The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-11-14
HARDEST TEST
OF RED CROSS
CAME IN 1927
This Years Disasters Killed
800 Persons; Property
Damage Enormous.
BY RODNEY BUTCHER
NEA Service Writer

NEA OcTStCC HEitcI
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14.-Mother
Natures disposition is getting mas
tier.
The year 1926 was the worst dis
aster year in American history, &C
cording to the Red Cross.
But the Mississippi floods soon
gave the record for Mather Natures
widest rampages to 1927, and the
recent floods in New England have
added the toll of another major dis
aster only second in its proportions
to that of the Valley States.
Tornadoes and floods have killed
more than 300 persons and inflicted
property damage estimated as high
as 81, 000,0 100000 since Jan. l.
Red Cross Kept Busy
The Red Cross has never been so
busy in year of peace, for within
four months after it had finished its
work in the Florida hurricane area,
it had to tackle the greatest relief
task IL its experience in seven States
of the South and Middle West. 1t
has assisted nearly 100000 victims
within eleven months.
Mother Nature hasn't given the
nation even breathing spell and
the worst of it is that no one has the
slightest idea what terrible tricks
she will be up to next.
Started in January
The 1927 floods began late in jan
uary in Indiana, Ohio and Arkansas,
when hundreds of homes were dam
aged or destroyed and nearly 1900
persons required aid. Three other
States also reported flood damage.
In February came the first real
tornado and twenty-five persons
were killed by cyclone which hit
hardest in Sabine Parish, La, and
at Rose Hill, Miss. The Red Cross
did relief work at those points and
more flood relief work in Oregon,
California and Kentucky, helping
about thousand more persons.
Tornadoes Take 80
The Mississippi floods began in
earnest in April, after March tor
nadoes had taken thirty lives in Ar
kansas and put 500 or 600 persons
under temporary Red Cross care:
The greatest disaster of them all
overshadows the lesser tragedies,
but it accounted for less than half
of the 1927 casualties resulting from
Mother Natures wild rampages.
Ninety more were killed in April's
tornadoes, fifty-seven of them at
Rock Springs, Tex, and the others
elsewhere in Texas. Oklahoma and
Illinois, Some 300 buildings were
destroyed, according to the Red
Cross, which assisted more than a
thousand tornado victims during
April in addition to its flood work.
Hits Many States
There we're more tornadoes in
southern Illinois, eastern Arkansas,
Kansas and Missouri during May,
including one on May which hit
all three sections, killed 1859 Ar
kansans and Missourians and left
more than 1900 persons to be
aided by the Red Cross.
Since then floods have stricken
New England, Ohio and Utah and
tornadoes have hit Kansas, Missouri,
Illinois. Arkansas and Oklahoma.
The worst of the more recent lorna
does centered its fury on st. Louis,
where the loss was put at sixty-nine
dead, and 900 injured, 5000 homes
destroyed and about $75,O0O,O00
property loss.
Red Cross on Job
The fiscal year records show that
the American Red Cross also aided
sufferers from Caribbean hurri-
canes, Jugoslavia's $4,000 900 food,
Mexican storms and floods, AL
bantam and Armenian earthquakes,
Philippine typhoon which killed
275 persons and Japanese earth
quake in March which killed 5000.
These and other reports indicate
that Mother Nature has been RAM
paging all over the world.