The times-news., 1938-09-23
HARTFORD IS INUNDATED As
FLOOD PEAK ARRIVES; 40l
NOW dead IN CATASTROPHE HI
Look For Holyoke, Mass,
Dixie to Collapse; Eyac-
uation Begun
NATIONAL GUARD ON
DUTY BOTH PLACES
(UNITED PRESS

SOiiuSSll(lLb HOOPS 18ihGN
out by Governor Cross today
to guard postoffices as Con-
necticut river overflowed
the city of Hartford and ap-
preached flood peak.
Hundreds of workers toll
ed in an attempt to save
river dikes.
Scores of business and
residential blocks were un-
der several feet of water.
AT Holyoke, Mass, army
engineers warned city Off
cials that the Springdale
dixie is split by cracks two
feet wide and may collapse
any minute. N a ii o n a !
guardsmen were ordered to
ayacuate residents in the
threatened area there.
The total storm and food
dead this afternoon had
risen to 4S1.
Massachusetts believed IT had
had rampaging rivers under CON
troll. but food emergency was
threatening Hartford while eight
New Jersey towns were under wa
ter and rivers were rising IN up
per New York state
The threat of disease and fam
inc hung over thousands Of refUg-
ees in Rhode Island.
Meantime, the Coast Guard,
WPA, CCC and army and navy
were modified under the djrec-
tion of President Roosevelt to as
sist food and hurricane victims.
The Connecticut and NcrrI-
mack rivers were brimming their
banks and flood crcsts were de
Scending on Springfield, Mass,
and Hartford. Conn.
Property damage in the New
England States alone was eStimat-
ed at as much as 3OO,0OO,OOO,
with Rhode Island, smallest of the
states, bearing one-third Of the
burden of destruction and almost
half the burden Of death. Add
tional havoc in New York and
New Jersey brought estimates Of
property damage up to $iOO,OOG,-
600.
The total death count at mid
night Thursday had risen to a.,
Hundreds more were missing. On
Long Island alone. 80 persons
were known dead. 23 Of them in
Wcsthampton. and 50 others wee
missing.
Restoration of telephone and
telegraph lines to isolated COM
munitieS brought new cries for
help to relief centers and new
lists of dead and injured.
All down the Connecticut and
Merrimack river valleys volun-
teerS and Works Progress Admin
istration workers, aided by mill
tia. fought last night against
rising tide of imminent destruc-
ton in thickly populated cities al
ready crowded with refugee hord-
eS.
The hurricane was spending 1t
self somewhere in Northern Can
ada's wildS, a disastrous fire at
New London. Conn, was contrOlI-
ed. but the rivers of New England
rolled over their banks to the
mounting grief of homeless hun
dredS.
WATERS SEEP THROUGH
NEW HAVERHlLL Dixie
The flood crest of the Connect
cut swept down on Springfield,
Mass. already bevond its peak in
Vermont and New Hampshire.
The rising Merrimack moved omi-
nously on Nashua. n. H.. and its
waters Seeped through the ST.
100000 dixie built at Havcrhill,
Mass. after the disastrous floods
of 1886.
The Connecticut rose half a
foot an hour in Hartford. Conn,
while refugees from other parts
of the state poured into the city
by the hundreds, to huddle with
the city's own in emergency shell
ters set up by the National
Guard. Hartford was doubly men,
aced as the Park river also back
ed up.
Vaccines and serums were
flown to needy cities and towns
of Massachusetts, in National
Guard planes as doctors sought
to stave off the frequent after
math of flood-disease which
Continued on page three)