Evening star., 1937-01-30
Tennessee ToWnspeople Re-
port Brief Trembling at
3 A.M., but Say Levees
Were Undamaged.
EVACUATION OF 5000
ORDERED AT PADUCAH
Military Authorities Told to Use
Force if Necessary to Remove
Citizenry-Louisville, Cincin.
matt and Portsmouth Begin
Cleanup.
Full Page OF Flood Pictures
on Page A-8.

By the Associated Press.
A slight earth tremor injected a
new and fearsome element into the
Mississippi Valley flood fight today
near Tiptonville, Tenn, as pick
and-shovel army of 115,000 men
labored along both banks of the river
to strengthen levees against a de-
structive super flood"
Dixie workers and townspeople re-
ported there was a brief trembling
Of the earth about am. in the area
where q century ago an earthquake
formed the vast Reelfoot Lake east
Of the river.
A hasty inspection by engineers
indicated the earthen walls were not
preached.
1T lasted for several seconds"
said Chief of Police Pete Smith, but
there wasn't any damage. The levees
ere still holding above town"
The Weather Bureau said today
rain was expected tonight and Sun
day over the Ohio Valley, Occasional
rains are expected over the lower
Mississippi Valley.
Warmer weather was forecast over
most of the flooded areas, but it will
be colder Sunday.
Defenses Are Bolstered.
Meanwhile q pick and shovel army,
bolstered by reinforcements, raised
breastworks on both sides of the river
and awaited the zero hour, to come
when the crest of the flood from the
Ohio River sweeps past Cairo, Ill,
probably next Wednesday, and begins
its rush down the Mississippi to the
Gulf.
Then will come the test of the
gigantic billion-dollar levee system.
Anxious thousands in the river low
lands between Cairo and New Orleans
prayed they would be saved from the
fate of their fellow Americans in the
Ohio River basin.
The pick and shovel army waged q
strenuous and apparently successful
fight to hold the dixie across Slough
Landing Neck, q few miles above
Tiptonville, Tenn, and redoubled its
efforts to raise q bulkhead as the
flood waters inched toward the top Of
q 60-foot seawall at Hickman, KY.
Live Stock Removed.
Preparing for any eventuality, re-
inoval Of live stock and cattle was
under way in threatened lowlands
along the Mississippi from Hickman
to the mouth of the White River in
Arkansas, while evacuation Of resi-
dents along broken tributary levees
virtually was completed.
On the lower Ohio the rampaging
food waters forced complete evacua-
ton Of 5000 persons from Paducah,
KY, after the State health commits
sioner reported the city was unin-
habitable. Military authorities were
ordered to use force if necessary to
remove the citizenry.
AS the water crept higher 1000 en-
battled residents of Cairo, 80 years old
today, could only watch and wait for
the crisis.
It's seawall raised by hurriedly built
bulkheads to 63 feet, Army Engineers
confidently predicted the old river
shipping center, resting in ~"
formed by the Ohio and Mississippi,
would escape as it has done through
all the floods since the Civil War.
Backwaters of the Ohio forced resi-
dents of Karnak and Ullin, small
towns on the Cache River in Illinois,
to higher ground, and at Mounds 300
persons awaited rescue from second
story windows.
Above Paducah the food had done
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