Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-03-12
The People Making a Desperate
Fight Against the Swelling
Flood,
New Breaks in the Mississippi
Levees Occurring Daily.
The Overflow Assuming Alarm
ing Proportions in Mississippi.
The New Orleans and st. Louis
Road Submerged,
Washout on the Memphis and
Charleston Road

BAYOU SARA, LA, March 10
The Point Coupee crevasse has not
affected the stand of water here yet,
although there is fearful mass of
water escaping from the river at that
point. The levee is still giving way
rapidly, as it is all of green earth
and crumbles as fast as the water
pushes against it, The gap is now
about one thousand feet wide, and
the water, as it goes through,
is about ten feet deep, but
is rapidly. digging deeper,
spreading water far and wide over
the country, and will overflow part
of this parish and all of West Baton
Rouge and portions of Assumption.
Iberville, St. Mary, Iberia and Ter
rebonne, the richest sugar district in
Louisiana The False River and |
Grass Tete country will soon be in-
undated, and the loss of property
and suffering of the people will be
terrible. Major Fl. G. Brown, State
engineer, says it is useless to at
tempt to stop the crevasse.
The people of Sara are making a
noble fight against the food. All the
stores are closed and every man is at |
work upon the levees, which protects
the place, while the drawing machine
is working against fearful pressure.
MEMPHIS, March 9.---Passengers
from below report a break in the
levee eleven and a half miles above
Friars Point, Miss. The break oc,
Cured yesterday, and, although
Friars Point will be overfowed from
the break, the town will not suffer by
river rushing.
New ORLEANS, La, March TO-
The New Orleans, Chicago and st.
Louis Railroad is again submerged,
and it is impossible in the neighbor-
hood of Water Valley, Miss. This
overfoor has assumed alarming pro-
portions, inundating all that section
of country. Trains are unable to
proceed further north than Coffee
vile station, this side of Water
Valley.
Capt. Richard Sinnott has just
arrived from Red River, and reports
that $50 families below Alexandria
are living on RATS and are in
deplorable condition. He thinks the
State should send them rations at
once, or that seme private provisions
should be made to relieve their great
misery.
The levees along the city front are
inspected daily, we'll guarded, the
weak points strengthened, and every
precaution taken to prevent crew
asse. The same precautions are
taken all along the line from Baton
Rauge to the Gulf.
CHATTANOOGA, March 10.--The res
cent heavy rains in North Alabama
have caused the Tennessee to over
flow its banks, and have weakened
railroad embankments. Three wash
outs occurred Thursday night on the
Memphis & Charleston railroad, near
Tuscumbia, Alabama, and orders
have been received that no tickets
are to be sold to points west of that
city for thirty hours. Necessary
repairs to the road can be made in
eight or ten hours after the water
subsidies
WASHINGTON, March lin reply
| to request from Governor McEn-
cry, the Secretary of War ordered
100000 Fashions to be delivered to
the commissioners at New Orleans,
for the sufferers by the flood.
New ORLEANS, March 1.-THE
Vicksburg Herald says:
The situation of the people of the
valley is bad enough without having
it exaggerated. The great sensations
that have been printed and pictured
of the situation have, in our opinion,
done great harm. Where crevasses
have occurred, the land, or the great
er portion of it, is for the time being
lost. There are very many persons
of the valley uninjured as yet, and
we have no doubt that fair crops will |
be raised in almost all portions of
the valley. While the people in
many places are Inconvenience, and
are losing some of their live stock,
they are not in such a dreadful plight
as has been described, and as there
are two months before the cotton
time is past, the water is almost sure
to subside in time to raise crops.
LITTLE Rock, ARK, March 1.-THE
water is reported falling in the over
flowed districts, but stories of suf>
fering continue to come in and the
number of destitute constantly in>
creasing.
MARKsvILLE, LA, March 11.-Tho
Review says: But what of these
overfows that carry SO much dread
with them, do they not enrich the
land, and are not heavier crops made
upon them? We incline to the opins
ion, that in point of fact, inunda-
tions are beneficial.