Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1912-04-26
Break IN LEVEE ON
MISSISSIPPI SIDE
CkEvASSE APPEARS FOUR MILES
BELOW BEULAH, MISS.
& N. v ROAD CRIPPLED
Waters From This Break Will Flood the
Most Fertile Lands of the MisSis-
sippi Delta-Several Towns
in Danger.

~Greenville, Miss.-A rapidly widening
crevasse, $50 feet wide, in the lower
Yazoo levee, at Hughes plantation foul
miles south OF Beulah, in Bolivar county,
Miss, occurred Wednesday. The levee
here for a mile or more is of soft sand,
and it is stated at the local leyee board
Office that a width of a thousand feet
or more is expected, and the ultimate
width may reach a mile. Although a
crew OF forty men had been working
on this place for some time, no slough
ing had developed until a short time be-
fore the break, and nothing worse than
. bad sand soil and threatened flow
over the levee crown had been expert
eHced.
The flood waters will 60 into Bogue
Phalla, Deer creek and Lake Bolivar.
II was stated by Chief Engineer Shack.
elford that the flood waters would not
reach Greenville, this city being pro-
tected by the ridge of Deer creek. The
amount of territory flooded will be de.
termined only by the extent of the
crevasse, which will undoubtedly be the
greatest occurring since the present
flood stage of the great river. 1t is
thought all inhabitants of the flooded
section will have ample time to seek
safety for themselves and stock, and no
loss OF life is apprehended. The prop
erty loss will doubtless be
The lands flooded are the most fertile
Of the famous delta section. The
crevasse is thirty-ive miles north of
G~reenville.
Should the flood waters reach this
city a protection levee eight feet high
will shield the city.
The flood waters will return to the
Mississippi through the Sunflower and
Yazoo rivers.
The territory which will be affected
most will be Benoit, Dahomey, Beulah,
Cleveland, Pace, Shaw, C~hoctaw, Leland,
and the country east of Deer creek, the
lower Big Sunflower and Yazoo lower
doubling flood sufferers terri
Tory and flooding richest section Mis-
delta.
1t is the first break on the Missis-
'ippi side and ends a desperate fight car
led on for weeks. An army of men here
lave diverted supplies bound southwark
m the Nokomis, sending back to Rose
lale.
L. ID thought that the water will not
'ftEs Ter Egypt Ridge.a and it is not likely
lat the water will reach KosedaGe,srWRiTi
it may do 50, and all precau-
ions are being taken to care for the
,eople and stock.
River mel say no worse spot on the
Mississippi side could have broken, for
he break goes into head of one of the
I'D outlets and will pour crevasse waters
lown through al! the western side and
over end of the old Yazoo and Sun.
lower basin.
Other towns likely to be affected be-
ides those mentioned are Wilczinski,
Fork and perhaps Greenville, al
that towns on ground above the
level. The Yazoo and Missis-
,ippi Valley will be put completely out
# commission, also the Southern into
.5reenville.
Twenty-Five thousand additional suf-
may be counted as result of this
Official information was re-
,eived here in the government engineers
,ffice of a 2OO-foot break which occurred
n the Arkansas river north of Arkansas
Citv. The effect of this new break will,
n the opinion of the engineers, probably
,ause Il slight rise from backwater at
Arkansas City.