OCR Text |
Show ALABAMA TOWNS III GREAT PEHIL Inundations Force Thousands Thou-sands From Homes and Damage Property. By Universal Service. MONTGOMERY, Ala., Dec. 11. The Alabama river had readied a slago of fifty-seven fet tonight, or twenty feet above flood stage and was rising at the rate of one-tenth of a foot an hour. A Mxty-foot stage v an forecast by the ' weather bureau. The crest of the flood will not pass before Friday. While the flood was reported receding reced-ing in t he northern part of tiie southern south-ern states, bout hern tieorgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana were being swept by a deluge of water. Thousands of families were reported homeless. Red Cross workers said entire en-tire families had taken refuse in tree-tops, tree-tops, while others fled lo the hills, where they were without shelter, food or clothing. cloth-ing. The total number of known dead was fifteen, but it was believed additional deaths would be reported when lines of j communication had been re-established. j A dispatch from New Orleans tonight said that all the small streams In that state were out of their banks, and many people homelesn. Jackson, Miss., said reports received there showed scores of settlements and villages in that state were under water. Many families had been driven from their homes at Ilattiesburg. A report from Mobile said there was onlv one line of railroad operating out of the city. Tn Montgomery all street car service was suspended and gas mains were being be-ing flooded. Electric light servk-e was cut off by the breaking of a power dam Tuesday night. Estimates of the property damage ranged from ?1 0.oOO.OO to 512.C00.O"". The loss In Alabama alone, it was estimated, esti-mated, will exceed $r,.OX'.000. Cold weather follow ed In the wake of the flood. At Atlanta the temperature was 31: degrees, tiie freezing point, while at New Orleans 2 degrees was recorded. At Memphis the temperature reached" 22, ten degrees below freezing. SPOKANE. Wash., Dec. 11. At Twin Bridges, fifty miles southeast of Butte, what old residents described as the worst storm In the history of that part of the state had been raging for twenty-four twenty-four hours. Houses were reported snowed In and the temperature was 20 degrees below zero. The fuel situation was reported re-ported as critical. A two-foot blanket of snow suspended all transportation service in Butte. The temperature, which on Wednesday rose 44 degrees, today fell 37 degrees, and at 6 o'clock tonight was 12 below. It was 12 below also at Billings, and at Missoula, Mis-soula, east of the Rockies, a blizzard was sweeping in from the east. All coal dealers were out of fuel. Thirteen Thir-teen inches of snow fell in the Great Falls section and a minimum of 19 degrees de-grees below zero was reported. The fuel situation remains exceedingly exceeding-ly critical, according to State Fuel Administrator Ad-ministrator Garry of Helena, who declared de-clared that fifty-five cars of coal from Duluth were stalled cast of Glendive. Because of the coal situation. Billings authorities prepared to house sufferers in three churches, if necessary. Volunteers continued to dig coal at Bear Creek and Sand Coulee. In eastern Washington and northern Idaho below zero temperatures were recorded re-corded in many localities. Pasco. Rltz-ville. Rltz-ville. Davenport and Toppeuish. Wash., were reported to be near distress on account ac-count of the lack of fuel. 1 SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 11. Heavy snows in the Siskiyou and Sierra Nevada : mountains delayed trains and seriously ! interfered with wire communication to ! the east and north of San Francisco to- night. j Sixty inches ,f unow on th summit, of I the Sierras was reported. Because of the snow aud washouts in northern Cai; -fornia and southern Ore-go. i, no trains reached here from the north today, and Only one train from Denver arrieJ during dur-ing the day. Others were reported tweive hours or more late. |