Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-04-30
TERRIBLE STRAIN ON THE LEyEEs
GROWS GREATER.
LEvEEs MAY GO LIKE CHAFF
WHEN FLOOD CONCENTRATES ITS
FORCE SOUTH of RED RIVER.
Water Forty Miles Wide Above Must
Pnss Through n Channel n Mile
in Width BeIOw-The River
Is ReccdinE Mt ke-
Okuk, Ia.

ytcksburg. Miss, April 29.-The river is
stationary here at 81 80 and the belief is
growing that a decline is still far distant.
In former flood years it had always taken
a month for the water to subside WITHIN
the banks, but much more must pass on
before the ordinary conditions can be con-
sidered in force. The river must fall eight
feet before any considerable area of land
can be planted in this county and the same
applies to very large portion of Sharkey
Issaquina, Sunfower and Yazoo. The sit
uation below Baton Rouge is growing daily
more threatening, but the most eXpe-
rienced men say it cannot become much
worse. President Maxwell, of the Louis
lana levee board remarked tonight that
he was glad to see the people in South
Louisiana were preparing for two feet
more water, and that they would probably
get much more than that. The growing
belief here is that when the pres
ent flood concentrates its force south of
Red river, which it will not do for weeks
hence, it will attain q volume that will
sweep away the levees on either side like
chaff. All the mighty ocean that will well
nigh average forty miles in width from
Cairo to Vicksburg must pass through a
channel a mile or two wide after leaving
Red river.
New Orleans, April 29.-The river is 1913
tonight. Mass meetings are calling upon
employers to stop trying, to make crops
and put all hands on the levees, while the
levee boards are asked for material with
which to build the barriers higher. Cap
tain Derby, the government engineer in
this district, has announced that he will
raise eighty-four miles of levee at once,
and the embankment everywhere will find
defenders.
Jala rly
menaces the bottom country below Helena.
At the Williamson crevasse the water is
running through the break thirty feet deep,
and the current has cut channel through
from the river bank outside the levee to
Long lake inside. This makes a great
| channel 600 or 700 feet long. 1t means that
no crop can be made on the bottoms unless
| this gap is closed very soon, and the clos
| ing of it means the expenditure of large
sum of money at time when confronted
with an empty treasury.
Natchez. Miss, April 29.-The river rose
| another half foot to-day and now stands at
| 1915, one and a quarter feet above the high
| est record of any previous year. The
| Tensas river rises half an inch an hour
| and within thirty-siX hours will begin to
spread over many miles OF prodnGtixs plan
st. Louis, Mo-, April 29.-The Mississippi
| here has risen more than n foot in twenty
four hours and threatens to send the water
1903 and at 10 o'clock 29.OS. The official
| danger point Is thirty feet.
The outside railroad track on the levee
| was abandoned this afternoon. 1t will take
| thirty-two feet to cover the levee and
thirty-two and half feet to cover the
| pavement. A number of the merchants are
| moving their goods out of the cellars as
the water, is beginning to seep through.
day registers twenty feet and ten inches
the highest stage reached since 1888 wher
| the levee broke Since midnight the river
South Hannibal is under water. The
| streets are navigable by boats and the back
! water has spread out and extended west fol
| nearly half a mile, inundatng everything
| Several of the departments in the Hanniba
| & st. Joseph railway shops have shut dowr
| and the railroad yards are under water.
| 1t has been raining here all day, and as
| result the levee is in great danger. as II
| cannot stand much more pressure. In the
| Missouri bottoms, few miles north of this
| city, the farms are all submerged and the
people have abandoned their homes and flee
to the hills.