The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-16
Area as Large as Rhode Island, Connecticut and
 Delaware Combined
HYMELIA CREVASSE
 WIDENING RAPIDLY
Unless Federal Government Comes to Aid of State 1000 Additional Miles Will Be Inundated.
 Crevasse Disastrous

New Orleans. May 15-wfth approxi- mately 750O square miles of Louisiana,s land inundated by the Mississippi river flood waters and more than 100000 people driven from their homes in the parishes west of the river from the Arkansas line almost to the gulf, the most serious cre- vasse of the present disastrous hood-- Hymelia-promises to add another thou sand square miles or more to the over flowed territory, make homeless thousands of people and add milliops of dollars to the property damage he within the state.
 The property damage already wrought by the floods in this state is enormous. It will amount into the millions-no one has attempted to even approximate 1t. for the state has been too busy with the work of rescuing people and live stock in the flooded territory and in caring for the thousands of homeless and destitute people The loss of live stock has been exceedingly heavy, but although moro than 25 parishes have been swept by the floods. the list of known human victims is less than 40.
 Parts of "A Parishes Inundated
 The territory now under water in Louis- jana comprises parts of 24 parishes. with an area five times as large as the state of Rhode Island. almost four times as large as Delaware as large almost as Rhode Island, Connecticut and Delaware combined and almost the size Of the great state of Massachusetts. Within another 10 days five other parishes will feel the effects of the terrible waters from the Mis- sissippi's broken levees, which hourly are creeping upon them which no hand can stay
 As vast, however, as is this territory where the waters are today coursing over but recent fertile fields and scores of prosperous villages and towns, Louisi- ana has more than four times that much l soil which flood waters cannot reach. Against the 75oo square miles now hun l dated. there are how more than 4O,00 square miles of the state dry Parts Inundated
 Parts of the following parishes are Inundated;
 Morehouse. West Carroll, East Car rcl Richland. Guachita, Madison. Frank lin, Caldwell. Tensas, catahoula. La- Sa!e Concordia. Avoyees, Pointe Coupee. West Baton Rouge, Iberyile, St. Martin, Assumption, St. John the Baptist, St to approximately 700 feet and the water
 Within another ten days these parishes also will be seriously affected. Terre- Bcne, LaFourche, Iberia, St. James, Jef- fcrson and St. Mary
 Except for small stretch of land n West Feciana and another small stretch in lower St. Bernard, the overflowed ter ritory in this state extends along the west banks of the Mississippi river from tho northern part of the state to the ex- treme southern part, 300 miles in length anG carrying in width from 10 to 30 miles.
 Tonight the Hymelia erevasse. 8 miles north of New Orleans on the east side oe the river from this city. had widened to approximately 700 meet and the water hao inundated about 40 square miles of rich sugar lands in St. Charles and St. John tho Baptist parishes.
 Attempt to Tie Crevasse
 Work was started today in the effort to tie the ends of the crevasse to pre- vent it's widening further. bu. the pro- posal to close the big gap in an effort to save the s25.000,00O to s30.000, 900 of property which Is threatened, awaits the action tomorrow of the Mississippi river commission.
 If the gap Is not closed, 90 per cent of all the land from there to the gulf west of the Mississippi river and west to the lower end of St. James and upper LaFourche parishes will be covered with the overflow and the Hymelia crevasse of 1912 will go down In flood records as the most disastrous from a standpoint of property destroyed in the history of the Mississippi river disas- ters.
 In 1908 crevasse occurred at almost the same spot and at that time the es- timated damage. If 1t were not closed. was placed at $25.000 900. The public was aroused money and labor was coni tributed, the federal government gave valuable assistance, approximately $200,000 was spent in an effort to close the crevasse While the effort was not entirely successful. line of six-pocket cribbing of heavy timbers was driven almost entirely across the gap, and more than 150.000 bags of sand piled into the pockets and, according to the official 1903 flood report of the United States weather bureau, the possible damage was reduced from s2s000,0 900 to actual damage of s2000,000.
 The Louisiana levee boards have not sufficient funds to undertake the closing of the erevassee. but if the Mississippi river committee does not take favorabls action tomorrow and give the United States engineering force orders to close 
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