Evening star., 1927-05-01
BREACH IN LEVEE WIDENS.
80 Towns in Arkansas Expected to
BE Inundated Soon.

PINE BLUFF, Ark. April so tP).-
The crevasse in the Arkansas River
at South Bend has widened to eco feet
and the evacuation of the surrounding
countryside has been accelerated, Col.
Joe Harris, levee chief in charge of
the rescue work, telephoned from
Gould, Ark, late today.
The manager of hotel in McGehee
reported by telephone this morning
that water stood from to Ia feet
deep in the town. A number of houses
were being lifted from their blocks
by the force of the current and efforts
were being made to evacuate the town.
With something like thirty towns
and villages within the five county
area of southeast Arkansas, Col. 'Har-
ris believed none would escape the
flood.
Planes Give Warming.
AS warming of increasing danger.
was telephoned, or dropped by airplane
in towns without wire communica-
mas. Walnut Lake, Tillar and McGe-
hee left the lowlands as quickly as
possible, although none of these towns
was in immediate peril.
A fleet of boats ferried the fleeing
inhabitants across sections of high.
ways which were inundated today
when the new break poured in vol
umes to swell the flood already in the
lowlands from previous creVasses.
The ma iority of the homeless We're
taken to the refugee camp at Month
cello, westward on the ridges, and
will be quartered there with some
5000 others who were eXiled earlier
in the week by the flood in Lake VII
lage, Arkansas City and other towns.
Stories Of horror and loss of life
through the inundated sections of
southeastern Arkansas, particularly
in the territory between McGehee and
Lake Village. have not been exagger-
atcd. Col. Harris declared tonight.
Reports of hundreds clinging to trees
and house tops could not be verified,
although it was reported certain that
scores were helpless In atticS and barn
lofts.
Boats were dispatched today from
Monticello to join the many craft now
combing the inundated section. They
win nose through flooded fields and
farming communities as far east as
the Mississippi River in search of
marooned persons.
Another fleet is engaged in remov-
ing refugees from McGehee, Lake
v
tants elected to remain until the peo-
pie from the lowlands had been
rescued. Crumbling houses In Nc
Gehee 'hastened the evacuation of that
town, and with engineers unable to
predict how deep the final height of
waters will be, every effort was made
to take out every one who would
leave the affected sections.
Military officers in control from
Pine Bluff to McGehee reached a def
territory in event the rise of waters
is greater than expected.
Hundreds More i'm Danger.
In Chicot County, of which Lake
Village is the county seat, conditions
were described as extremely grave be-
cause hundreds, safe in upper stories,
where they fed from the first inunda-
tion, will be menaced by the rise of
waters from the South Bend break.
simultaneously with the new deluge
from the Arkansas River a new
menace was created in Ashley County
by Bayou Bartholomew. Fed by the
increased wave, the bayou rapidly
was rising, threatening to maroon
hundreds before they can be trans
ported from the danger zone.
While relief forces went to investi-
gate a report that 500 persons were
marooned at Montrose, a short dis
tance from Lake Village, other boats
raced to Parkdale. Wilnot and other
small towns endangered by the wave.
Five hundred negroes, concentrated
on the DrewAshley County line, were
removed to Monticello.