The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-03-22
LEYEES ARE SWEPT AWAY
DEATH AND RUIN BROODS ALONG
THE 1IISSISSIPPI,S BANKS.

Sections, but the Death Roll Cannot be y
Approximations That the River
VIII Seek It's Old Channel--Thousands
of Acres Already Submerged.
St. Louis, March 2l.-Latest advices
from the flooded country south of here
state that the situation is hourly grow
ing worse. Walls of water have beaten
down the levees at many points and
dwellers are at the mercy of the food.
Out of thirty-eight kilograms received
here from the lower river but one re-
cords cessation of the rise. This was
from Cairo, ILL.,, but the halt of the
flood there to-day was due to the
breaks of the levees adjacent in Ken
lucky and Missouri. The most dis
heartening intelligence comes from
Iowa and valleys of the Missouri river.
Warm weather has turned the snow
to water, which is added to the already
overflowed streams. Work on levee
barriers is practically abandoned in
| Arkansas and Mississippi as useless.
At Chicot, Ark, bargeload of sand
bags was dumped into levee break
| They only served to widen the breach.
| This is the experience at other points,
and work on the outer barriers is aban-
doned and every hand turned to save
the inner leyees
| A dispatch from Ripley Tenn, says
there is a strong current through Reel
| Foot lake and the old river bayou. 1t
| is feared the river will seek its old
! channel through the lake, which was
| shifted twenty miles west by the earth
| quake of 1872 South of Helena, Ark.s
| the Ievee breaks are most numerous
and the damage greatest. The five
steamers employed by the Memphis re-
| lief committee were reinforced to-day
| by two government boats towing
| barges. These steamers broke their
| way through tree tops.
| Relief work is now occupying more
attention than endeavors to fight the
flood with levees. A relief committee
was organized in Little Rock yesterday.
| Memphis continues to save life and
| property unaided by the government Of
| Arkansas.
The merchants exchange took up the
rescue work yesterday
| Governor Jones of Arkansas sent a
| company of troops to guard the levees
of Desha county as there were fears
that Mississippi men might try to save
| their own homes by cutting the levees
| on the Arkansas side. Unconfirn1ed ru
mors Of great loss Of life are met at
/ every hand, but the death roll cannot
even be approximated till the flood sub
sides. The situation is indeed gloomy
with small prospects Of immediate bet
| terment.
Memphos, Tenn. March 21.-The
levees for stretch of fifteen miles from
and south of Osceola, Ark, went all to
pieces to-day. There were some twelve
or fifteen breaks in extent from 200 to
| 1000 yards. All the water from the
| overburdened river is creeping over the
| st. Francis basin to return to the river
| just above Helena. Breaks are ex-
pected at Luxora, on the same side,
but above Osceola.
Most of the women and children had
already left Osceola, only the men re-
naming to strengthen and guard the
levees. These were to-day taken across
the river to the Tennessee side, which
is secure by reason of a tall bluff. Be
| low also on the Arkansas side there is
a break at Modoc Along the Mississip-
| pi front every levee is reported intact
| and in no immediate danger. Engin-
eers here are rather dubious, however,
about the levee holding out
The acres of farming land submerg-
| ed through the breaks already occurred
aggregate well up in the thousands. No
drownings were reported to-day. The
river fell Ito of foot to-day.