St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1884-02-23
THE LIMIT REACHED.

Ats Artsck - The Terrible Condition OF
thousands of Homeless Sufferers = A
Glimpse of What is Being Done for Their
Relief.
CINCINNATT, o., Feb. If.
The flood reached it's climax to-day--71
feet and x of an inch at noon. 1t re-
NAMED stationary at that until two O'Clock,
when decline was noticed. Assn it had
gone down half an inch, and since then has
continued to decline-slowly, very slowly,
but surely and steadily.
The news that the fall had begun was
hailed with joy by every class of citizens.
The city is in a terrible condition. BUSH
ness is suspended in nearly all the whole-
| sale houses and manufacturing establish
/ ments. AS yet there has not been any
| great catastrophe in Cincinnati. but every
| body IS nervously apprehensive of one at
! any minute; unless the waters fall very
| gradually, it would seem almost impossible.
| to escape without immense losses from
warehouses and stores, filled with costly
| goods, crumbling and falling from their
walls being weakened by the wa ers so long
about them.
TIE situation at Newport, the second
largest of our Kentucky suburbs. is much
| worse relatively than in Cincinnati. The
waters have risen, till out of the III squares
in the town eighty have been overfiowad,
over Uwo.thirds of the town and of the 49,
900 inhabitants over 5000 have been or are
being afforded relief, mostly food.
When half q city is in such a condition
the scenes of distress may be imagined.
The distress and grief can only be pictured
and hardly described Looking over the
vast territory now submerged naught but
ruin and desolation can be seen. Tie ter
rife wind and rain storm last night laid
waste many houses. The streets are now
in many places blocked with houses, sta
bles, porches, ETC., making it very difficult
for the relief boats to navigate. A reporter
went through the flooded districts with a
relief committee, and found people,
actually starving As coffee, bread
and meet We're distributed to the
poor sufferers they grabb d at the eatabes
in dazed, half-famished manner that was
heartrending to witness. twenty houses
were counted turned bottom upward Ten
thousand peple were given dinner at the
soup-house to-day. Seven thousand loayes
OF bread, 1000 pounds of meat, 800 gallons
of soup and 1000 gallons of coffee were dis
tributed by the relief committees to-day.
In Covington the situation is not much
worse than yesterday, The town stands
much higher than Newport. About LOGO.
people are being fed there.
AT Dayton, KY, by actual count, there
are Bio houses submerged. Taking on an
average seven people to house, it makes
over 1900 homeless people.
On the Ohio side, Mill 'reek Valley, at
the west end of Cincinnati, presents
scene of the utmost desolatinn. Homses
are inundated, some of them to the second
story, and others submerged; stables and
sheds are overturned; tops of freight cars
protrude from submerged railroad tracks,
and all kinds of rubbish and refuse is float.
ing about.
AT Lawrenceberg, Ind, over 500 houses
have been swept away and upwards of
1000 people are homeless. Fears of still
greater damage are not unfounded, as the
banks built to protect the city from an
overflow of the Miami river have been
broken down, and 8 resistless torrent of
twelve to twenty feet of water is pouring
through the neart of the city.
LOUISVILLE, Feb. II, 8 P. N.
The river continues to rise. The canal
gauge registers forty-six feet, eighteen
inches higher than at any time last year.
The streng wind of last night caused the
waves to do much damage in the sub
merged district. A great many houses
have fallen or foated off. The water is
still rising, though the ground is hard
frozen, and this morning reached the cellar
of the Board of Trade building, putting
out the fire in the furnace. There is no :
ttAOIl1OOd ol any IutLlST RAIN anu bi1S
river is expected to be at stand by morn
ing.
Inch by inch the water has come up at
Jetfersonville till nearly every street has
disappeared. III the water continues to
rise a. the present rate. by noon Friday
there will not be dry spot in the town.
Sights are the most appalling and distress
ing. Houses have caved'in and hundreds
OF people are huddled together in some
buildings. Many remain in second stories,
ci,t- i
cold, and in many cases hunger. The pen
ltentlary is still out of water, but little
more water and the c0nvicts will become
Hood sufferers with nowhere to go.
Utica, Ind, is almost out of sight. The
inhabitants fed to the hills for safety.
GAINESVILLE is entirely depopulated.
EVANSVILLE, IND, Feb. IA.
At Shawneetown the water is approach
ing the second story of the Riverside Hotel;
and steadily swelling. Officers of the last
boat from there describe it as scene of
desolation equal to that of last year. No
houses as vet have been moved from their,
foundations, but as the water swells the
danger inceases, and there is great dread
of winl, which would inevitably do grea7
damage. One hundred and twenty pens of
corn in the water were counted on the In
diana side in a distance of ten miles below
Henderson. 1t can not be reached. This
represents 10000 bushels, the loss on which
WALL De at 1eaSG 81 per Gent.
MADISON, IND, Feb. II.
The food in the Onto river at this point
will probably reach it's heiGat tomorrow
morning, two feet higher than the food of
last year. The damage to property in this
city will be greater tnan last year on ac~~
count of the additional height of the water.
IRoNToN, o., Feb. a.
Telegraphic communication was re-estab-
lished to-day. Three-fourths OF the town as