The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-25
NEWS IS MEAaRE.
Description of the Devastated Dis
 trict,

CT1cI.
 Roanoke. Va, June 2l.-There was very little news received here today from the West Virginia flood. one train came in thi safternoon but not much new information could be gained from the passengers. Trains are run ming from Bluefields and Ennis, which places are just outside the territory viisted by the cloudburst on last Sat urday morning.
 All day long today Roanokers who have friends and relatives in the coal fields and the coal operators here who have large financial interests in the devastated strip fingered around the railroad station awaiting the arrival of the belated train. These people. making inquiries concerning relatives and property, besieged the railroad and commercial telegraph offices from early morning until night. The wires all be- ing down w@st of Bluefield, save one wire which goes through to Ennis, but is being used as a train wire, prevent ed the public from gaining any addi- tional particulars. How many are dead Is not definite and 1t necessarily will be several days yet before the ex- act number can be learned. The va rious reports in circulation here are that fifty to a hundred persons have been drowned. It Is probably safe to assume that the former figures are more correct than the latter.
 Ihe damage to property will amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Miles of railroad track are washed out and great gulches have been created. The devastated section covers an area of about twenty miles west of Blue fields. It is a narrow valley, not much wider than a broad street in some places. Coal mines are scattered all along the road. Keystone, the town re- ported to be wiped out of existence, is a village of between 2.00O and 3.OOO people and is built along the narrow valley and on the sides Of the blufrs. There is a creek which runs through the town. over which most of the houses are built on piles and rocks. This creek runs in zig-zag way through the narrow village and has a gradual fall. The mountains on either side look up for hundreds of feet, and the town is so narrow in places that one Is obliged to go into the middle or IL to see the sky. Persons familiar with the situation of the town say that it would be a death trap if the flood was as heavy as reported. Yet the flood, occurring in the daytime, there was no reason why many people should have been caught in the onrush of the waters. All reports agree that be- tween 200 and 300 houses were swept away in the EIkhorn Valley. The rail- road people are rushing material and supplies to the Elkhorn-. Valley.
 J. w. Crotty. a fireman on the Nor folk and Western Railroad. who resides in this city. received message yes- terday from Bluefelds that his father, mother. one sister. two brothers and sister-in-law with the latter's two chill dren. were lost in the floods Saturday at Keystone A neighbor informed MT. Crotty at Blueflelds Saturday that he saw the Crotty home move off In the waters.
 D. H, Stewart, a well known furntt- ure dealer of this city. was in the midst of all the storm and traveled on foot nearly the whole of the route dew astated, When the train reached ViV- ian, w. Va, about o'clock Sunday morning, MT. Stewart saw about thirty cars washed from the yard and car ried away by the rushing torrents. Large trees were uprooted nearby, wkile houses, bridges and furniture went whirl!pg by in the water. As the flood increased the water cut a channel on the other side of the train, leaving 1t between two streams.
 Then it was decided to take out those passengers who wished to leave the train and a rope was attached to the platform of one of the cars and to a tree on the bank. Among the passen- gers was a lady, who, with the assist ance of several men, was taken safely to the bank. A number of men had narrow escapes from drowning.
 The flood subsided about noon and at 1 o'clock MT. Stewart and another pas senger left the train and started to the next station. Keystone, five miles distant. Much of the track and several bridges had been washed away. MT. Stewart saw a number of corpses along the route. but does not think more than forty people were drowned. When he reached Keystone about 3 o'clock he found that a number of buildings had been washed away and 1t was es- tlrnated that along the whole route of the storm between 200 and 300 houses had been carried away. but the occu- pants of many of them had escaped to the hills.
 MT. Stewart walked from Keystone to Ennis and was taken from there to Bluefield. arriving in Roanoke today
 An official teleEram from Ennis says