Front page of Frank Leslies
Illustrated Newspaper
New York, February 26, 1881
Illustration Title Flood LOUISIANA - THE
HEAVY FLOODS IN THE SOUTH -
SCENE ON THE JACKSON RAILROAD NEAR NORTH PASS
SEVERE STORMS AND HEAVY FLOODS WEST AND SOUTH
A STORM Of unusual severity swept over the Northwest, and down
the Mississippi Valley to the Gulf during the early days of last
week. In Iowa and Illinois the snow was followed by rain which
froze as it fell, and railroad travel was interrupted in all directions.
At Omaha and westward the snow fall was the heaviest of the season.
Telegraphic communication was almost entirely cut off, the lines
being disabled by heavy winds. At New Orleans the storm was very
severe, and parts of the city were overflowed owing to breaks
in the levee. On the 7th in all that portion of the city west
of Broad Street, between the two canals, and all that portion
west of Johnson Street and north as far as Ursuline Street, embracing
a hundred squares, the streets and sidewalks were entirely covered
with water. The high wind blew down fences and damaged wharves,
and the roof of the wing of the State House in which the offices
or the State Superintendent of Education and the Commissioner
of Immigration are located blew off in the storm and the records
were damaged. Algiers suffered terribly nearly every fence in
the town being blown down with several smokestacks and roofs.
The water along the line of the Mobile Railroad submerged the
roadbed, and on the Louisville and Nashville road trains were
unable to run for two days. On the former road several theatrical
companies were embargoed by the break. On the 9th a terrific storm
of wind and rain struck Pass Manchac, sweeping away every building
in the place including the depot and telegraph-office. No lives
were lost, but the citizens lost everything in the way of household
effects, provisions, etc. The Jackson road was submerged for a
considerable distance near North Pass. At New Orleans the water
continued to rise until the 10th, Cypress Grove Cemetery and the
Spanish Fort Railroad being then submerged. Skiffs and sail-boats
were brought into very general use in the overflowed districts.
A relief committee was organized to supply food to the needy,
of whom there were hundreds. Our illustration shows the difficulties
of railroad travel in the floods on the line of the Jackson Railroad.
A dispatch from New Orleans, dated February 10th, says of the
situation: The damage by Sundays storm along the coast of
Mississippi Sound, from Pascagoula to Bay St. Louis, is estimated
at $100,000. Steamers now run to Bay St. Louis making daily connections
with trains on the New Orleans and Mobile Railroad, at which point
mails and passengers are transferred. The settled portion of the
city now inundated covers about five square miles, and contains
probably 50,000 inhabitants. In many places the water is three
or four feet deep, and in low one-story houses everything has
been washed out.
Mother
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