Waterbury Democrat., 1901-06-24
MAY REACH LOGO.
The Number of Dead in West
 Virginia.
GOVERNOR WHITES FEARS.

Around All Night Eagerly Looking
 For News of the Flood-After the
 Rain Ceased the Swollen Streams
 Rapidly Reeeded.
 BIuefeld, W. y., June 24.-A great food. due to a cloudburst, struck the Pocahontas coal fields. in West Fir- ginia Saturday night, and it is estl- mated that from 200 to 600 persons have lost their lives. Keystone, Elk horn, Vivian and other towns have been devastated, miles upon miles or railroad track and many bridges have been swept away, while telegraphic communication with the district is en- tirely cut of.
 In Keystone, village of 2,000 in habitants, probably swelled on Satur- lay night by many visiting miners, on- ly one house is sai6 to remain, and re- ports say that at least POO persons lost their lives there alone.
 The Elkhorn river and all streams in tine district are higher than anybody now living here can remember, and everything movable has been swept away by the raging torrent. and it is possible that the loss of life never may be known.
 A train master who walked the line of track yesterday from Vivian to North Fork, distance Of more than twelve miles, counted more than thir- ty bodies floating in the river.
 Early yesterday morning, shortly af- ter midnight, a heavy downpour of rain begin, accompanied by a severe electric storm, and increased steadily in yio- lence until 10 a. m., then ceasing for several hours and beginning again with renewed violence.
 This continued throughout the entire day and night. It abated about 10 o'clock yesterday.
 Officials of the coal operations in the stricken district have sent out messen- gers to Elkhorn, the terminus of both telegraphic and railroad communica- tions, and have received a report that a conservative estimate as to the loss of life will easily reach in the hundreds, and that the disaster may rival the Johnstown flood of 1885.
 Thousands of men are at work re- pairing the telegraph wires, and last night they were renewed to a point about eighteen miles west of here, but nothing has been received as to the de- tails of the disaster.
 It will probably be twenty four hours before communication is opened, and it may be ten days before the Norfolk and Western railroad is able to run trains to the afflicted district At least hi, af& &r0c 0cIv is, completely and more than a dozen bridges are gone.
 In the meantime many families, pos sibly comprising thousands of persons, made homeless by the rushing waters, must suffer for want of food and shel- ter.
 Nothing had been heard from Taze- well, Va, yesterday, but a message from that place on Saturday night said there had been a terrible rainfall and that three children in one family were drowned. Tazewell is in the Clinch' val ley division of the Norfolk and Western railroad, nine miles from Tip Tcp, which is the highest railroad point east of the Rocky Mountains. It is known that the damage to crops and buildings
 
 feared that the death list, now num- bering three children. will be enlarged when later details come in
 The territory of the Elkhorn valley, covering the Pocahontas coal fields, is a narrow strip extending for miles through the mountains, with here and there connecting mountain stream flowing into it. The valley is not more than 300 yards wide at any place, and sometimes for miles there is barely enough level land for roadbed The mountains rise abruptly to either side, and through this ravine-Iike mountain way the Norfolk and Western railroad extends for more thah 100 miles, It is in this district that many mining towns have sprung up, and where the worst of the flood is reported.
 Roanoke, Va, June 24-The passen- ger train from the west over the Nor folk and western railroad, which was due at 11s55 D. m., did not reach Ro- anoke until 5:30 o'clock this morning. When the train came in there were many people at the station who had waited anxiously all night for news from tic devastated coal fields of West Virginia. Among those who came in on this train, and who had been in the storm, was a prominent business man of Roanoke, several railroad men and woman and two children. They came direct to Roanoke from Vivian, and were compelled to walk eleven miles from that place to the small town of Ennis. where they were enabled to get train for this city These passen- gers declare that the number of deaths has been exaggerated, in their opin- ions, and feel confident that not more than one hundred people have lost their lives, though they cannot say with any certainty as to the number. The meun- tain district lying back from the rail- roads probably have suffered heavily and the exact loss of life will not be known for several days. 4 railroad man who has been working at Vivian told the Associated Press correspondent that the rain started last Friday night and continued for some time in mod eration, but shortly after midnight the heavens seemed to open and poured forth great volumes of water When the cloud burst over the town of Vivian