The Forrest City times., 1897-04-09
THE CITY OF REFUGE.
Representative Memphians at the
National Capital
A Plain Statement of Conditions Re-
lief Committee of the Blur City
Nearly at the End Of Its Re-
sources-Aid Needed.
A Plain Statement Of Conditions.


of relieving the people of the flooded
country tributary to that city, have ar
rived in the city. They have prepared
the following statement which they
will submit to the president
FIFTY TOWNS UNDER WATER
Prom Marion. Ark, north of Mem
phis, to Greenville. Miss. there are now
at least so towns and villages under
water. and territory extending from
100 miles north of Memphis to 200 miles
south and five to 40 miles wide is sub
merged and devastated by the flood.
Hundreds of thousands of acres
of cultivated soil with grow
ing crops are included in the
submerged territory, and there are
from so, 200 to $1,000 people whose prop
erty has been destroyed and whoso
business has been suspended thereby.
The amount of damage to property is
incalculable. In addition to the grow
ing crops which have besn destroyed,
thousands of head of working stock
and of cattle have been drowned and
starved.
TUTE.
THE great ma jority of the sufferers
are small farmers. mostly negroes who
with the present crop destroyed and
their working stock and farming-tools
swept away. are left utterly destitute
and unprepared to begin work again.
even after the floods have subsidized.
The extent of the suffering has grown,
beyond the capacity of the local au
thorities and of private local charities
to relieve. The citizens relief
committee of Memphis are now caring
for from 5000 to 1000 refugees from the
flooded district. and they are
STILL ARRIVING BY BoAT-LoADs
every day. In addition to this, large
supplies of provisions are being sent to
various points in Arkansas and Missis-
sippi, where it is possible for the ref
ugees to be cared for on higher ground
and in relief barges. The utmost that
can be done by these efforts is to
measurably and temporarily relieve
the present suffering. The committee
have found it very difficult and very
costly to reach a great portion of the
sufferers, living in the interior. who
can only be reached by slSiffs operating
with light-draught steamers that can
leave the main river. Memphis being
the only point on high ground for
about 200 miles north and south it
necessarily has become the place of
refuge for all seeking escape the
flood in that locality.
THE GREATEST FLOOD KNOWN IN THE
VALLEY.
This flood is the greatest and most
destructive that has ever devastated
the Mississippi valley, the water being
two and a half feet higher than the
highest stage it has ever reached be-
fore.
The relief committee is thoroughly
organized for the purpose of distribut-
ing supplies to the people of the
tributary territory, aud its members
are willing to do everything in their
power, but they have now almost
reached the end of their resources. and
reluctantly confess their inability to
cope with the situation without obtain
ing relief from the government.
OFFICIAL ENDORSEMENT.
Representative Carmack, who repre-
sents the Memphis district in the
house. also signs the statement. and
says his information by wire and letter
from the overflow district is entirely
in accord with that made by the COM
mittee.
Water Over an Area Never Before Over
flowed.
MEMPHIS, Tenn, April 6.-The feat
ure of the food condition in the Mis-
sissippi delta to-day is the grady
spread of water over an area that hith-
erto was never overlooked. The upper
crevassee in Tunica county is 2. 900 feet
wide. and SO great is the outpour that
water from below the break is being
drawn up to and hurled out over the
fertile valley through the crevasse.
All of the country east of the main
line of the Yazoo valley and Mississippi
valley road is flooded. and in many
places the water has gone over the
tracks, filling the Yazoo river.
The fall in the main channel at Hell
ena, Greenville, Vicksburg and Arkan-
sas City is due to the filling up of the
Delta and the lower White river coun-
try. The supreme question is the dura-
ton of the food. If the lower levees
along Louisiana and southeastern Ar
kansas should hold, which it is be-
lieved they will not do, the emptyine
of the Delta and St. Francis
basin will be slow. If they
break and the river continues to fall at
Cairo the upper st. Francis basin and
the Delta will be clear of water hy
May. If this should prove true, there
will be no difficulty in growing cotton
But breaks in Louisiana and southeast
Arkansas will hold water in that terri
tory until the middle of May. far after
the usual time for planting cotton in
that territory. The river at Memphis
is stationary.
An Appalling Situation.
ST.. PAUL. MIMI, April GA Fargo
(N. d. special to the Dispatch saws:
The situation is appalling. While the
Red river rose only three inches last
NIGHT the Bio Coulee west of this 1it,,