The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-06-07
50 DROWNlN TORRENT
Mountain Flood Sweeps
Mill Towns Away.
SOUTH CAROLINA RIVER RACES.
The Pacolet Wrecks Mills In
Clifton and Pacolet.

MOrnins-Riyer Rose Thirty Feet In An
subsidized quickly Is II Rose
Destroyed Three Mills in Clifton
and wrecked Three Others in Pacslet,
Fifteen Miles Below-Heavy Railroad
Bridges Gone--Hundreds Are Homeless
COLUMBIA, 8. c., June Gut of the Blue
Ridge Mountains torrent descended at
daylight this morning on the mill town OF
Clifton in which there are 1000 persons. 1t
is estimated that fifty lives were lost. The
people had no warning Of danger. 1t has
been raining through the State for several
days, but no fear was apprehended, and the
working people OF Clifton, who run more
than loo, 900 spindles in the three great
cotton mills, retired without intimation
that anything unusual was in store for
them.
At O'Clock this morning the Pacolet
River which furnishes the power for the
mills, was in Tvs normal state. One hour
afterward the river had risen thirty feet
and the loss to life and property was
appalling. ~
The biggest mill in the county, Converse
with 81 900 spindles was gone, and two
others, Clifton and Dexter, were half washed
away. The steel bridge over which the
Southern Railway from Washington to
Atlanta crossed this river. was destroyed.
1t was supported by granite piers and was
considered proof against food.
The greatest disaster occurred in the
mill town The water rushed upon tho
town, overthrow houses and carried away
men, women and children.
Fifty deaths Is said to be the minimum
loss, but in the excited and terrified
condition II Is impossible to get details,
No trains have been run and no correspond
ents can reach the t,wn
In an hour the destructive wave had
subsidized, and there were in Clifton hundreds
Of homeless people, reduced to idleness
with no means of making living Fully
e 900 900 In property was destroyed
The wave is moving OH toward this city
where it will arrive tomorrow night.
Fifteen miles south Of Clifton is Pacolet
another mill town. Pacolet mills Nos. /,
and 3 were situated on the Pacolet River.
At about o'clock the flood reached that
town. The mills were full OF operatives.
but, warned by telephone, they fed and
reached places OF safety.
When the great bank of water struck
the mills one Of them, Pacolet No. 1, or1lm-
bled. At the same time the milldams
across the river, by which 5000 horse
power was supplied, gave way. Upward
the water climbed. and the terrified people
retreated as it advanced. At the height
of the flood boy was seen floating down
on log. He called for help. but no
help could go to him.
An hour after the first mill collapsed.
the second fell. The third is standing.
but the engine rooms, boiler room and
machine shops are wrecked. The Pres
byterian church, valued at 1900, the mar
ket barber shop and blacksmith shops ars
all gone.
The great est loss, outside OF the mills
themselves, was that of all the warehouses
filed with cotton cloth and cotton There
were 80 $40 bales of cotton and 5000 bales
of cloth lost. reaching more than $25o,oOo
in value.
Gray Worthy. negro working in cotton
field, was cut of and drowned
Prom the Tiger River come tales OF loss
and destruction. Tho dam holding in
Sapphire Lake, across the Greenville line In
North Carolina. has gone, letting loose
ten miles Of water on northwestern Caro-
lima. The little rivers are rising several
feet an hour
The Southern Railway bridge over the
Tiger River at GREEN'S has broken, and the
Arlington mill is five fee, under water,
Several other mills are in grave danger
Telegraphic communication has been cut
of nearly all day. and out OF four railroad
lines in Spar,anburg only one is open
sPARTANBURG NEARLY CUT OFF
SPARTANBURa, $. e., June GA cloud
burst between midnight and O'Clock this
morning swept down the Pacolet River
|, is believed here that hundreds of persons
were killed at Clifton. The steel railroad
bridge across lawson's Fork one mile east
Of this city, was washed away, and no trains
can pass for severa! days All railroads
leading to this city, except the line 10 Co'um-
bia, are closed 10y washouts. and nearly all
the wires are down E"ery bridge on the
Pacole,, or Lawson's Fork, its tributary,
is down.
Tie electric railway and power plant
was under water from O'Clock till nearly
noon. The loss of the Pacolet mills nearly
ruins that corporation, which also owns
tho New Holland mills at Gainesville, Ga,
.Aa.,ra.,l rnrsans q llrnyvn out OF