Evening star., 1951-04-01
Nine Perish as Floods
Spread Destruction in
Wide Area Of Nation
Nv The Assncinfei Press

D Spring floods caused death and
destruction in many parts of the
United States as March made a
lion-like exit.
AT least nine persons perished
including Mary Louise Cording-
ley. 81. Iowa women's golf cham
pion.
Thousands of persons we're
forced from their homes Many
climbed trees to escape the swirl
ing. waters.
Three non-fatai train accidents
also were attributed to rain and
floods. :
The deep South, Midwest and
East were hardest hit.
Driver, 81, browns.
william B. Chant, a 9l-year-
old manufacturer. drowned when
his automobile struck a culvert
in Fort Jervis. N. u, and plunged
him into surging water.
The rampaging Coosa- d 30
foot vel-swamped an automobile
near Childersburg, Ala. and
drowned its occupants. c. r. New,
28. and James E. Ford. 80, both
Of Talledega, Ala.
Their death raises to four the
toll in the deep South. including
two in Mississippi. Another man
was missing and believed drowned.
A bank Of Log Creek In Apala-
chin. N. Y, weakened by rising
waters, gave way and asphyxiated
Thomas Walter Romeo, IA.
F AT least / 200 persons were re-
ported driven from their homes by
high waters in Mississippi.
Scores were forced to flee also
in Alabama as the Coosa River
reached one Of its highest levels
in more than a half century.
800 Flee New Jersey Homes.
Almost 300 families were forced
from their homes in Northern New
Jersey before flood waters began
W SUUSlQE.
The flood halted a To-day search
for two children in Lincoln Park,
N. j., missing from their home so
feet from the Pequannock River.
The river had been dragged almost
daily since their disappearance.
The Newark weather bureau re-
ported 2.8 inches of rain in two
days, compared with an average
of 3.7 inches a month for this
time Of year.
A rain-damaged roadbed de-
rallied a five-car Rutland Railroad
train at cemetery crossing at Ar
lington, VT. and shook up about
40 passengers. None Of the cars
overturned. The train was bound
from Troy, N. Y, to Montreal.
Two Diesel engines pulling a
103-car Lehigh Valley Railroad
freight train were damaged near
Hazleton, Pa, in q collision with
"a boulder that rolled down a ra-
vine onto the tracks after lengthy
rains.
Highways Closed to Traffic.
A derailment involving 13 cars
|of a Delaware and Hudson Rail-
road freight train near Glen Falls,
N. Y. was blamed on washouts
and a f1ood-weakened culvert.
A number of highways in the
flood areas were closed to traffic
Several thousand acres of West
ern Iowa winter wheat were dam
aged.
Light snow fell from Minnesota
to Michigan.
Charles Norman. sr., 46, of Fort
Lee, N. j., drowned while trying
to shoot the rapids of the swollen
Ramapo River at Sloatsburg, N. Y.
His 9-year-old son, William, who
was in the same canoe, was miss
ing.
Theirs was one Of five boats
that overturned during an annual
try by members of an Edgewater
IN Jo club to run the rapids.
Eight other canoeists were rescued.
Bomb to Relieve Floods.
Lawrence A. Daniels, 40, left his
cottage near Kingston, N. Y, and
drowned when bank of a stream
gave way and threw him into the
water.
The Royal Canadian Air Force
prepared to drop a 1,000-pound
bomb on a giant ice jam in the
South Saskatchewan River to re-
lieve food conditions near Medi-
cine Hat. city of 10000 persons.
The jam already has withstood
500-pound bombs.
Rowboats, instead of automo-
biles, moved through the streets of
Chateauguay, Quebec. near Mont
real, removing residents of food
threatened waterfront homes.