Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 230, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1920 — TROPICAL STORM HITS LOUISIANA [ARTICLE]

TROPICAL STORM HITS LOUISIANA

Hurricane Sweeps Inland Near Morgan City, Weather Bureau Announces. DAMAGE AT IBM ORLEANS Trees Uprooted aM Window* Broken —Pleasure Seokora at Lake Pontchartrain Floe Into CityShips Rush to Shelter. New Orleans, Sept. 23. —The tropical storm hit the Louisiana coast with full force. Itswept inland near Morgan City, the weather hpreau announced. Wires Are Down. With wires down between here and points along the Gulf coast to the west, weather bureau officials were experiencing extreme difficulty In obtaining information from the section where the storm passed inland, ’ Southern Pacific railway officials said their trains from that section were being greatly delayed because, of high water and destruction of telegraph wires. -- Fear Crops Suffered. - Anxiety was expressed here for the sugar and rice crops. Morgan City is close to one of the greatest rice-grow-ing sections df Louisiana. To the north sugar plantations of the Teche country were believed to have been in the direct path of the storm.

Indications are that the fishing villages along Lake Borgne, which fig-, ured in last night’s storm reports, were hit by a series of gales and did not Experience the force of tfie main disturbance. Damage at New . Orleans. No loss to shipping has thus far been reported here. Traffic on the Louisville & Nashville railroad 1 , however. was - at a standstill, one bridge having been washed out near here, while the tracks were reported under water at several points. Trees were uprooted, windows were broken and signs were blown down by the wind here. One unidentified man was killed by a falling power wire. Considerable damage from high winds and tides was reported from coast points east of here, the wind at Bay St Louis and Chef Menteur being estimated, at 60 miles an hour during the night. In some localities wires were down or out of commission. With the rising tide and growing winds residents and pleasure seekers along the shore of Lake Pontchartraln commenced flocking Into the city. All the hotels of the city are filled to overflowing and refugees are located ip the post office, customhouse and other public buildings. . At Port Eads a large fleet is anchored behind the breakwater and jetties waiting for the storm to blow •vef.