New Britain herald., 1927-05-06
Town of Rayville En- irely Disappears and Boats Are Rushed to Rescue People From Treetops and Roofs of Houses.
Many Tenant Farmers in Devastated Regions Now Facing Death by Starva- tion, Reports State.

New Orleans, La, May R-The muddy torrents of the Mississippi still raced uncursed over northern Louisiana lowlands today after hav- ing overrun more than five million acres of farm and swamp lands on their mad rush for the Gulf of Mex ico.
 The spread over II Louisiana par ishes continued.
 Rayville had disappeared and an urgent appeal was made for boats to remove residents from tree tops and the roofs of houses. Tallulah and Newington were being invaded. Delta Point stood on the fringe of the tawny sheet. Dozens of smaller villages already had disappeared. More than three hundred square miles had been covered by the Mississippi and its tributaries in Louisiana as the gian, stream gath cred it's forces after their rampage over six other states.
 Arkansas Hit Hardest. Kentucky had suffered least and Arkansas most. In Kentucky, 39,300 acres were submerged south of Wickliffe. Four hundred and sixty six thousand acres were inundated in Tennessee and 19O,00O more in southeast Missouri, while backwater in the St. Francis and Whiteriver basins claimed S9o,0OO other acres. Other hundreds of thousands acres in Mississippi had disappeared, but this water now was stopping back into the main stream to be poured again through broken levees into Louisiana.
 Tributary overflows wrought most damage in Arkansas and Missouri. The Black river claimed 195,000 acres in Missouri and 37S,0O0 in Arkansas. The Cache river in Arkan- sas scored another 672.000 acres. the St. Francis reached over 735, 900 acres and the White River below Batesvile covered 640.000 acres. In Missouri, the St. Francis was satis- fled with 123,000 acres. As the river | fury upon the parishes along its banks with the waters from the Ar kansas breaks slowly ehbing over the lowlands to join those from more recent crevasses in the Mississippi levees, they pushed over new terri tory to meet the backwa-ers from the Red and Black rivers.
 Camps Are Isolated.
 Red Cross concentration camps were being cut off from their sources of supply and the expanding muddy pool threatened to envelop them. Rescued persons became refugees again and gradually thy were re- moved from Delhi to Monroe. Seven- teen thousand refugees had been as- sembled at Delhi from the flooded area between Macon Ridge, Sicily Island and Oak Ridge. The town of St. Joseph was slowly disappearing.
 Motor boats and skiffs replaced expensive limousines in the aristo- cratic old river town.
 In the inland towns. difficulty was experienced in removing tenant farmers, since the waters were spreading so slowly it was hard for boats to navigate. Many tenant farmers were threatened with star vation, plantation owners said, be- cause they were reluctant to leave their homes, and had no food. l Nidalia. seat of Concordia parish after three weeks Of battling with rising waters of the Mississippi, was forced to about face and meet the assault of backwaters which were climbing up the protection levces at the rate of 10 inches day.