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Show ! STRAINING DIKES i HOLD OFF FLOOD i . MEMPHIS, Tenn. Feb. JH ! Pounding waves and ponderous crests sustained flood peril along ' the mid-Mississippi today, but ; strained levees held -and the Red Cross began mapping rehabilitation i plana for the valley. Winds up to M miles an hour out ef the northwest rolled combers against the sturdy dikes, but army engineers reported no major damage dam-age and, with the peaks psst Memphis, Mem-phis, reiterated belief the worst wss over. Red Cross officials' faith In this view was reflected In shaping of a tentative rehabilitation program for T5.000 refugees in Tennessee, Alabama, Ala-bama, Mississippi, Louisiana and western Kentucky. Washington surveyed the problem ef floods and flood damage from all angles. Senator Bulkley CD.), Ohio, aald President Roosevelt Is sympathetic toward Bulkleya bill to aet up an Ohio valley authority empowered to reforest river slopes, build dams nd check soil erosion. The president's flood relief commission, com-mission, headed by Harry L. Hopkins, Hop-kins, reported after a tour of the flood sector an urgent need for housing to replace water wrecked homes, liberalised credit and increased in-creased health protection. The fatal burning of a national guardsman when an oil heater exploded ex-ploded In a cabin near Tip ton villa, Tenn, and additional disease fatal-ltlea fatal-ltlea among refugeea raised the disaster death toll to 431. The refugee refu-gee list dropped steadily from its peak of nearly a million, but hundreds hun-dreds of thousands still were homeless. home-less. LOS exNGELES, Feb. (INS) With traffic detoured from more than a eoore of major highways, thousands of workmen were busy today repairing destruction wrought by the spectacular weekend week-end floods. Railroad travel between Loa Angeles An-geles and San Diego continued on a "shuttle" basis, southbound trsv- elere leaving trains at Del Mar to resume the trip by bus because the tracks were washed out in several placea. Damage In southern California waa estimated at nearly 13.000,000, largely in washed out bridges and , highways and water damage to homes and stores in scores of low-lying low-lying areas. I SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. (INS) Damage caused by floods in California's Cali-fornia's central valleys waa estimated esti-mated conservatively today at 1760,-00 1760,-00 aa the water receded. Thousands of acres of farm lands were inundated when rivers jumped their banks as -melting anowa and runoff rains cascaded down water-aheda. |