Evening star., 1937-01-29
CAIRO DEFENSES
STRENGTHENED
1000 Workmen Add to Sea.
wall and Bolster LeVeeS.
City Deserted.
Nv tie Associated Press.

CAIRO, Ill, January 29.-While
dynamite blasts reopened Mississippi
River levees below, 1000 men battled
here today against an oncoming Ohio
River flood crest that threatened to
engulf Cairo and spread destruction
over the southeast Missouri boot
heel"
This old river town-hemmed in
by the Mississippi on one side and
the Ohio on the other-was practically
deserted except for its levee defend
ers, and almost Ii q fort in military
siege behind it's 60-foot seawall.
United States Coast Guard cutters
shuttled up and down the turgid rivers
on picket duty" against the menacing
waters. Inside the walls Government
engineers directed new defenses to
check the rising Ohio, which they
halted earlier this week by blasting
open levee entrances into a 131 ,000-
acre spillway on the Iisscuri side Of
the Mississippi.
Today this foodway was nearly full,
with water to Is feet deep. and new
openings had been dynamited to turn
the sprawling currents back into their
regular channel and ease the burden
on a setback levee at the lower end of
the basin near New Madrid, Mo.
Workers Reinforce Levee.
Levee workers toiled at both ends Of
the floodway, reinforcing here 3-foot
bulwark on top of the seawall against
an expected flood crest of 81 feet and
strengthening the levee at New Madrid
against the spillway foods heavy
pressure.
Thousands of refugees from the
foodway area waited calmly in emer-
gency camps set up along the Mis-
souri, border of the flood basin, hoping
the avoc-wrecking water would be
skirted around them by the newly boil
stored dikes.
On the Illinois side Atlantic Coast
Guard veterans had finished moving
most Of the $500 inhabitants from
inundated Mound City, a short way
up the Ohio from Cairo.
Mister" said a sunburned Coast
Guard veteran, "if you'd told me last
week that such a thing could happen
I wouldn't have believed it." He was
watching a stopped old man carrying
a cage with three canary birds to a
rescue boat.
A grizzled Cape Cod boatswains
mate. plotting his 28-foot craft cau-
tiously, wondered how the refugees
would get along, their belongings
ruined. They say they're coming
back" he said, land guess they will
But it makes me sick to think of men
and women with this sort of trouble.
II wouldn't trade one Cape Cod
sandhill for the whole town, and
probably they wouldn't give their
front yard for everything east OF
Boston, but a mans home means a
lot to him, no matter where it Is
Sings as He Builds Shack.
To some of the harried people, how
ever, the situation was anything but
alarming.
A colored man sang as he built q
shack on top Of levee, using sal
vaged boards. Boss, it could be q
lot worse; I got most of my things
out" he said, pointing to pile OF
furniture and bedding.
Grinning, he picked up his hammer
and went back to work. His song,
more like a prayer. went on-"River,
Stay Way From My Door"
Water stood almost to the second
stories along Mound City's main
street. Street lights hung SO near
the water rescue boats had to avoid
them.
Coast Guard boats carried National
Guardsmen on patrol tours, guarding
against looting. 1t was expected the
last remaining residents, about 20.
would be moved to higher ground
today.
Complete evacuation Of about 1000
persons from mounds, including many
who fled from Mound City, was plan
ned today. Authorities indicated they
wanted to be free to devote their
whole attention to Cairo when the
crisis comes.
The Red Cross estimated last night
that there were 10000 refugees in
Southeast Missouri, many OF them
victims of last weeks food of the
st. Francis River on the western bor-
der of the boot heel"
Two thousand motor omnibuses in