Evening star., 1937-01-23

COCH tItOUSH !tOOU SNtCS NCfS "
1D1H.
fire and police said they were un-
aware Of it.
They declared their concern now
was with the food and fuel situation
and finding solution to the problem
of how to get supplies to the thou
sands still In homes unreachable ex-
cept by boats.
Streets were flooded that never be-
fore had felt flood waters. Citizens
who in former years were flood specta-
tors found themselves flood refugees.
Unlike seasoned flood refugees who
usually suffer little, the first timers"
were caught unprepared, with insufh-
cient food in their homes.
Wilmer Carmichael, veteran police
reporter of the Cincinnati Tmes-Star,
Informed his Office today that a shoot
down looters" order was passed orally
along the river front police lines.
Health Conditions Good.
The river had risen only one-tenth
of a foot since am. From that
time to o'clock 1t remained SEEM
ingly stationary at 726 feet, but by 8
it hit 72.7, where it remained at the
hourly reading at 10 am.
DR.. F. K. Harder, acting health
commissioner, reported general health
conditions good.
IT don't believe there is any dan
ger of an epidemic here" he said,
adding that the State health depart
ment had sent consignment OF
typhus vaccine.
THE water supply in Cincinnati is
pure and water that comes from the
faucets may be used with safety"
Harder said. ANY one who drinks
water taken directly from the river
should be sure to boil 1t first. As q
general health precaution, every one
should try to keep dry and avoid ex-
posure."
Temperatures this morning ranged
around 19 degrees. Streets slippery
from a heavy snowfall that turned to
ice hampered rescue work.
Flood supplies were reported ade-
quate for the time being but in sub
urban Dayton and Bromley, KY, the
Red Cross and Salvation Army ra-
toned refugees to two meals day.
Dayton's Speers Hospital had feet
of water in the Easements. Its boilers
were not operating. Electric heaters
were placed in patients rooms.
Reporting plenty of food on hand,
hospital officials said no operations
could possibly be performed.
At Marietta, the river was rising
two-tenths of foot an hour from
crest of 468 feet at 8 am, which
was six-tenths of a foot higher than
the crest of the March, 1888, inun-
dation.
r. P. Powell, Parkersburg weather
forecaster, predicted a flood crest at
Marietta Sunday of so feet, 81 feet
under the 1918 crest.
Snow which followed the rain left
a 4-inch blanket on Marietta and
the surrounding countryside. The
cold failed to keep water from rising
rapidly in the business district.
Portsmouth Isolated.
One hundred miles UP the mighty
Ohio, Portsmouth was isolated except
for uncertain wire and radio COM
munication. More than $4,000 OF the
city's $4,000 residents were homeless
and dwindling food supplies-believed
adequate for two days-added to con-
Germ.
Mayor D. H. Bowling of New Boston,
a Portsmouth suburb, appealed for
food, declaring that $500 OF the 5000
residents were homeless and that facil-
tiles were practically non-existent for
treating several new cases OF influenza.
Crippled transportation facilities and
forlorn refugees, many Of whom had
lost nearly all their belongings, told
the outward story of brownish waters
toll in the rain-soaked Ohio Valley,
which recorded an average CT more
than 6 inches of fall in two days.
Cincinnatians were advised to draw
emergency drinking water supplies to
prepare for a possible shortage. Sand
bags held back water around the city's
pumping and electric light plants.
In Darkness As Minutes.
Western Hamilton County (Cincin-
natD was without lights for As minutes
early today before a burned out trans
former was repaired. Light stations
at Dayton and Springfeld-50 to 10
miles north-helped maintain Cincin-
MATHS supply.
The gas supply was shut of in Ports
mouths flooded business district as q
against explosions Of water
weakened mains. Other river cities,
including New Richmond, Ironton,
Gallipolis, Pomeroy, Marietta, Martins
Ferry, Steubenville, East Liverpool and
GAINESVILLE, were affected to a greater
or less extent.
Water is pouring into the basement
Of the City Hall and JAIL" Bud Smith,
reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer,
said by telephone from isolated New
port, KY, where 80 city squares or
approximately one-third of the city Of
10000 was under water, with 10000
homeless.
1.-THE fires are out and 40 prisoners
are bowling from cold. Police Chief
Leo Livingston lectured them and told
them many are worse off outside but
they still howl"
As rescue workers toiled on and on
at their seemingly unending tasks, tall.
Forecaster Devereaux, q.
and his oyerworked assistants said tlS