Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1874-04-29
THE TERRIBLE FLOOD.
Appalling Accounts from the Over
flowed Country.
PitiGuI Appeals for Help from she Destitute
and Starving.

A dispatch from New Orleans, dated
April 23rd, says:
The State authorities receive letters daily
from persons in the overflowed sections,
extracts from them are fair specimens:
A letter dated Simmsport, Avoyelles
parish, addressed to the Governor, says:
" Please send me some supplies, as have
a large family, nine children to keep up
and feed. The water is three feet deep in
my yard, and all over my place. 1t is ut
terly impossible for me to get anything for
my family to eat without calling on you
for assistance. Please, for pity sake, do
not fail to send me some supplies by return
steamer"
A PITIFUL STORY.
The following is an extract from letter
to the Governor, dated Big Bend, Avoyelles
parish:
The whole of Bayou des Glaizes and the
Red river front Is entirely overlooked. All
of US are bankrupt; no money, no credit.
The commission merchants have all shut
down on us. We have no provisions, and
many are in a manner starving. The
water is all over the country and still ris-
ing. Cows not drowned are diving for
want of food. Sheep and hogs are drown
ing by hundreds. Take this matter into
consideration, and see if something can't
be done for us.
from Charenton, st. Mary's parish, which
says:
Among the many sufferers by the recent
overflow are those who have lived ON the
east side of Bayou Teche, on Bayou Chem,
Bayou Pigeon, on the shores of Grand
Lake and Lake Chicot, all of which dis
tricts are now submerged, leaving some
three hundred families in state of utter
destitution.
Gen. NJ. JEFF. Thompson reports that
about twenty sugar plantations have been
covered by Watel from Hickey's, and that
hundreds of poor families living on the
bayous have been drowned out.
The Bonnet Care crevasse is now 200
feet wide and 10 feet deep in the center,
where the levee is entirely gone, and the
water is cutting a channel.
The McCullen crevasses below Baton
Rogue will probably be closed in few
days. Though these breaks are compare
lively small the water from them has al
ready covered many large plantations, and
driven out the poor people living behind
them.
WATER HIGHER THAN EVER KNOWN.
A gentleman who reached this city to-
day from the Florida parishes tells that
the Tangipahoa, Lickfaw, and Amite riv-
ers were swollen by rains from Thursday
to Sunday, completely overlooking their
banks and spreading over the country on
ing to the highlands.
1t is estimated that the water is three
feet higher than was ever before known.
The Amite river rose very rapidly. Seve-
raj children are reported drowned in the
streets of Port Vincent, which was over
flowed. The fiat country of st. Helena,
Livingston, Tongepahoa, Washington, st.
Fammany, and East Fellciana parishes IS
| flooded for miles. ..
AN APPALLING DESCRIPTION.
The Times says a gentleman from the
upper coast gives most appalling descrip-
| ton of the condition of the people who
happened to live i'll the district overlooked
| by the Hickey crevasse. He says that not
less than twenty splendid sugar plantations
have been submerged from that source
already.
| That, however, was nothing compared
to the sufferings of the people. On sun
| day last the gentleman witnessed large
number of persons wading their way out
of the torrent of water which passed
through the break. Among them were
women in water up to their arm-pits,
holding their infants above their heads,
and it was reported that some had been
fioated away on the rushing tide with
their little ones in their arms.
Bayou Crosse Tete advices state that
there are now three to four feet of water on
the east side of the bayou, and it is ex-
pected that the water will overflow the
west side, the water backing up Bayou
Plaquemine as far as the Dardemer's plan
tation, and will probably reach the town
of Bayou Grula on the Mississippi river.
Mayor Wilt has been appealed to for i'm
mediate relief to be sent to the Crosse Tete
country.
The recent rains continue to cause floods
: in the Ouachita and Red river valleys.
| -%~.-
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