The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1912-05-11
HUNDREDS FLEE
WHEN ANOTHER
LEVEE BREAKS
MANY INHABITANTS OF NEW
ROADS, La, SEEKING PLACE
OF SAFETY.
Water is Still Rising and the Entire
Town May Be inundated-Peopie
are Warned to Flee by Officials
Provisions Running Short.

New Roads, La, May 10.-The res
idents of New Roads spent rest
less night, and today there began a
general exodus of women and chill
,dren from the town With the flood
waters from the Torras crevasse ris-
ing gradually and threatening to in
undate the town, the alarm of the
people was heightened by the report
late last night of a threatened crew
asse in the Irwin levee, north of this
city.
Reports this morning to Lieuten-
ant Weeks, U. S. A, say that the
dangerous boils in the Irwin levee
were stopped during the night, and
that conditions there are less threat
ening. However, many of those who
refused to heed the first warnings
sent throughout this section yester-
day and the day before will now get
out. Boats will take persons from
Cooks Landing, and the Texas and
Pacific railroad will operate relief
trains south from here as long as
possible. aa&
If the big levees just above New
Roads should give way it would be
impossible to save hundreds of peo-
pie in this section of Pointe Coupe >
parish. Aaak&
People Warned tc Flee.
New Roads, La, May 10.-With the
warning given by Lieutenant Weeks,
of the United States army relief corps
that the flood conditions threatening
New Roads and vicinity are serious
and advising the people to leave i'm
mediately, preparations for extensive
rescue work in this district are being
made today by the government and
state relief agents.
Warnings have been sent broadcast
10 the thousands of inhabitants who
are almost certain to be rendered
homeless by the floods from the Tor
ras crevasse. While knowing of the
suffering and hardships experienced
by thousands of people who are de-
layed in the country above them,
many of the inhabitants of the new
fiood-threatened districts have posi-
lively refused to leave their homes.
The work of building a protection
levee around the principal part of
New Roads is rapidly progressing.
Every bodied man of the town,
merchants, bankers and others VINO
never before handled a pick or snovei
is doing his share of the work to
weep the water out of his home. The
negro quarter of the town has al
ready been invaded by bacA-water
which is steadily creeping up to the
top of the railroad embankment near
the Texas and Pacific station. A mis-
above here a washout prevents the
operation of trains, which makes the
relief work slow. The Torras break
this morning is quarters of
mile wide. The remaining telephone
wire was put out of commission last
night. Boatmen arriving here today
report that as the ends of break
crumble the current is taking every
thing in it's path.
Many houses in Torras already have
been swept away and others are
doomed to destruction. The big cot
ton seed oil mill, valued at S5O,O0U,
will be in the path of the current by
tonight and this will likely be carried
away.
Pointe Coupee parish, one of the
wealthiest and at one time among the
most populous in Louisiana, is now
undergoing it's third calarimty with
in the last few years. First came
the boil weevil, which practically de-
stroyed the immense cotton industry
of this part of the state. The farm
ers then turned their attention to
cane and the early freeze of last win
ter ruined thousands of tons before
it could be brought in from the fields
and ground. Now the flood is Destroy
ing all the crops.
Sheriff A. E. Baker estimates tnat
in this parish 250,00o acres Of corn.
10000 acres of cane, 5000 acres OF
rice and 1000 acres of cotton, to-
gether with thousands of other acres
devoted to early vegetables of all
kinds will be- destroyed by the pres
.ent food, LIT. -
II is estimated that not less than
1000 people have been driven from
their homes and that when the HOOD
completes its devastation OF the par
1sb the number of homeless will be
doubled.
The thickest populated portion OF