The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-26
MINERS MUST
 REMAIN IDLE Bad Phase of West vir-
 sinia Flood. DROWNED NUMBER SIXTY
Estimate Made by Persons Re-
 turning from the District.
No Definite or Detailed Informa- tion on Which to Base This Sur mise-Bodies Washed Uu
 from Their Graves.

Roanoke. w. Va, June 25.-Persons coming in from the flood stricken dis- trict in West Virginia place the num- Der of drowned at sixty persons. but have no definite or detailed informa- ton on which to base the estimate. There has been some interruption today to the wires between Roanoke and Bluefields and only one wire has been in use since morning. A telegram from Bluefield this afternoon says there are no important developments there today. Repair work is going ahead with vigor. Bluefield is the great shipping point for the Pocahontas coal coming East. It Is said there that the coal fields will not be able to ship any coal for thirty days. The coal trade will suf- fer almost incalcuiable loss as a re- suit of the washed out tracks and damages to machinery.
 man arriving here today from the stricken section gives as an explara- ton of the report first circulated that great masses of human bodies were to be seen floating around in the wa- ter. that there is a grave yard between North Fork Junction and Keystone, which towns are about a mile apart, and at which point the storm was very severe. This graveyard is near the bank of the river. When the flood came the graves gave up their dead and added greatly to the number of bodies seen. The Norfolk and Western thought this morning that it would be able to have it's Clinch valley line open this evening.
 J. B. Frances, a Roanoke man who ported dead, has the following to say about the disaster in letter to his wife:
 "A big flood visited the town last Friday night. Everybody had to go up on the mountain. Men, women and children were drowned in the streets and houses went floating down the streams with people in them. We are entirely cut off from the outside world and provisions are getting short"
 Another letter today from Keystone says between ten and fifteen people were drowned and forty houses washed away at that place.
 The report received here yesterday that the father, mother, one sister, two brothers and sister-ln-law with two children of J. w. Crotty, of the Norfolk and Western Railroad were drowned, was mistake.
 Near Tazewell. Va., Paris Vandyke,
 
 whose two children were instantly kill ed, is still unconscious. He will die. Al Cedar Bluff. sixteen miles west of Tazewell. seventeen dwellings were swept away but no lives were lost.
 Knobs. little town seven miles west was also completely destroyed.
 Raivens. two miles west, was badly damaged and many business houses were destroyed. The damage to eoun- ty roads will be not less than S5O,OOO.
 Parkersburg, W. Va. June 25.-Com- munication has just been opened with Spencer. the county seat of Roan coun- ty and word was received from Reedy Valley that awful flood water rushed down from that valley.
 A cloudburst struck Reedy Creek about 10 a. m. Sunday. Rain contin- ued to fall in torrents and the destruc- tion to crops, fences and live stock is the worst ever known. At Reedy the large general store of A. s. CheuvTont and the postoffice were swept away with loss of $3.0Oe. Every store in the village is several feet under water. The Reedy Boom and Lumber Company IS probably the heaviest losers. over $5IOOO worth of lumber being carried away. The stores of J. S. Brown and Theodore Stout were damaged to the extent of S1. 800 each. The general store of F. F. Fox was partially destroyed. Roody. Kyger and Spencer were without mail service since Sunday. Communication was entirely cut off until the telephone lines were repaired today.
 The Ripley and Mill Creek Valley Railroad is in bad shape. The loss of four bridges and many washouts will make 1t impossible to resume traffic for several days. On Tanners Run, a tri- butary of Reedy Creek, the home of John Miller, containing a family of husband, wife and seven children, was swept away, while the family was asleep, but Ill were rescued by neigh bors from an upper story. The loss to the Reedy merchants is estimated at 5000.