Water , Wind

Water, Wind

Last week residents of Memphis, Term., saw somebody's house bobbing down the Mississippi, headed toward the Gulf of Mexico. Soon other houses followed, plus bodies of drowned cattle, plus debris of every description. For the Mississippi, rain-swollen, high-rising, was flood from Cairo, Ill., to the Gulf of Mexico. Many a levee "went out," thousands of lowland acres turned into lakes, 24,000 refugees appealed to the Red Cross for aid, eleven lives were lost.

Devastated areas. Southern Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas were the worst flood sufferers. In the streets of Judsonia, Ark., water reached a depth of four feet; one estimate placed 2,000,000 Arkansas acres under water. The entire town of Columbus, Ky. (pop. 654) was abandoned. Columbus, Ky., though hardly more than a village, was founded 105 years ago and at one time was considered as possible site for the national capital. Levees at Memphis, Tenn., were populous with slimy, writhing snakes, flooded out of their swampy homes.

Tornado. Last week Don Griffith, 10, of Rock Springs, Tex., noticed a "funny feeling" in the air. It had been raining all evening and the sky looked "queer." Said Father Griffith: "It looks like a storm coming." Then came a roar, a crashing sound as of houses falling, and beneath the feet of the Griffiths the floor lifted up. Don heard his mother call to him, then everything went black. Recovering consciousness, Don found himself lying in mud amid the ruins of the Griffith house.

Had Don not suffered a broken leg and shoulder he might have risen, seen other ruins, walked through the streets of what a few moments before had been the town of Rock Springs, Tex., which was now a tornado-twisted ruin with less than ten buildings left standing. Of its 800 inhabitants, 56 were killed and from 150 to 170 injured. Texas, a tornado-play-ground, experienced 15 other "twisters" during the week.