the Yazoo
! Valley, is now within eighteen inches of being
as high as that of 1867. Many fine plantations
are entirely submerged, and serious apprehen-
sions are entertained that if the flood does not
subside quickly the cotton crop of that section
will be failure. The incessant rains, in con-
nection with the breaks in the Mississippi river
levee, are the cause of the overflow.
The Memphis Appeal states that the eaving in
OF all the bluffs on the eastern side of the Mis-
sissippi, from Cairo to New Orleans, has led to
curious results. Fort Pillow has wholly disap-
peared. There is not vestige of the earth
works erected by General Pillow and others at
Randolph. The river has cut cavernous depths
for its strong currents beneath the everlasting
. hills, and these have slowly crumbled and fallen
a grain of sand at time, into the abysses Of
'She mighty deep.
Now and then hill-sides have disappeared in a
single night, and, curiously enough, this work
of desolation goes on mainly upon the eastern
side of the river. Here at Memphis, AS at Vicks-
burg, Columbus, Fort Pillow, and Randolph, the
resistless, fathomless river, whose course none
may anticipate and none can resist, pursues its
appointed tasks with force and pertinacity
which have lessened property values between
\ Wolf river and Fort Pickering many millions of
&iollats.
4 Tho New Orleans Pioayune of a recent date
- At the rapid fall of the river few DAYS
w tissipated all fears of further overflow
"a most dangerous creyasse was the one two
z1es below the Barracks This has been stopped
md also the one at Where's plantation. The
danger so recently threatened should Constitute
a warning that ought not to be neglected The
levees should be repaired at once and their
height and strength so augmented that no SINH
lar feats can be indulged in the future. 1t is an
old adage and q true one that "A stitch In time
saves nine" Upon a matter of such great
moment there is not even room for doubt or in
decision.