The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-04-02
125-FO0T SECTION
 OF LEVEE CRASHES
 INTO MISSISSIPPI
toontinued From Page one1


 kansas river to the Louisiana hns and beyond would be inundated.
 In the territory menaced by the sloughing at Old Town are great plantations where costly development work has been under way for several years. Some of them comprise as much as 1000 acres in a single tract and the entire country from Elaine south to Ratio looks like one vast plantation.
 Most of the timber has been re- moved from the land and practically all of 1t is under cultivation Plant ing operations are well under way. and a crevasse would stop them for several weeks. For the first time in the history of the delta, fsli blow ing was general last year and plan tation owners expected to reap large harvests this year. These hopes would be blighted by an overflow. Can't Estimate Damage
 It would be impossible to estimate. oven approximately the enormous damage an overflow would cause in Phillips county. Much of the threat ened territory is traversed by com crete roadways built at great cost. Phillips county is about to complete a system of modern roadways costing considerably more than S5,0O0,J00 and many miles of these roads would be in the path of the flood If the Old Town levee should break. A strong current, which observers at the threatened stretch of leyee believe would develop, would create havoc to roadbeds and concrete surfacing. There would be huge washouts and tearing out of concrete surfaces and the work of many months would be destroyed. No man knows how long it would take to restore these road ways if they should be torn away.
 At { o'clock this afternoon auto mobiles and motor trucks bearing 150 reserve laborers left Helena for Old Town. They will relieve the men who have worked in relays since yesterday. Reports coming over an emergency telephone line erected yesterday to connect Helena with Old Town for use by engineers and levee officials stated that the situation was unchanged and that the sub levees were growing steadily higher and longer. The people are hoping that sloughing will not continue and that the banquette. all that remains between at least a third of this county and parts of several others. will not be undermined by the cur rent.
 Memphis, April 1.-The Mississip- pi will begin falling by tomorrow night or early Monday at this point, and the rate of fall will gradually increase during the week, according to bulletin of the weather bureau here today. The crest of the flood waters are now flowing past the city with the river stationary at 42.6 feet on the gauge. With the excep- tion of the trouble at Old Town; Ark, where the front levee has sloughed off for a distance of 175 feet along the shore line, causing a situation which is causing consider able apprehension, no serious condi- tions have been reported from any point along the levee line in this river district. The crest is expected to reach Helena Tuesday or Wednes- day with stage of 52.5.
 The St. Francis levee board in charge of the levees on the Arkansas side from the Missouri state line to the mouth of the St. Francis just above Helena, issued an official bull letin tonight, in which it Is stated that guards on the entire length of the levee had reported at o'clock this evening that the Ievse was solid at every point and that there was no indication of trouble at Osceola or Mound City where trouble has been feared.
 Guards te RemR Harry N. Pharr chief engineer of the St. Francis board. said that the guards would be kept on the levees until every possibility of danger had passed. which, he said, would prob ably be the later part of next week. At Hillhouse, Miss, below the city, kq pssuso ssAst cup Jo suIAro sQl wave wash during the heavy wind yesterday has been stopped, engi- neers report, and conditions there are satisfactory.
 Telephone messages received here tonight say that the backwaters from White river have reached Clarendon. Ark, and that thousands of acres of farm lands between Clarendon and the river are under several feet Of
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