Evening star., 1937-01-25
MISSISSIPPI SNAPS |
D|KESNEAR CA|R0|
Breaks to Be Widened by
U. S. Engineers to Reduce
Menace at City.
BULLETIN.

the Cairo, H., bridge and in two
other places. The waters were
pouring into a l3l ,0O0-acre flood
basin.
BY the Associated Press.
MEMPHIS. Tenn. January 25.-
Lieut.. Col. Eugene Reybold. district
engineer, said today the Mississippi
had broken three small gaps at the
upper end of the Birds Point-New
Madrid floodway's fuse-plug levee at
Beckwith Bend.
The flooded river thus started job
which engineers expected to finish
with dynamite, opening the dixie SO
rush of water from the rampaglng
Ohio may have widened outlet and
reduce the menace to Cairo, Ill.
Missouri National GuardSmen were
ordered to the scene yesterday to hold
off armed men who prevented engl-
neers from breaking the levee yeSter-
day.
Plan to Dynamite.
Three small gaps are letting water
into the New Madrid f1oodway," Col.
Reybold said. 1--WE will dynamite IL
If we can get any power into there
to do it. think there are men drill
ing the leyee now and they nave
dynamite with them.
Mai. r. D. Burdick is up there
now and is supposed to have joined
with the National Guard"
Meanwhile, fear raced ahead OF sui
fering down the Mississippi Valley to-
dav %hile the upper end OF the great
hasin began to realize the destructive
might of the Ohio Valleys worst HOOD.
Already Is have been killed ana
nearly $4,000 driven from their homes
in Tennessee, Arkansas. MISSISSIPPI
and Missouri. but food stage of So
feet at Cairo, ILL.,, early today MADE
IT plain the worst is yet to come.
Evacuation Ordered.
A request early today for lmmeolate
evacuation Of all women and children
among Cairos $4,000 population gave
dramatic forewarning Of the approach
ing major emergency in the Mississ-
ippi Valley.
Mavor August Bode asked the evac-
uation on advice Of Maj. r. D. Bur-
dick of the United States Army en-
rineers who said sudden increase IN
the rate of the rivers rise there made
the move advisable.
Only one highway-a road north
10 st. Louis-was reported open out OF
Cairo.
Government and private relief
agencies struggled with the havoc al
bn q
half dozen smaller tributaries OF the
Mississippi and prayed the big rivers
vet untested new levee system would
be equal to its task.
Complicating the growing problems
OF the United States Army engineers
was a "levee rebellion" in Missouri
where State militiamen had planned
to aid in an effort to dynamite the
"fuse plug" dixie below Cairo and save
that city.
Embattled farmers armed with
shotguns twice prevented engineers
from releasing pent-up Mississippi
waters into the 131 OOO-acre Bros
Point-New Madrid f1oodway yester-
day.
Cairo is at the junction Of the
Mississippi and Ohio and crests have
not yet been reached in the latter
stream. When they come they will
roll into the parent river to multiply
the burden already pouring in from
Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas and
Mississippi streams above and below
Memphis.
Then the security of tens of thou
sands Of lives and millions in property
along the 50O-mile stretch from Cairo
to the Gulf will depend on the great
levee system which was built after
the disastrous floods of 1927.
Orders for the complete evacuation
of Paducah KY, on the Ohio, was
the high spot in the Southern flood
picture, but at least a dozen other
towns were inundated and three
score more isolated by flood waters of
the Mississippi and its tributaries
SO Feet of Water Due.
With Cairo expecting SO feet Of wa
ter today, Memphis will get close to
46 feet. The river reached a stage
above 40.5 feet today.
Memphis set up a central relief
depot at its fair grounds to handle
5000 homeless. Elsewhere in Tennes-
see, Arkansas, Mississippi and Mis-
souri, arrangements were hurried to
care for As 900 more.
Engineers began the evacuation Of
800 residents of Black Island in the |
Mississippi River near Caruthersville,
many of them badly in need of food
and medical attention.
The St. Francis River battered down |
a levee near Truman, Ark, flooding
10000 acres to the south and west.
Coldwater River, flood menace of the
Mississippi delta, moved to dangerous
proportions as rs prisoners from the
State Penitentiary were rushed to
Marks to sandbag levees. The Tala-
hatchie also was under patrol as it
surged upward
The death list in Arkansas mounted
when child died of typhoid at Osceola
and another OF exposure at Gosnell.
Floyd Sharp, w. P A. administrator,
said 5000 Arkansas families were in
refugee camps and five times that
numebr on the way. Gov. Car Bailey
d the situati was critical" The
Ice storm damage to the States timber
exceeded s10,000000 and the highway
damage at least s500,000.
One unconfirmed report said sew
A. a.