The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-05-08
FLOOD DAMAGE LIKELY
 TO REACH $l00, 100000
 U, 5. EXPERTS ESTIMATE
Government Has Already Expended $60O,-
 900 to Feed Homeless Persons
Ten Thousand Tents Provided for Refugees Millions of Army Sandbags Used to Protect Levees- Secretary Meyer Sends Battleship to Help Rescue Work-Fur ther Breaks in Levees Feared.

Washington, May S.-F1fty millions of dollars of loss already done, mil Hons more in prospect
 This is the view government ex- perts take of the flood damage in the Mississippi River valley. to say noth- inx of the toll of human life exacted, and the lives that have been placed in jeopardy.
 Experts at the Department of Agri- culture estimate that the loss of farm crops and agricultural property has probably reached the S50,000.OO0 mark and may finally total double that sum- Until the ravages of the ed 1t win be impossible to determine whether the $100, 100000 mark will be exceeded. The damage .o the cot ton crop alone is expected to mount up to . stupendous figure.
 Just to furnish food for the thous- ands of homeless people who nave we rendered temporarily destitute. the War Department has already expend- cd tho sum of $600,000. This repre- ecuts the actual amount spent since the liver and it's tributaries f1f st went on . rampage less than month ago. The present prospect Is that It win be at least month before con dttions aie restored to normal. and Ii this proves the case, department of- ficjals fear they will need about $700,- OO0 more to care for flood sufferers.
 Congress has already appropraated relief work. To finish the work of relief already begun it may be neces- eary for the lawmakers to provide neSrly e1.OOO,O0O more This does not talke into account repairs which Will have to be made to levees that have boen brolk(n and displaced bars which must be 1t-constructed.
 It . estimate that the army has provided teu thd eand tents to hoflse flood refuGees. azd varying all Hhs " from e3nyas 1kairA that t{cost only 3l1. sli the way to dpstlf tropical .fsnkn After thee have sbes9 iT use yalnelSes for actual army work so that their total cost practically renec- cents m additional expenditure to the govefnynent.
 millions of army sandbags have been uoed to check the thrush of wa ter where the levees have threatened to give way. The vast territory i'll which relief work has been done stretches rom Cairo, Ills. to New 0rloaua. a distance of. 654 miles, This doeg not include territory in the ex- tended valleys of the Ohio and Red Rivera -f
 Although the Navy Department has no fund at its disposal which could Dc used in rescue work, there is good chance that Congress will grant 1t . small sum, so that 1t can work in . limited way in conjunction with the War Department
 The sending of the battleship Ne braska, the gunboat Petrel4 and the militia ship Isla De Cuba up tine river to save the lives of persons stranded in out of the way spots in the flooded territory was done entirely on the re- sponAbility of the Secretary of the Navy Meyer.
 The secretary heard from the cap- tain of the Nebraska, which has been 1n the vicinity of Baton Rouge. La, Of the alarming conditions in the lover Mississippi valley and iu1medi- ately ordered the captain to heip. 1t