The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-06-08
100 MAY HAVE BEEN DROWNED
FLOOD LOSS IN SOUTH CAROLINA
ALSO MAY be $1,000 900.

All Railroad Communication in the Pied.
mont Counties Cut Of-Nearly 10000
People without Any Means Of IAyei.
hood-EnOrts Made to Calm Them.
COLUMBIA, s. c., June Tt Is believed
that fully one hundred lives were lost
in the food that swept with q torrents
force through the mill towns Of Pacolet
and Clifton yesterday morning. Forty
hours after the devastating food had
swept through the Piedmont counties
there was not train moving across that
part of the State. Such blow the rail-
roads have never before suffered in this
region. The breaks consist not OF small
washouts or unimportant trestles, but most
Of them are steel bridges over rivers.
The centre of food damage and suffering
in Spartanburg county is isolated or five
railroads running into the county not one
is in operation, and none can be operated
until bridges are built Every telephone
wire is down, and it is only in the last few
hours that more than one telegraph wire
is working.
reporter to-day traversed the most
stricken district, a radius Of fifteen miles
embracing the villages of Clifton, Pacolet
and Glendale. At the latter place there
will not be suffering, as the mill will be
closed only temporarily, but at Pacolet
and Clifton, where between 1000 and 10, 900
people are out OF work, and with nothing to
look forward to, there is keen distress.
While they are not in ctual want, it re-
oilired the combined efforts of the preachers
L., -
and hyst erca thousands. This kind of
people have no initiative. They are accus-
toned to look to the mills for their living.
These are old factories, and there they had
their homes. When the mills were dest royed
in the food the operatives became hopeless.
To-day they buried the dead bodies re-
covered.
Men who watched the flood from the
cliff from which Clifton takes its name
declare that 100 people were carried down
in the waters. hanging to trees and pieces
of timber. All these they believe were
drowned
The water wa, SO charged with mud that
II is leaving deposits foot deep, and this
will cover many OF the dead. A baby 5 body
was washed ashore at Pacolet to-day and the
leg of woman was found on the banks The
leg was probably ground off by timbers.
Open-air services were held to-day by
preachers at the two stricken towns and
every effort made to encourage and calm
the distressed people, The Rev. j. A.
Snyder of Clifton managed to get to Spar
tanburg and was introduced to n mass
meeting. called to consider measures for
relief
For Gods sake help them and help them
now" he said, During the day $4,000 was
raised in Spartanburg. Collections were
taken mp in many churches throughout
the State and newspapers have every
where opened lists. The public ia giving
promptly and literally. Congressman
johnston has applied to the War Dapart-
ment for what assistance is in its power
to give.
The problem Of caring for these 5000
mill operatives is vast one, They cannot
remain in those towns unless they are to
be fed until the mills are rebuilt.
The property loss in Spartanhurg county
was tremendous. The heaviest was at
Clifton where the loss in mills and factory
houses reached 81 800, 900. At PaoDlet the
destruction of two mills. the warehouses
with cotton goods and houses in the town
makes an approximate loss of 81 100000.
Glendale suffered a damage to mill and
warehouses of S4OoOOO. Other mills In
| the county suffered to the extent of $3.50, 600.
| The railroads and county lost in bridges
| over rivers and streams about 1900 900
So in Spartanburg the aggregate is about
| 81, 5000
In the northwestern part of the State
the feature of the food has been the break
- ho To Ia which form oI
| SAPPHIRE Lake. This artificial lake was
formed by Western hotel syndicate,
which is developing the Sapphire Country
in North Carolina. The lake was twenty
one miles around.
Enore and Keowee rivers were rushed
no twenty feet by this water. Much farm
land was submerged and the Courtney
Manufacturing Company's mills at Enore
covered but no lives were lost The
Enore mills suffered, heavilyin loss Of goods,
hut the buildings have resisted the flood
The paralysis of the railroads is I'M
precedented The Southern system has
lost its big bridges over the Broad River,
Pacolet, North Tiger, Middle Tiger and
Enoree rivers. Its bridge over the Broad,
twenty-five miles above Columbia is COM
pletely submerged, hut it is resisting the
food.
Two hundred feet Of tresting has gone
on the Columbia and Spartanburg road
and the track is under water. The Sea-
board Air Line has lost its bridges over
the Broad and Pacolet rivers.
The Charleston and Western Carolina
cannot get into Spartanburg because OF
the loss of bridge over the Enoree.
The water has reached the record point
here tonight, Hundreds of bales Of cotton
and cotton goods hoated to-day In the river.
About fifty bales were fished out.