The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1912-04-10
Fight FOR SAFETY
PEOPLE OF ALL CLASSES ASSIST
Tn EFFORT TO
CHECK RAGING WATERS

CHECK RAGING WATERS
One Main Leree Yields to Force OF
the Flood, and the Torrents Of Wa
ter Sweep Over the Country, Carry
ing Devastation to the People in Its
Course.
With one main levee gone, water
tapping the crest of the embankment
at half a dozen points and several
breaks believed to be only a question
CT hours, Major Clark S. Smith, Unit
&C States engineer, directing the fight
against the waters encroachment, de-
scribed the Mississippi River food
situation Friday night as grave"
The Reel Foot Lake levee, west Of
Hickman, KY, was the first main
embankment to go. 1t collapsed late
Friday afternoon and Friday night
food waters are sweeping over wide
area.
Golden Lake, fifty miles north Of
Memphis, and the levee on the Arkan-
sas side, eight miles below that place,
are regarded as in imminent danger.
At both points sand bags have been
piled on the surface Of the revet-
ments to height of one and half
feet and Friday night the water is
washing over them. At Mound City,
Ark, and at Holy 2ush also the lev
ees threaten to cave. People of all
classes have abandoned business to
assist in the effort to check the rag
ing waters.
Pitiful cases Of destitution have
! been relieved in various parts Of the
wide stretches of country embraced
in the central section of the valley.
Hickman, KY, houses about $500
refugees, partly in tents, and these
include some 1000 or more employ
ees of factories living in six hun
dred houses flooded in Hickman last
Monday. Columbus, KY, New Mad
rid, Mo-, Dorena, Mo-, are the towns
seriously affected by the invading wa
| Ic ~
have sought higher ground. Hun
dreds of head of livestock have per-
ished, while many time the tnumber
were taken to points o. safety before
the rise.
With a roar that could be heard
Tor miles, the Mississippi River food
burst through the Government levee,
five miles west of Hickman, late Fri
Gay and Friday night is racing over
several counties in Kentucky and
Tennessee toward Reel Foot Lake.
One hundred and fifty square miles
of farming lands in Fulton County,
kentucky, and Lake and Obion coun-
ties, Tennessee is now an inland sea.
Grave apprehension is felt for the
safetay OF farmers in remote sections
of the sparsely settled country. The
water, when it came through, tore a
gap sky feet in width In the levee
and the swirling current is fast eat
ing away the earthwork and widening
the breach.
The Reel Foot levee as it Is gener-
ally known, has been regarded as
dangerous point for a week and
strenuous efforts had been made to
hold the food Farmers with busi-
ness and professional men have work
ed almost continuously for several
days and night in gangs with Govern
ment laborers. Until Friday, when
the waves, driven by wind, began to
beat against the banks it was thought
the fight would be won. The battle
vas ct it's height at the end. When
the collapse came the workers were
compelled to run for their lives,
number making their way to Helix
nan afoot while others, marooned
beyond the break, were rescued in
sasoline launches.
The Reel Foot basin, over which
the water is forming blanket, is
made up Of small farming communi-
ties. The farmers homes are gener-
ally frail structures and with the
great rush of the flood are being
swept away as chaf before the wind.
A number of the residents had aban-
doned their homes and with their
families sought safety In the towns
oD the surrounding hills, but others,
more optimistic as to the ability Of
the protecting wall to hold back the
raging waterway, remained on their
lands.
When the crash came efforts were
made TO communicate with the scat
tered villages by telephone, but with
little success. Considerable livestock
IS still in the lowlalds The property
damage will be large, but farming
operations will not be seriously ham
ncred. except that the crop will be
Because of the unusually
neavy rains of the early spring, but
title of the ground mas been titled
md the deposits left when the food
.ecedes will add to the productive