New Britain herald., 1927-05-17
Except For War, America Knows No Destruction Equal to That
 of Flood, Writes Noted Author
Will Irwin After Trip With Coast Guard Rescue Boat Through Desolated Louisiana and Districts, Is
 Aghast at Misery and Destruction.
Tops of Trees.

Tops of Trees.
 Always in the distance rose groups of what seemed to be green islands. but which resolved them- selves as we approached into the tops of cypress trees.
 To east and north this lake stretched 10 or Is miles to the Mis- sissippi. To the vest, and close to our course, ran what seemed like low board wall.
 We had run two or three miles when we advantaged ourselves of a dip in the telegraph lines, ran our propeller clear of its wires and drew alongside. We had the odd experi- ence of looking down from the wa ter on to valley. This board fence was in fact the extension of a ten- foot levee and formed a second line of defense against the overflow of the great river to the east.
 Down that valley ragged and bub- bled yellow current. A mile to north two low sand pits. with an open gap of . thousand yards be- tween. marked the ruin of the Bay ou Des Glaises levee, which had gone down only that morning. In its path lay Moranville: a pleasant little town clustered round a cotton gin. The frail Aittle Negro huts of it's outskirts seemed knocked out of line. One was already floating. The waters swerved and eddied against the corners of row of five sub. stantial houses.
 The railway station. fringed with a line of stranded freight cars, stood on slightly higher ground. The waves were tapping on its plat form.
 A Stray Jersey Cow.
 A stray Jersey COW. missed that morning in the rush toget the stock to the levees. was splashing and raised her muzzle in faint omen of an agonized moo. Suddenly she plunged in, swam away behind the station. I did not see her emerge.
 We ran along the levee for an- other two miles. Here and there a roof appeared. and always at these spots men were working like mad. For though the flood was rushing down the valley from the north, these houses stood on higher ground. at its edge. If our levee held. they might be safe.
 C,,LJ ! v-h the roofs peeped thicker than usual. came frantic waving of arms and sheets. We slowed down to turn. A lifeboat of the coast guard service tagging us. suddenly shot out of line and put alongside the levee. When we had turned, frantic arms warned us away from a point two hundred yards beyond. We looked. and the line of boards was gone.
 As the engine stopped. we heard a roar like Niagara. We leaped atop the dike and ran. The levee had broken under our eyes.
 Across a gap, perhaps a hundred feet wide, poured the whole mill lion-ton force of the mighty Missis- sippi. It bubbled in rapids as wild and turbulent as the royal gorge of the Arkansas. and with infinitely more terrible force.
 House Is Ruined.
 A fine substantial house with tur- rets and bay windows had stood just opposite the break. It lay turn ed half around, crumped up as you would crumple match box in your hand.
 Under the levee above 1t lay half a dozen little houses with barns and corrals. In one of these some one had stupldly or neglectfully shut COW and her calf. The COW was believing madly: the calf seem- ed to stand in a stupor. The wa ter was at it's belly. then halfway up to its back and now 1t was swim ming. and all the time the mother believed frantically for help. which could not come. For between her and the levee ragged a hundred feet of water so mad that no man alive could swim it.
 Behind Us. aS ws watched the torrent from tho edge of the break, the coast guardsmen were loading men. The women, had been taken of long ago into the lifehoat: and COWS. horses. a newborn calf. a SOW onto . flatboat. Sud- denly voices roared at us in English and Cajan-"Get back" There was an ominous creaking of boards. The cinema men gathered up their cameras and we ran toward our boat as twenty feet Of levee gave. broke and spilled new accession into the torrent. Then Cajan farmer pointed and said something in French. which would have meant nothing to a Frenchman.
 Out of the levee bank at our feet was oozing and bubbling little spring. That is the first sign of a break. The levee was going at least a thousand yards. the skipper of our boat estimated. before mor,.- ing The three boats loaded up and pushed off in nervous haste: had it broken on us at that instant, we might as we'll have been in the grip of Niagara. ....-