The Sentinel=record., 1912-05-02
HARD BATTLE
 WITH FLOODS
MISSISSIPPI DELTA IS THREAT. FINED WITH THE HIGHEST
 WATER IN HISTORY.
Army Of Men Working Feverishly to Save Lcvee-5reaks Occur at Ba- ton Rouge and Much Terri
 tory Is Endangered.

New Orleans, La, May 1--Another serious break occurred late this after noon in the Mississippi river leyees at Torras, La, on the west side of the swollen stream where the flood waters from the disastrous Dog Tail creyasse find re-entry into the biz river. The breaks at Torras occurred at 5:30 and within two hours 300 feet of the 1S-foot embankment had been carried away A large force of work men and material were immediately ordered to the scene by Captain C. O. Sherrill, chief of the United States engineers, in an effort to check the creyasse by "cribbing" the ends.
 Unless the Torras crevasse can be closed, which appeared doubtful to night, inestimable damage will be added to the already heavy tolls in property destruction and devastation of farms wrought by the flood waters of the lower Mississippi during the past six weeks
 A permanent crevasse at Torras means the inundation of the vast su- gar cane lands along the west banks of the river for a distance of about so miles. The territory which lies in the path of the Torras crevasse is vastly richer than that inundated by the Dog Tail crevasse of three weeks ago, near Alsatia, La, and is more densely populated
 While the Torras break will give some relief from the enormous pres sure against the lsyees south of that point, the flood waters tonight are from half a foot to two feet above the previous high record marks from Ba- ton Rouge south and prospects of oth- CT creyasses are extremely grave.
 At Baton Rouge the Mississippi riv- CT tonight registered 421 feet. foot and half above the 1903 record, and at New Orleans at pm the gauge registered 20.O9 feet, a half foot above the record stage.
 The worst is yet to come. and to- Jay the weather bureau predicted 22 feet for New Orleans, or half foot in excess of the previous crest pre- diction. This would mean foot and half more water in the river here than was ever before recorded.
 Reports today from the territory in northeast Louisiana, which was flood d by the Dog Tail crevasse. added several thousand victims to the home ess list Several hundred more in West Feliciana parish were reported in need of supplies and from the Atch- afalaya and Bayou Des Glaise terri tory reports were received of still other hundreds of poor people who have been driven from their homes
 It is estimated the United States government is now furnishing rations for l20,00O homeless people in Louis jana and Mississippi, and tonight the prospects are that this number will be increased by 50,OOO within anoth- CT week.
 The federal engineers have alreadf expended more than s1OO0O0 in the past three weeks in their effort to save the levees from vicksburg south, but the responsibility came to them too late in many instances and the force of the flood waters have far ex- ceeded the expectations of everyone. The engineers are continuing to spend thousands of dollars a day trying to prevent further breaks. but where the fight is hardest they say they are ex. periencing great difficulties in secur- ing labor.
 In some instances negroes who are getting free government rations show no disposition to shovel dirt or assist otherwise in the work of protecting those who are yet free from the ray ages Of the big flood
 Levee Break Is Serious.
 Torras, La, May 1.-The flood wa ters which have been threatening tho leyees at Torras for week past brok, !
 through the artificial barrier at { point near the plant of the Torras oi miM. late this afternoon, and at 1l o'clock tonight 300 feet of the leve' had crumbled away, turning loose great volumes of water on the low lands of Pointe coupee parish Sec tions of Torras are rapidly floodn,