The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-05-04

New Orleans.
New Orleans. April "a feeling OF
alarm is general. The water has been
rising to overwhelming height at Vicks-
burg, and all of his, as well as much OF
the crevasse volume, must come down to
the gulf. With the river here at nineteen
feet above the low water. this means
twenty feet. If il comes quickly, the
banks will hardly be able to
hold il.
After working day and night for a
month, raising and broadening the banks
the levee boards have been advised to do
the work all over again and buiid as
If they Were aiming to meet two feet more
OF water. The city, which can easily hold
its front, but would be endangered by a
crevasse in the Ponchartrain system, has
begun to build the protection levee above
the city to almost double its size
Natchez, Miss, April 27.-The gauge
here shows a rise of one-tenth and a half
in the last twenty-four hours, or 80,
nearly six feet over the danger line. The
weather has cleared and the hot sunshine
of today has greatly changed the crowns
and sides of the levees near here from a
mushy, sloughing condition to a hardened
crust The levees are reported, with few
SANCpbiois, " NC III SOU tOlltlllOll anu
unless the weather again changes, the
people are more hopeful that they will
withstand the great strain. Reports at 6
o'clock this evening from CLAYTON La.
are to the effect tina Tensas river is
rising over an inch an hour, with "a very
swift current and is rapidly covering plan
tationS and will continue to do so for
some time as the bulk Of the headwater
from the Biggs crevaSse has not yet ar
rived. Similar reports have been received
from Trinity, La, but the exact amount
of hi TISa rnlId mot no u % n nod
st. Louis, April 27.-The flood situation
tonight throughout the neighborhood is
one of the gravest danger. At several
points the swollen streams have over
flowed their banks and burst through the
levees. Already several lives have been
lost and many people are imperiled by the
rapidly rising waters. Thousands of
acres of farm lands on both the Illinois
and Missouri sides of the Mississippi
river nave been inundated, or will be soon.
Stock has been drowned and crops de-
strOyed. According to the weather bureau,
both rivers will continue to rise.
While Joseph Johnson, William Daltan,
Minnie Frazier, Mrs. Ida Bugg and her
two small children were attempting to
ford a swollen stream in a wagon at
Jackson, Mo-, the vehicle was over turned
and the women and children were
The Hunt levee, which protected the
Hunt drainage district on the Illinois side
below Warsaw, broke today, sending the
Mississippi over one of the most fertile
regions in the Mississippi valley. The
widest excitement prevailed, for fully
1000 acres of land and hundreds Of
homes will be under water in a few hours.
The lowest part of the district is just be-
low the Bluffs, seven miles back of the
levee, and the water is making straight
for the hills. By tomorrow a territory
thirteen miles long by seven miles wide
will be covered with water. Couriers
were sent On horse back to the houses
back in the district and a scene of dis
order and fright everywhere prevailed.
Some were unable to save anything and
barely escaped with their lives. 1t is
feared that some have been caught and
surrounded by the flood.
The levee was covered today with a
crowd of farmers and their wives, hurry
ing their children and their live stock to
places of safety. Many are now camped
out on the hills with absolutely nothing
left. Poverty and untold suffering must
inevitably follow this disaster.
The break may be repaired but, in the
meantime, the whole district is being
Hooded. Efforts are being made to keep
the ends of the levee from being further
broken. This is almost impossible. for the
water is rushing through the break at a
terrible rate and it is unsafe for the
steamers to approach it.