New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1901-06-25
FLOOD LOSS TOO HIGH.
LATE REPORTS SHOW EARLY
ESIInA TES EXAGGERATED.
FROM SIXTY TO SEVENTY FIVE. LIVES
LOST AND 100000 DAMAGE THE
LATEST FIGURES


statement tonight by one OF the general officers
of the Norfolk and Western Railroad. summarize
ing the flood situation in the light of the latest
| dispatches. given TO The Associated Press;
! Restoration of telegraph line develops that
damage by flood through cOalfelds was exag-
gerated. Loss of life will not exceed sixty or
| seventy-fve. and damage TO property, including
repairs to railroad and coal operations, will not
exceed S1OO.OOO. 1t is expected the railroad VIII
get line open tomorrow or next day.
There has been very little news received here
to-day from the West Virginia flood One train
came in this afternoon. but not much new In
| formation could be gained from the passengers
| The trains running from Bluefeld and
Ennis. which places are just outside the terri
tory visited by the clOudburst Saturday. All
| day long to-day Roanoke residents who have
/ friends and relatives in the coalfelds. and the
| coal operators here who have large financial In
terests in the devastated strip. have been lin
gering around the railroad station awaiting the
| arrival of the beated train. These persons.
making inquiries concerning relatives and prop
erty. have been besieging the railroad and COM
mercial telegraph offices since early this morn
| ing The wires all being down west OF Bluefeld.
save one wire which goes through to Ennis, but
| is being used a train wire. prevented the
public from gaining any additional particulars
EXACT NUMBER OF DEAD UNKNOWN
How many are dead is not definitely known.
necessarily
fore the exact number can be given out as Of
icial but the various reports in circulation here
are that all the way from fifty to two hundred
persons have been drowned. 1t is probably safe
to assume the former figures as being
nearly correct than the latter. The 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 BlueheId 1t is a narrow
valley. not much wider than broad street in
some places. Coal mines are scattered all along
the road Keystone. the town reported to have
been greatly damaged and at first believed
to have been wiped out of existence. is a village
of between two thousand and three thousand
inhabitants, and is built along the narrow VAL
ley and the sides of the bluffs. There is a
creek which through the town. over which
most of the houses built piles and rock
work This creek runs in a zigzag way through
the narrow village and has a gradual fall The
mountains on either side loom UP for hundreds
of feet. and the town is narrow in places
that one is obliged to go into the middle of IT TO
see the sky.
SITUATION A DEATHTRAP.
Persons familiar with the situation OF the
| town said it would be deathtrap if the food
had been as heavy as reported. Yet they rea-
son that occurring in the daytime there was
no reason why many persons should have been
caught in the onrush Of the maddened waters.
All reports agree that between 200 and 800
houses were swept away in the Elkhorn Valley.
but. of course. not all the occupants were
drowned.
The railroad rushing material and
supplies the Elkhorn. One hundred and
fifty laborers in over the Roanoke and
Southern to-day extra train and went
nd all
road have been sent to the EIkhorn vicinity.
]. W. Crotty. fireman on the Norfolk and
Western road. who resides in this city received
message yesterday from Bluefeld that his
father, mother. one sister. two brothers and sis
ter-in-law. with her two children were lost in
the floods on Saturday at Keystone. Mr..
Crotty's people lived in the centre of the town.
neighbor Of the Crottys who escaped the
flood. informed Mr. Crotty at BIueheId on Satur-
day that he the Crotty house move of in.
the waters.
STORY OF EYE WITNESS
z. III. Stewart, we'll known furniture deaIer
in this city the midst of all the storm
and travelled on foot nearly the whole OF the
route devastated. Mr.. Stewart had been to-
Jamestown, y. Y. on business. and was return
ing by way of Columbus. When HIS train
reached Vivian. w Va. about O'Clock on Sat-
urday morning, water already covered a large
portion of the yard and the trainmen knew
that no further progress could be made. The
train placed at the highest point in the yard
The rain was coming down in torrents and
while the train Mr.. Stewart saw about thirty
cars washed from the yard and carried away by
the rushing torrents. large trees uproOted near
by while houses. bridges and furniture went
whrling by in the water As the flood increased
the water cut a channel the other side of the
train leaving IL between two streams Then
II was decided 10 take out those passengers who
wished to leave the train. and a rope was at
tached 10 the platform Of one of the cars and to
tree on the bank. Among the passengers was
a woman who with the assistance of several
men. was got safely to the bank. a number OF
men mad narrow escapes from drowning in
making the trip.
SAW A NUMBER OF CORPSES
There was a letup in the rain and the food
subsidized about noon. and at l o'clock Mr.
Stewart and another passenger left the train
and started to the next station. Keystone. five
n lies distant. Several bridges and much of the
track had been washed away. and the trip was
made with great difficulty. a portion of the way
on the track. and the rest on the bluffs along
the route. Mr.. Stewart says he number
of corpses along the route. but does not think
more than forty persons were drowned. When
he reached Keystone. about o'clock he found
that number of buildings had been washed
away and 1t was estimated that along the whole
route of the storm between two hundred and
three hundred houses had been carried away. but
the occupants of many of them had escaped to
the hills. He saw one very large building go
down with the food Most OF the buildings,
however. were small affairs. The coal conn
nanies' losses will he heavy