The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-06-26
THOUGHT TO BE sixty
No Coal Shipments Can be Made Un
der Thirty Days.
TEMPORARY REPAIRS ON THE RAILROAD
The Clinch Valley Line 10 be Opened at Once,
Though II viii Take Months TO Put
il in Its Former Con-
(By the Associated Press.)


Roanoke, Va, June 25.-There has been
some interruption to the wires between
Roanoke and Bluefield and only one wire
has been in use since morning, this re-
naming wire being duplexed all day, the
railroad dividing it with the Western
Union as far east as Lynchburg and west
to Bluefield. telegram from Bluefield
this afternoon says there are no i'm
portant developments there today. Repair
work is going ahead with a rush and
vigor. Bluefield is the great shipping
east
WASHED OUT OF THEIR GRAVES.
1t is said there that the coal fields
will not be able to ship out any coal TO
the next thirty days. 1t is thought at
Bluefield the loss of life will be in the
neighborhood of sixty. The coal trade
will suffer almost incalculable loss as a
result of the washed out tracks and dam
age to their machinery A gentleman
arriving in this city today from the
stricken section gives an explanation for
the report first circulated that great
masses of human bodies were to be seen
floating around in the water. 1t seems
there is a grave yard between North Fork
Junction and Keystone, which towns are
about a mile apart and at which point
4I,1 I'M.
yard is near the bank of the river which
caused the great destruction. When the
flood came the graves gave up their dead
and added greatly to the bodies seen.
The Norfolk and Western Railroad Off
cials thought this morning that they
would be able to have their Clinch Valley
line open this evening. They say the
Thacker coal field lines are already open
and that the road will be able to get a
train through to Columbus tomorrow
These repairs will only be of temporary
nature, however, and it will necessarily
be many weeks before the tracks and
Toadbeds can be placed ii their former
condition.
short telegram was received here
late this afternoon from Elkhorn. This
is some miles west of Ennis, which place
was the farthest town west of Bluefield
that had been communicated with up to
this morning The message gave no in
formation whatever.
THE STORY TOLD BY FRANCES.
j. B. Frances, a Roanoke man, who is
in keystone, installing a water plant and
yItn rsfr 1,nc ait ta,,
his wife telling her he is safe and sound.
He has the following to say about the
disaster:
"A big food visited the town last Fri
day night. Everybody had to go up on the
mountain. Men, women and children were
drowned in the streets and houses went
floating down the stream with people in
them. All our crowd are safe. We are
entirely cut OFF from the outside world
and provisions are getting short. There
Is now no water in the town.
Another letter today from Keystone
says between ten and fifteen people were
drowned and forty houses washed away
at that place. The people are hard at
work clearing up the town and repairing
damaged buildings.
The report received here yesterday that
the father, mother, one sister, two broth
ers and sister-in-law with two chill |
dren, of j. w. Crotty, Of the Norfolk and
Western Railroad, were drowned, was
mistake Mr. Crotty is now in the coal
fields and telegraphed today that they
were all SAFE
DASHED OUT THEIR BRAINS.
Tazewell, Va, also suffered from the |
cloudburst. The house of Paris Van |
Dyke. four miles west of Tazewell, in a |
gorge of the mountains, was washed |
away. Van Dyke heard the roar of |
water, and started home from the field. |
When a short distance from the house |
he saw the water rushing down the |
mountain sides tearing up and twisting
off giant trees as If shrubs, the water
leaping forty feet high and travelling
with frightful speed. Van Dyke rushed
for the house to warn his family. but the |
water overlook him and swept the house
and all its inmates away Two children.
five and seven years old, were instantly |
killed, their brains being dashed out |
against the rocks and timbers. The |
bodies were washed to low lands. A lit |
tie girl. eleven years DID, holding young
sister in her arms was carried 200 yards
Another member OF the family died yes
terday afternoon, and Mr.. Van Dyke is
still unconscious, and can not live.
AT Cedar Bluff, sixteen miles west of