The Sentinel=record., 1912-05-16
.LOUISIANA'S
 SAD PLIGHT
FLOODED SECTION OF THE STATE AMOUNTS TO $500 SQUARE
 MILES NOW.
Effort Will Be Made to Secure Federal Aid--FaiIing This Levee Work Will Be Done by Popular
 Subscription.

lmately i,50u square miles or Lihisl- anas lands inundated by the Missls- sippi river flood waters and more than 100000 people driven from their homes in the parishes west Of the riv- CT from the Arkansas line almost to the gulf, the most serious crevasse of the present disastrous flood -Hymelia promises to add another thousand square miles. or more, to the over flowed territory. make homeless thou sands of people and add millions of dollars to the, property damage done within the state
 The property damage already wrought by the floods In this state. is enormous. It will amount to millions
 mo one has attempted to even ap- proximate it, for the state has been too busy with the work of rescuiug people and livestock in the flooded territory and in caring for the thou sands of homeless and destitute peo- pie. The loss of livestock has been exceedingly heavy, but, although more than 25 parishes have been swept by the floor, the list of known human victims is iess than 40. The terri tory now in water in Louisiana com prises 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 as Con. necticut, Rhode Island and Delaware combined, and almost the size of tho great state of Massachusetts Within another ten days five other parishes will feel the effects of the waters from the Mississippi broken levees, which hourly are creeping upon them which no hand can stay
 As vast, however, as is this terri tory where the waters are today cours- ing over fertile fields and scores of prosperous villages and towns, Louis jana has more than four times that much soil which flood waters cannot reach. Against the 7.500 square miles now inundated, there are more than 10000 square miles of the state dry.
 Parts of the following parishes are inundated.
 Warehouse. West Carroll, East Car roll, Richland, Ouachita, Madison, Franklin. Caldwell, Tensas. catahoula. Lasalle, Concordia, Avoyelles. Pointe Coupee, St. Landry, West Baton Rouge. lberville. st. Martin. Assump- tion. st John the Baptist. St. Charles. St. Bernard, West Filiciana.
 Within another ten days these par ishes will also he seriously affected: Terre Bonne, LaFourche. Iberia. s. James, Jefferson and St. Mary.
 Except for small stretch Of land in West Feliciana and another small stretch in Lower St. Bernard the overrlowed territory in this state ex' tends along the west banks of the river from the northern part of the state to the extreme south ern part, 300 miles in length and vary ing in width from 10 to 30 miles.
 Tonight the Hymela crevasse. B miles north of New Orleans, on the opposite side of the river from thia city. had widened to approximately TOO feet, and the waters had inundat ed about 40 square miles Of rich sp- gar land iii St. Charles and St John the Baptist parishes Work was start ed today in the effort to fife the ends of the crevasse to prevent it's widen ing further but the proposal to close the big gap in an effort to save the S250O0, GOO to $30.000.00O of property which is threatened awaits the action tomorrow of the Mississippi river 
 If the gap is not closed, 90 per cent of all of 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 ana the Hymelia crevasse of 1912 will go down in flood records as the most dis astrous from standpoint of property destroyed in the history of Mississippi river disasters
 Tn 1903 a creyasse occurred at al most the same spot and the estimated possible damage to property, if 1t were not closed, was placed at s25.- 900, ,000 The public was aroused.
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