Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1874-05-06
THE GREAT DELUGE.
CIrcumsfn""iol Account of the Extent of
the Damage in LoutsianR-ProbabIe Eff.
fects on Sugar, Cotton and Rice Crops.


feets on Sugar, Cotton and Rice Crops,
A Memphis special to the Louisville
Courjer-Jo,rRdL of the 30th ult., says:
A deluge of complaints of suffering is
continually reaching here from the entire
region below, the submerged country from
here to Napoleon, the lower region of the
White, Arkansas and st, Francis rivers.
The planters need hay and feed for stock,
which is starving by hundreds Fifteen
to death in the neighborhood of Chicot
city, Arkansas.
wATER.sTILL RISING.
1t is reported that that there is daily
rise of one ince in the bends below. How
long the flood will continue is not known.
The highest water ever between here and
Vicksburg was in 1865. The river then
maintained the high level eighty-seven
days. In 1858 the flood continued ninety
five days at Memphis and one hundred
and twenty-nine days at Vicksburg.
Should high water continue, the cotton
crop will be short. A good crop can be
planted by June. Prices have advanced
already. No further advance is looked for,
but decline is probable, as the river will
doubtless fall in time to begin by Jane /.
New Orleans Pcayune April 26l
Now that the great flood may be con-
sidered as having done its worst, and the
improbable, ii becomes interesting to take
| a glance at the nature and extent OF the
| damage and to form such estimate as may
| be possible OF the consequences. Engineers
| calculate the quantity of water thrown out
on the State by crevasses to be less than
one-half the amount during the great over
| flow in 1867, when the break in the Grand
| levee took place yet the damage to the
| crops of the State will be fully equal to
that sustained in 1867, because of the bad
| condition of the Atchafalaya and its le-
wees. But as the records of the flood of
! 1867 are very imperfect and do not show
the velocity Of the water at the crevasses,
this estimates quite uncertain.
The present crevasses at Hickeys and
Morganza levees, and at other places which
throw their waters into totheAtchafalaya, pass
about 800, 900 cubic feet of water per second
and the average velocity of the crevasses
| is about seven feet per second, equal to four
and two-third miles an hour,
The break at Morganza levee in 1867 was
10000 feet wide and six feet deep, with q
velocity of eight feet per second, equal to
a current of four and a half miles an
hour.
The break at Morganza at present is 4 ,OOO
feet wide, 6 feet deep, and the velocity is
5! feet per second, equal to n current OF D!
miles an hour.
The Hickey crevasse is 10 feet deep, 900
feet wide, and has a velocity of ii feet per
second, which is equal to a current of Q!
miles an hour.
Some idea may be formed of the extent
of the present inundation from the follow
, ing table of the crevassses:
ABovE RED RIVER.
Bass place, ) feet deep, 1,500 feet wide.
Point LookOut,T feet deep, 800 feet wide
Hard Times, feet deep, 1000 feet wide
Buck Ridge, 3 feet deep, 500 feet wide
Waterproof 10 feet deep, 600 feet wide
Glasscock, 3 feet deep, 1900 feet wide
, PoINTE CoUPEE.
Lake side, feet deep, 400 feet wide.
Morganza, feet deep, 5000 feet wide.
Morrison, feet deep 200 feet wide.
WEST BATON ROUGE.
Point Mauwa, feet deep, 5000 feet wide
Hickey, l0. feet deep, 800 feet wide.
EAST BATON ROUGE,
, McCullom, 3 feet deep, 300 feet wide.
ASCENSION PARISH.
Cox Place, 6 feet deep, 200 feet wide.
LAFoURCHE.
Bragg Place, feet deep, 800 feet wide.
, Below Bragg's ! feet deep, 600 feet wide
ST. JOHN PARISH.
! Bonnet Carre, 10 feet deep, 800 feet wide
PLAQUEMINEs.
At Stackhouse's - feet deep, so feetwide
5 Greenwood, a feet deep, so feet wide.
In and about Pointe-a-la- Hache, 3 fec
4 deep, u, 600 feet wide.
; The Ashton crevasse is running fee
: deep and 1900 feet wide.