Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-05-02
Hundreds of Families Are Homeless
and the Destruction of Prop
erty Inestimable.
A Relief Steamer Doing Good Work
Rescuing the Inhabitants
and Stock.
In Places Cattle Have Been Standing
In Water Four Days,
Starving to Death.
Hundreds of Lives In jeopardy.

Hundreds of Lives in Jeopardy.
BAYOU SARA, La, April M.-The Re-
lief steamer Dacotah reached Bayou Sa-
ra landing yesterday evening. She has
made the trip to Pointe Coupee and has
come back to Bayou Sara. Her arrival
was a godsend to the people whose lives
were in jeopardy, for she has not only al
ready saved an %incalculable amount of
property, but a goodly number of lives.
The real condition of things IN the over
flowed district is but just coming to
light. No pen is equal to the task of
picturing the devastation of the country
or desolation of the people. The entire
front of Pointe Coupee is under water.
Most of the levees have gone, and the
water back of the levees is SO deep that
hundreds of lives are in danger. Small
stretches of the levee still standing are
crowded with men, mi and children,
side by side with horses, mules and COWS.
In an old raised gin house, five hundred
negroes we're found huddled together.
The condition of the unfortunate blacks
pitiable. They are afraid of their
lives and we're piteously begging to be
taken to some place of safety. The cre-
vase at Allendale will overflow thirty of
the finest plantations on the river. It
will reach the Teche country several days
in advance of Morgansea water, and Col.
Rivers says when this water joins with
Morgansea it will food the entire Atcha-
falaya, Lafourche and Teche countries.
The damage is incalculable. Distress in
the overflowed district cannot be told.
The Texas and Pacific boat E. B. Whee-
lock succeeded yesterday in saving three
hundred people from the back country
around Morgansea.
RUIN AND DEsoLATIoN
meets the eye on every side in Point
Cuopee parish. The destruction is COM
plete. Not a plantation is left above
water; not a levee unbroken, while humid
dreds of families are homeless. Thous-
ands of stock have been drowned, and from
meagre reports received from the interior
it is quite probable that human life has
been sacrificed to the food. Standing
on the deck of the relief steamer Dacotah
as she passed within fifty yards of the
flooded district last evening, the full ex-
tent of the disaster could be seen. Group
ing together on little knobs between
broken ~levees, through which the water
rushed with ungovernable fury, were
scores of people, both whites and blacks,
some with babies in their arms, while
others had dogs secured by cords. Many
of them had nothing elsein the world OK.
cept the clothes they wore on their
backs. Whenever the Dacotah discov.
cred a scene like this the stage was swung
out and the stricken ones taken in. AS
equally as sad a scene was the poor
dumb cattle standing in the water, actu-
ally starving. Many of them had not
tasted food in days. Their gaunt forms
contrasted strangely with their surround
ings. The Dacotah was unable to handle
cattle yesterday, but to-day her boiler
deck IS a first-class stock pen. A family
named Lake, who resides several miles
above Bayou Sara, were rescued this
u1O1u1uSs AAOlO WOlO AlUOOA POOP1O ~
the family. Monday morning they were
prosperous, being owners of a large
plantation, we'll equipped store and over
100 head of stock. To-day
NOTHING A WATER
but the caves of their residences. A
crevasse sixty feet wide broke directly
in front of the house at noon'Monday and
the family had a lively time to reach the
levee before six feet of water covered the
place. The crevasse is now four hundred
feet wide. There are hundreds of such
tales to be told. The Dacotah is a busy
boat to-day. After discharging her lum.
Der and other material at Grand Bay, she
proceeded directly to Old River and res,
cued two hundred head of cattle that had
been in the swamp for four days. Com
ing down, stock and people were picked
up everywhere, and when the Dacotah
reached Bayou Sara, she had 1000 head
of cattle and nearly 500 people on board.
They were landed and the boat immedi.
ately left on the return voyage. The Da.
cotah is doing excellent work, and moi
only is she blessed on every side, but the
corporation which sent her as we'll. Ma.
jor Martin Glynn, president Of the pc.
lice jury, accompanies the boat on her
errand of mercy. Referring to
their efforts to hold the levee,
he said it was a hard fight,
but they had lost. He cannot estimate
the damage, but says thirteen parishes
will be overhowed. The crevasses now
number thirteen. At Grand Bay last
night men we're busily engaged in an
effort to hold a patent dyke, an immense
earthwork, that protects ten large plan
tations in the lower point coupee from
food. It rained all day yesterday and
last night, but the river is falling. The
worst has come in Pointe Coupee, and