The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies.
UVUIVll- 1 ' • - ROOM T HE WO R K S PROGRAM No. 4 -- 1416 .------:--:--= *** em Un; 11; --Works Progress Administration-- 29 193 For Release to Morning Newspapers, Wednesday, January 27, 1937. WPA Speeds Evacuation of Flood Zone and Transport of Supplies. With many towns and cities completely evacuatea_, approximately 50,000 employes of the Works Progress Administration Tuesday night continued a race against surging waters in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys to move residents to safety and protect property in the threatened area, Administrator Harry L. Hopkins announced. Transport of supplies, part of which were producet by women work ing in WPA sewing rooms, also had become a major phase of operations. Nearly 40,000 of the 50,000 WPA workers engaged in flood projects were operating today in fiv e States. Kentucky was employing 13,000, Ind.iana 12,000, Illinois and Missouri 5,000 each and Ohio '.'i,500. Farther south, along the Mississippi, WPA forces in Arkansas were assigned to strengthening levees, under supervision of Army Engineers. The levees are to be raised by three courses of sandbags in all dangerous sections, Lt. Col. Robert W. Crawford advised WPA officials today. Similar operations to raise the height of levees at Cairo went forwarr today, as other WPA forces aide~ in evacuating the cit y of all but able-bodied workers. Upward along the Illinois shore of the Ohio river, WPA crews expected to complete evacuation of Mounc.s City, M01mds, Metropolis, Golconda, Rosiclare a nd Elizabethtown. on the Mississippi. Also to be emptied of residents was McClure Refugees from Metropolis included Brookport 1 s 500 inhabitants, who had moved to the former city earlier hoping for safety there. They are now to be cared. for in the State Normal College at Carbondale. The first town to be evacuated in Illinois with WP.A aid. was Shawneetown, where ' also used as an today only a few persons remained in a school building, emergency hospital. Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY No. 4-1416 -2- Communication with Louisville, Ky., which had been achieved only with the greatest difficulty for two days, and transportation of emergency supplies wa,s speeded today when airpl-anes a.t the Indianapnlis airport, capa"ble of reaching the Kentucky city in 50 minutes, were made available to the Works Progress Administration. George Field, Chief Regional Engineer of WPA, was directing rescue operations in the Louisville area from headquarters at tho Churchill Dmms race track, in cooperation with other agencies. ~orking in cooperation with the Public Health Service, WPA employes from Indiana were busy restoring facilities for sanitation throughout the flood zone of that State. Sc1.nitary units were to be Duilt by WPA workers from mat8rinl supulied by the Red Cross. Charles Wilson, Assistant WPA Administra.tor in Indiana, was making aerial surveys of the flooded area from Jeffersonville to locate marooned victims. Following his reports that the little town of Patriot, in Sv,itzerland. county, Ind., end Brookville, in Franklin county, Ind., were completely cut off by water, resew~ crews were disp!'ttched to evacuate residents. 'JPA officials reported evacua,tion of Jeffersonville ms comyilete Pnd Nev, AlrJany 1 \7aS to be emptied Tuesday night. A five-story building that had housed WPA district offices at New Albany caved in shortly after the headquarters ha,d been removed to Seymour, Ind. In West Virginia, WPA workers had completed the evacuation of 10,000 families, or approximately 40,000 persons, fr,om river-front citi8s. In Huntington, where 4,000 families had been moved to safety, the city's water supply was cut off at 3:40 p.m. after 10-minute notice. Two hundred and fifty WPA workers have been assigned to health authorities for sanitation projects. At Wheeling, 1,280 families had been evacuated by VfPA forces. Parkersburg had moved 700 families to safety and large numbers also had been evacuated by WPA at Ceredo and Kenova. Similar work was in progress at Point Pleasant. ---1')00--- Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
@FedFRASER