Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1922-04-30
FAMINE THREATENS
1,9)OFL0OD VICTIMS
Many Communities in Louis
lana Cut Off From Re-
lief Sources.
SUPPLIES BEING RUSHED
Inundated Area as Result of Three
Breaks in River Totals $500
Square Miles.

NEW ORLEANS, April 29.-Reports
from Harrisonburg, La, late today
that the 1000 residents of that town,
in addition to 500 refugees from Cata
houla, Concordia and other flooded
parishes, face starvation unless food
supplies arrive speedily, have greatly
intensified the gravity of the food
situation.
About $500 people have been driven
from shelter by the levee break near
Ferriday, according to n. r. Gotten.
member of the Louisiana state food
relief commission.
Many isolated communities have
been completely surrounded by water
and residents forced to depend upon
the small stocks of food on hand when
flood waters rushed through the break
near Ferriday. Countless numbers are
living on canned products that they
are securing from community gro.
GERS, but reports from some sectiorn
indicate there are other communities.
not so fortunately placed and that
many people are very little ahead OF
starvation. In many farmhouses.
where residents have remained in
their marooned or flooded homes,
there is very little if anything to eat.
Many Camps Need Food.
With depleted stocks OF food re-
ported from all the refugee camps
in the Louisiana flooded area, and a
real crisis existing at Harrisonburg.
refugee workers today expressed the
belief that those who remained in
their f1ood-swept homes may in the
long run be better off than those
concentrated in the refugee camps
unless some means of reaching the
camps with provisions is found with
out delay.
IF provisions are not rushed to
Harrisonburg at once, there will be
suffering there n. r. Cotton,
member of the Tensas Basin levee
board, declared today. A steamboat
with provisions was reported to be
en- route from New Orleans. but
little is known of the time Of its
probable arrival. or when these sup
plies will reach Harrisonburg. where
at least 500 refugees are expected
tomorrow.
Citizens Giving Aid.
At the Jonesville refugee camp,
where several hundred are being
cared for by residents there, a new
! source of trouble has arisen in that
! the food waters from the Ferriday
crevasse have surrounded the town
and threaten to cover the entire place.
Disquieting reports are being re-
ceived at Jonesville of people being
| marooned at different points along
| the Louisiana and Arkansas railway.
! Many people at Black Water, Chevy
Chase. Althone Moreau and some
| other communities are reported to be
| in need of immediate aid. Whole
| communities have been cut off from
outside communication and the lack
Of small boats, the only method by
which they can be reached. has prac-
tically isolated them.
At Clayton. La, two negro men
were caught in a swift current rush
ing into the Tensas river and
drowned.
$500 Square Miles Flooded.
Incomplete. unofficial estimates.
based on late reports from the flood
ed areas. indicate that as a result of
three breaks in the Mississippi river
combined with areas flooded by back
water from it's tributaries, approx
mately $500 square miles. equal to
the combined area of Delaware and
Rhode Island. are inundated in Ar
kansas, Louisiana and Mississippi and
that probably $4,000 people are either
homeless or are living in flooded
homes.
Although there have been no
breaks in the levees in that section.
the largest area reported under water
is in the lower Yazoo river basin.
where it is estimated that 1850
square miles. including some Of the
best OF the Mississippi delta farm