Cairo was for days
surrounded by the torrents from the Ohio and the Mississippi beating at
the levees, while to the north of the city factory buildings were
immersed to their roofs or even entirely covered. By April 7th, the
levee in Arkansas, seven miles south of Memphis, had a gap a mile long
and Lake County, Tennessee, had no ground above water but a strip six
miles long by four wide. By the middle of the month, the levees at
Panther Forest, Arkansas; Alsatia, Louisiana; and Roosevelt, Louisiana,
had succumbed, and a thousand square miles of fertile plantations were
from five to seven feet under water.

FARMS AND PLANTATIONS SUBMERGED

Rain-storm after rain-storm caused the stream to swell, undermined
dikes, and broke new crevasses all the way from Vicksburg to New
Orleans. Hundred of farmers and their families, a majority of them
negroes, were cut off and overwhelmed by the flood. For several weeks
the people of New Orleans were under the fear that a large part of the
city might be submerged and ruined. Near by vast sugar plantations were
under water, while the prosperous town of Moreauville was inundated.
Refugees' camps were established and relief work began. Many vessels
assisted the army. Pitiful stories of famished and suffering victims of
the flood were told, and the miles and miles of desolated country struck
horror to the heart. They have a pregnant saying down there: "Come hell
and high water." Some day, it is to be hoped, we are going to take the
force out of that expression.

DESTRUCTION IN LOUISVILLE

Disaster by tornado is not so easy to avoid as disaster by flood. One of
the most destructive storms of recent years was that which swept over
Louisville, Kentucky, in the evening of March 27, 1890, killing 113
persons, injuring 200, and destroying property to the amount of
$2,500,000. The storm came from the southwest and cut a path through the
heart of the city three miles long and nearly a half mile wide. Nearly
every building in its course was leveled to the ground or otherwise
damaged. Outlying towns were also devastated by the storm, and flood
calamities occurred simultaneously along the Mississippi.

About eight o'clock the storm was raging with tremendous force. The rain
fell in sheets, the lightning was constant and vivid, the wind blew
ominously. The streets were soon miniature rivers, and telegraph and
telephone poles began to snap. By 8.30 there was alarm all over the
city, but before