The Hawaiian gazette., 1912-04-09
Ten Million Dollars
Damage Done by
Mississippi
Rising Waters Drive
Scores Onto Trees
and Roofs

MEMPHIS, Tennessee, April Sat
least thirty thousand people are home
less from the steadily rising flood wa
tiers Of the Mississippi river. Hundreds
are held prisoners until aid arrives,
in trees and ON the roofs OF their
submerged houses. Hundreds of 9th.
ers arc cut Off from tho high
ground, and are frantically building
RATS to meet the floods when they
come. .r r
Government aid is being rashed here
as fast as trains can bring it, and
from this city boats are carrying
food, clothes aud stores to the stricken
farmers and their families. North of
here in the Reelfoot Lake district the
suffering is great, for the weather is
cold and the waters of the river like
ice. South the conditions are aot SO
bad, rs the climate ana Tie lay of the
land is aiding the sufferers somewhat.
According to governmental estimates
made last night two thousand square
miles of country are now uader wa
ter, much of It from eight to twelve
feet below the surface of the flood.
The Mississippi is higher than it has
ever been In the history of Memphis.
The railroad tracks and round houses
on the levee below the bluff hero are
under water, which is still rising. The
great fats north of tho city have been
submerged for several days aud the
bluff, the city's chief defense against
high water, is caving in with great
reports and tremendous splashes. Sew
eral thousand cubic yards Of the bank
has already gone, and when the food
subsidies it may be necessary to relay
the main line of the Illinois Central
railroad and other lines. The lowest
portions of the city are under water,
but the suffering here is comparatively
slight.
/ Word reached here last night that
. the great levee, to save which several
hundred men have been working night
and day along the Arkansas bank OPP
posite and south Of the city, had given
way in three separate places, and the
back country as far as Black Lake and
Cane Island, fifty miles dissant from
Memphis, is under water, in some
places as deep as twelve Feet. Com
munication with Little Rock and the
southeastern part of Arkansas is cut
off completely, and it is with difficulty
that mails are brought through from
such towns as Jonesboro in boats.
Traffic is completely suspended to the
! south. From districts in Mississippi
comes reports that hundreds of plant.
ers are fleeing to the highlands. In
some instances, the dispatches an
nOunce, whole families have been fore
ed to take to trees. and peren in the
branches while the river RACES below
their feet. In others people have nos
been able TO leave the house and have
/ had to fee to the roofs, while the water
invaded their sleeping rooms below.
Rescue parties have been sent out
from New Orleans, Natchez, Memphis,
jackson and other cities, which are
not suffering so much, to aid these
people. 1t is almost impossible to get
a boat down the river. Even the great
river steamers are helpless in the swirl
of the eddies and whirlpools in the cur
rent, filed with swiftmoying masses
of wreckage. An idea of the size of
the flood can be obtained when it is
noted that it is now impossible to see
the Arkansas shore from the bluff on
which Memphis stands.
Official estimates of the damage al.
8 ready done by the foods was set at
ten million dollars last night.