The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1948-12-03
Emergency Ferry
Service Set Up
BY Red Cross

state highway and some county
roads and inundated lowlands
this week began to recede Thurs
day, but approximately three feet
of water continued to cover the
Escatawpa river fill.
The Jackson County chapter
of the American Red Cross made
arrangements with Clifton Will
liams to operate a speedboat for
emergency service, Mrs. David
Clements, executive secretary,
announced.
by emergency service, we
mean taking doctors to and from
EscataWpa if necessary, deliver
ing medicine and transporting
i'll persons across" she explained.
Through Wednesday one emer-
gency case was handled when a
doctor was taken across to visit
a seriously i'll patient. This also
involved transporting members
of the family, a trip for oxygen
and other medicines. Mr.. Will
liams has also placed his a on
the Escatawpa side at the dis
posal of the doctors. There is a
larger boat equipped with beds
if it is necessary to transport
stretcher cases. In each case am
bulance service will be arranged
if necessary"
That section of Highway SO
which was repaired" by the
state highway department in the
spring was closed to traffic all
week and persons living on the
other side of the fill and working
on this side - primarily at the
paper and wooden mills - were
ferried across in boats.
Water covered the jackson
Creek road and surrounded the
Orange Lake school which was
forced to close because of in
the school. Water was also over
ability of the children to reach
the black-top cut off at Six Mile
Branch. The cutoff, however,
had been closed since last week.
Biloxi fell through the pavement
end when a Shell Oil truck from
near the Six Mile Branch bridge.
Road Pitfall
The road over the Escatawpa
fill proved a dangerous pitfall
for many motorists early in the
stages of the rising water. A num-
Der of vehicles attempted to cross
after the water had completely
covered the highway and al
though some log trucks and a
very few high-built buses were
able to get across several cars,
including one bus filled with pas
sengers, were stalled midway
and a few cars went PARKWAY off
into the canal as the drivers
failed to follow the hidden road.
Rex Moore, manager of the
Moss Point mill of the Interna-
tional Paper Company, said reg
ular operation at the mill had
not been interrupted although a
number of employees had been
forced to ferry across the flooded
Highway SO.
G.. C. Golf, personnel director
at Peterzell and Gelles wooden
mill, said a large number of their
employees live on the other side
of the Escatawpa fill and that he
personally had supervised their
transportation by boat across the
flooded area each morning and
afternoon and had made sure
they were being met by busses
on each side.
During the couple of hours I
was there each morning and
again in the afternoon l saw sew
eral tourists stopped by the wa
ter" he said. They were pretty
peeved about it, too, and didn't
appear TO feel too kindly toward
this section of the country"
Stock was evacuated from
swamp and low lands throughout
the county as the water rose and
people living in fishing camps
on the banks of the Pascagoula
and Dog rivers found it necessary
to move to higher ground, it was
reported. Comparatively few fam
lilies, however, were forced to
leave their homes because of any