Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-03-30
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER,
Flood May Come, but the Chances A,
Now Against It.

4 Flood May Come, but the Chances Ars
Now Against 1t.
Col. o. II. Ernst, superintendent Of public
buildings and grounds in this city, and also @
member Of the Mississippi river commission,
has just returned from two weeks trip in the
south, in attendance upon the semi-annual
meeting Of the commission.
He said to a STAR reporter this morning that
they found the river to be very high indeed,
higher even than during the great flood of 1882,
and yet there have been but three breaks in
the levees SO far.
'Still," he continued, "there is a good deal
Of danger Of q food. and should not want to
predict that there will not be one. / think,
however. that the chances are that the greatest
danger has been passed. One of the three
breaks was opposite New Orleans, and
it has done a great deal of damage,
entirely flooding one of the largest plantations
in the vicinity. This break was caused by a
rice flume.' There have been SO many
breaks from this cause of late years that the
commission at this meeting passed resolution
declaring that it could not consent to assume
responsibility for the security of the leyees SO
ong as the state Of Louisiana carried on its
statute books the law permitting
the unrestricted construction of these
land owners desire them, and there is no super.
vision over their construction, SO that Q great
deal OF fimsy, careless work Is done.
WHAT A RICE FLUMz Is.
"A rice fume, by the way, is an iron pipe be-
tween eight and sixteen inches in diameter,
sunk in the embankment at the natural level
for the purpose Of letting water into the rice
fields. OF course the earth Of the level
has to be cut to depth OF
from six to fifteen feet, and after the
pipe has been laid the earth is replaced. It il
No To ao lr hot $har 80
weakness made in the levee, but the work ID
never done SO. The earth is thrown in care
lessly without being tamped and there is q hole
made at the first wash Of the food.
"The owners Of the land do not seem to realize
that they are jeopardizing their own interests
by this sort Of work, and so long as the state
will not take hand to prevent the thing the
river commission will hold its hands off,
LEvEEs NOW IN BETTER CONDITION.
ION the whole should say that the levees are
now in q better condition than ever before
You see they have been built during lona
period Of years, under a great variety OF
systems-under parish, county, state and
federal superintendent the result is an inhar-
monious line Of works with weak spots and
control Of the entire line believe that the
strong spots are on the increase.
Gan old levee is usually stronger than o new
one but it may be generally stated that there
Is more strength In the later works than the
earlier ones.
OVER &10, 900 900 SPENT IN TEN TEARS
''There has been upward Of el0, 0O0, 900 OF.
pended on this river by the government dur.
ing the past ten years. Last year an allot-
ment Of q, zoo. 900 was made. The work of 70.
pairing is quite costly, but it 10 well done a Q
rule. The great difficulty is that there
are no stones to be had in that part
Of the country with which to sink the mattresses
and tarpaulins that are used to protect the EN-.
bankment. Bags Of sand have to be utilized
instead. Tarpaulins are used, as q rule, only o,
the wing ends, where it IL most essential thai
the breaks should be kept down.
sThe commission meets twice . year. The
fall meeting Is for the purpose of visiting the
river during low water, when we can see the
work from an engineering standpoint Then
the spring meeting takes place, - youes, when
the river 10 high.
This spring the meeting lasted about eight
days. We took our steamer ct St Louis and
ran slowly down the river.