Omaha daily bee., 1897-04-03
SITUATION CRITICAL
Additional Danger Threatens Dwellers
Near Lower Mississippi.
MORE BREAKS LIKELY TO OCCUR IN lEvEES
Alarming Telegrams Sent Out from the
Vicinity of Austin.
lAR0RERS All WORK ON EMRANkMENIS
lABoRERs AT WORK ON EMBANKMENTS
Great Amount of Water Being Discharged
by Upper Tributaries.
MISSISSIPPI OUT OF BOUNDS AT ST. PAUL
Flats Covered with the Overflow nnd
Many Families Driven Out
Water Nearly ns High
ms in 1881.

MEMPHIS, Tenn, April 2.-The flood sit
uaton has once more become acute from a
point a few miles above Austin, Miss, as
far down as the first break at Perthshire,
Miss Another crevasse in this line of levees
would not be surprising. The pressure
on the levee is brought about by the waters
of the st. Francis basin, which are con-
gested between the levees in front OF Hell
ena. There is no levee on the Arkansas
down to Sans Souci, to a point above
Helena, distance of 100 miles and 1t is at
Austin the levee system on each side OF the
river begins and goes to the passes below
New Orleans. The water Is now so high
In the st. Francis basin that the current
rushes from the west and cuts along the
east shore levee for miles, and several
alarming kilograms have been received from
near Austin today. Boats have been re-
quested to run on slow bells and laborers
are constantly strengthening the embank-
ments. A crevasse at Austin would inun-
date a strip of fertile country in the Tunica
and Caohoma counties twenty miles wide
and sixty miles long.
Reports from Helena, Ark, show that the
river there is still slowly rising, and 1t is
almost miraculous that the levees at Helena
have not broken. Thousands Of people have
been working day and night and their ener-
gies are seemingly exhaustless. The Mis-
souri, Pacific and Cotton Belt roads have
rushed trainload after trainload OF sacks OF
sand into the beleaguered city and still
stand ready to help the Helena people. The
railroads have rendered great assistance to
the levee boards The Illinois Central, Mis-
souri, Pacific and Cotton Belt railroads have
devoted all their great forces to the work
of saving the country, and that without
charge.
TOWN UNDER WATER.
Greenvile Is on an island and Roseda!e,
Miss is in water from five to ten feet deep.
The funds of bank in Rosedale have been
moved to the second story. Thousands OF
head of cattle are standing on the levee
and many unfortunate refugees sleep there,
with no covering to protect them from the
water soaked winds at night. Back OF Rose
dale. and throughout the lower and middle
delta countries; everything is under water.
In many villages communication with the
outside world has been cut of for several
days
tanty. The Mississippi above Cairo and the
Cumberland and Tennessee rivers will send a
great fiood into the already filed st. Francis,
and from Cairo to Memphis 1t Is feared that
the deluge will mark a high-water figure
that will be without precedent.
At Memphis the river Is falling tonight the
gauge reading 36.3 feet, fall of one-tenth
Of foot since last nigh. The calls for as
sistence from numerous points along the river
are becoming more and more frequent at
the headquarters OF the relief committee In
Memphis. The committee is in receipt of in
formation that there are some eighteen or
twenty white people, principally women and
children, In great distress at a point near
St. Glars landing, about fifteen miles up the
river, which Is some six miles from Mound
City The people are located in houses the
lower floors of which are overllowed, and
hayo no food and no means OF obtaining It.
ARRANGEMENTS were made to send supplies