The age-herald., 1901-06-24

stated, however, that every building In the town of Key Stone was demolished or carried away by the water. save one, and that a barroom which stands on a high
 hill.
 200 Lest at Keystone.
 The normal population of Keystone Is 200o, and as last night was Saturday night, there is no telling how many mi ners had gone into the town to swell it's population. It is estimated that 200 lives were lost at Key Stone alone. The flood seems to have extended over vast area of mountain country and the hundreds of mountain streams becoming swollen only served to swell the Ekhorn river until it overflowed and carried destruc- tion in its wake. Railroad ties and tracks, small buildings of all descriptions, trees.
 telegraph poles. huge boulders and every imaginable moveabe thing that came
 within the sweep of this mighty torrent of maddened waters went down the mountainous district is a seething, roar ing mass of debris. Dead bodies could
 be seen floating along the valley by those
 who had gained place of safety in the
 high hills. All day Saturday the rain fell in sheets and it Is evident that if 1t did
 not cease there would be flood and
 great destruction must result from 1t,
 but it was not until after darkness had
 enveloped the coal regions that the great
 catastrophe was upon the country and
 was making a clean sweep of the valley
 for miles around. Shortly after mid
 night Saturday night it seemed as If the
 heavens had opened their flood gates
 over the town of VI an. West Va. Here
 a passenger train was caught in the flood
 and the lives of the frightened passen-
 gers saved by the use of ropes which
 were thrown quickly over from the coke
 ovens which skirt the railroad yards at Vivian. The passengers were glad to
 catch the ropes and willing hands
 dragged them from the submerging train and over the oven barricades to a point of safety. Owing to the fact that the telegraph lines had been prostrated by the storm, the Norfolk and Western officials detailed messengers by foot to cover the territory as best they could, they returning in short time with re- ports of the terrible destruction which
 had been wrought in their respective territory.
 Saw 53 Dead Bodies.
 One of these messengers. after walking over the devastated district, came back
 and reported having seen thirty-eight dead bodies. There afe supposed to be many who will never be accounted for. | The loss of life will probably reach 800
 or 6OO and possibly this number will be
 swollen when fuller details are obtainable. The Norfolk and Western Railroad or- ficials in this city admit that at least POO lives have been lost. Key Stone wiped out and millions of dollars worth of prop l erty destroyed. It is not known how far back into the mountains the storm extended, and 1t will be days and prehaps weeks before all the storm-stricken country Is heard from. | The flood has not only damaged the Elk horn valley, but 1t is stated that every | one of the thirty-three flat-top coal plants l has suffered to some extent Great dam- | age is also reported to have resulted in | the Clinch valley section. which extends | south from Graham, Va. No lives. how l ever, are reported to have been lost | along this valley.
 | A message received by the Associated | Press tonight from Coaldale, w. Va. IA | miles south of Bluefield, says that there has been an immense loss of property | and some loss of life at that point. I The Western Union telegraph operator I at Bluefeld wired the Associated Press correspondent at o'clock that the loss | of life at the lowest estimate Is 200. He says there is one wire now working through to Ennis, eighteen miles west of | Biuefield, but that this wire is monopo- | lized by the railroad people.