Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1912 — GREATEST FLOOD IN LATE HISTORY [ARTICLE]

GREATEST FLOOD IN LATE HISTORY

Eight Persons Drowned and 7,005 More Homeless. MILLIONS IN PROPERTY LOSS Levee Above Cairo, 111., Gives Way to Sweeping Waters and Factories, Houses, Lumber Yards, Etc., are Borne Away. St. Loiiis, April s.—Seven thousand people homeless, nearly 10,000 more » fleeing their homes or preparing for instant flight, eight persons "drowned, a property loss extending into the tens of Billions, dozens of cities up and down the river under water or menaced, and levees giving way before the pressure of the vast wastes of water like cardboard, briefly tells the story of the greatest flood in lato .history.

__ Everywhere a grim and determined fight against the great “father of waters” is being waged. Millions of bags of sand and dirt are being'uscd to strengthen levees, long since weat'ened by the pressure of the flood and by long continued rains. Everywhere in the entire water-swept valley men are working with but one idea or purpose that of staving off impending breaks that would sweep away homes and perhaps lives. In the wake of the flood is the grim spectacle cf pestilence which may result ffonr the o' erflow When the waters recede. * The five-day fight of th* reep’e of Cairo to. save the Cairo drainage dlfj trict ended in a complete rout and all hope ’of saving the industrial and agri cultural district of 8,000 acres JV -t north of that city was abandoned. In of beautiful alfalfa fields and fine manufacturing plants there is a sea of turbid water. The break in the Mobile and Ohio embankment was the beginning of the end. t Water ran through the crevasse all "day, but hope was entertained until late in the afternoon of stopping‘the flow at the Illinois Central right of waj. About 3 .p. m. a fresh break occurred in the Big Four embankment near the plant of the Pioneer Pole and Shaft company. With a rush the wit ter swept in, hurling houses and lumber piles before them. All along a five-mile stretch of levee from the Illinois Central bridge th Cacho rivqr, rhe water was up to the very top of the levee. There was nothing to build on and no hope whatever of checking the flow. Hundreds of workers were strung along this levee They were hastily rushed back into the city for fear that they would be caught between the breaks and drowne* At the plants of the Chicago Mill and Lumber company and the Weis Peterson Box company men were put to nork in a desperate effort to remove the veneer material before it was washed away. Reports from Arkansas towns back of the ..St. Francis levee, across the river from Memphis, state that many of them are partly flooded from backwater in she inland streams The St. Francis levee protects an area as large

as the state of Delaware and 5(10,000 people. Thousands have fled to the hills. , : ’. - The Ohio and Wabash rivers in Indiana. already racing over their levees in many places, have not yet leached their highest mark. The weather observer at Evansville, Ind., predicts the crest will be reached next Tuesday. Most of the levees are strained to the breaking point now, and can never hold out with a continued rise until next Tuesday. In some places the Wabash river is fifteen miles wide ahd considerable live stock has been lost. It is estimated that losses from the flood along the lower Ohio will be the greatest since 1884. Terre Haute reports the Wabash is the highest there since tfle disastrous flood of 1884 and that the people are on the move for safer localities. The arrival at Charleston. Mo., of mail by boat from Belmont, Mo., brings tidings that the latter has been wiped off the face of the earth and the citizens housed in a house boat where the postoffice is doing business Loss in property and live stock is beyond estimate and many have lest the savings of a lifetime. It is feared also many lives have been lost in this section. At Hickman, Ky.. flood conditions are worse than ever, with hundreds of food refugees pouring into town from Missouri and Kentucky Water is running o-er the government levee, the last »Tccl. of the rrkin I. os<■dis’, rial •-EG.r WEter, end lrct:;:g in ’ ’-st !':cl’,man added to the sericw.r.m-.-- of L. t rn’.-'.om with whli.li t’.e authorities- are cor.fronted '