In the event of levee crevasses the wide territory adjacent to the Mississippi River would be inundated and cause a repetition of what had already happened in the Ohio Valley. Part of the basin actually was submerged where waters from the Mississippi backed into the tributary feeders. It was responsibility of the Red Cross not only to care for refugees who found their own way to Memphis and elsewhere. but also to supervise and direct the organization of rescue parties and seek out and bring into this port of safety those who were marooned on housetops. in trees. in barn lofts. and in other precarious situations. A very real hazard of life existed in the rural areas where only about onehalf of the people could be induced to leave their homes. Those remaining were determined to stay until the floodwaters actually reached them.
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refugees