The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-26
EXPLANATION OF THE MANY
BODIES FLOATING DOWN STREAM
ON BLUEFIEIaO FLOOD ,
NUMBER OF DROWNED FIFTY
ACCORDING TO THE MOST CON.
SENTATIVE ESTIMATES so
FAR MADE
RAILROADS WERE HARD HIT

ROANOKE; Va, June 25 - Persons
coming in from the flood district in West
| Virginia place the number of drov,ned
at sixty-fve persons. but have no definite
or detailed information on which TO base
the estimate. There has been some me
| terruption today to the wires between
Roanoke and Bluefleld and only one wira
| has been In use since morning. A tele-
gram from Bluehcld this afternoon saws
| there are no important DEVELOPMENTS
there today. Repair work Is going ahead
with vigor. Blueield Is the great ship
| ping point for the Pocahentas coal com
ing East. 1t is said there that the coal
| fields will not be able to ship any coal
! for the next thirty days. The coal trada
will suffer almost incalculable loss as a
result of the washed out tracks and dam
ages TO machinery
gentleman arriving In this CITY to-
| day from the stricken section gives as an
| explanation of the report at first cir
culated that great masses Of human
! bodies We're TO be seen floating around in
the water, that there is a grave yard
between North Fork Junction and Key
| stone, which towns are eb0ut mile
| apart, and at which point the storm was
very severe This grave yard is near the !
| bank of the river. When the flood come
| lIlC BidNeS gave up IHClr ueaQ and dQQGQ
| greatly to the number of bodies seen.
The Norfolk & Western railroad off,
clals thought this morning that taey
| would be able to have their Clfnch 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.
TAKE WEEKS TO REPAIR.
Ihese repairs will be only OF a tenn
porary nature, however, and it viii be-
many weeks before the tracks and roada
bees can be placed in their former condIS
| tion.
A short telegram was received hero
late this evening from EIkhorn. This Is
some miles west of Ennis which place
was the farthest west of BIuefeld that
had been communicated with up to this
morning. The message gave no informa.
ton whatever
j. b. Frances, a Roanoke man, who IS
In keystone installing a water plant and
VINO was first reported dead has written
his Wife telling her he Is safe and sound. 1
He has the following to say about the
Disaster:
"A big flood 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 hoatlng down the streams with
people in them. All our crowd are safe.
we arc entirely cut off from the outside
world and provisions are getting short.
There Is 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 that the
father, mother, one sister two brothers
| a la xstitn cI,iT .
}. w. Crotty, Of the Norfolk & Western
railroad, were drowned, was a mistake
Mr.. Crotty is now In the coal fields and
telegraphedN today that they were all
safe.
MANY FOWNs DAMAGED.
Tazewell, Va, also suffered from the
cloudburst. The public house of Paris
Vandyke, four miles west Of Tazewell, in !
a gorge Of the mountains, was washed |
away. Vandyke heard the roar OF water
and started home from the field. When
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 leapfnq
forty feet high and travelling with fright /
ful speed. Vandyke rushed for the
house to warn his family, but the water
overlook him and swept the house and /
all it's inmates away. Two children,
seven years old, were instantly killed, /,
|
| ROCKS and timbers. The bodies were
washed to lowlands. A little girl holding I
O. young sister in her arms, was carried /
200 yards. Another member of the family +,
died yesterday afternoon and Mr.. VAN I
dyke is still unconscious and cannot live.
At CeoAr Bluff, sixteen miles west OF
| Tazewell, seventeen dwellings were swept !
away, but no lives were lost.
At Pounding Mill four lives were lost,
Knobe, a small town seven miles west,
was almost completely destroyed, I,
! Ravens. two miles west, was badly dam
aged and many business houses were
destroyed The damage to county roads
will be not less than $4,000.
A notice was posted in the boiler de-
partment of the Norfolk & Western rail-
road in Roanoke this morning announc-
ing that the shops VIII be closed at "a
o'clock today until further notice The
| bulletin card said that the shutdown
waB on account Of the destruction by the
| flood and the fact that no traffic was
| passing over the road The notice said
| that the shops probably would resume
| work in three or four days. There are
| about 1000 persons employed in the Nor
| folk e Western shops here, but not all ,
Of them will be affected. All the men
are out except a sufficient number 70
keep up repairs. AS the road Is doing 10
| coal business, which is Its chief traffic,
| few trains are on the road.
NINE PROPERTY DESTROYED.
The damage In the coal fields begins
at Coaldale. which is fifteen miles vest
of Bluefeld. In that place great en-
bankments supporting the railroad tracks
have been washed away, At Mayberry,
from the train can be seen five houses
| upset and partially demolished
The delivery and coke oven tracks Ok
| the Grocer and Houston operations are
mostly entirely gone bridges and all,
| cars are turned over. empty and partially
loaded, and some are demolished.
/ The CroEby colhery house is washed
out and the damage sustained is $500.
The damage at Houston ls $500 at the
| Upleg companys the boiler house ana
tipple is partly washed away Along
| here coal company houses have been
| moved and destroyed, Between this op.
Grafton and Kyle all tracks are badly
damaged, nearly everything having exc
| changed positions with the former eresR
| bed.
The great hlIs which the railroad COM
pany has been making END riprapping
ever since the high Waters Of 1881 Nave
been leveled. All operations have mad
heavy loss and weeks will have passed
/ 81