The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1911-10-05
Flood Waters SlUeep
Many to Death

the stood and formed a
barrier \ IT which fotsam and Set-
sam of the noci found Judgement.
Caught at Machines.
Here, as elsewhere, the natural gas
pipes burst and as the shops wereN in
operation fire was quickly communi-
Gated to the heterogeneous mass. Men
were caught before they could leave
their machines. Some of them we're
crushed to death without a warning,
but others less favored of fortune,
were pinned down and met horrible
deaths in the rapidly kindEng flames.
Nearby was the plant of the Stand
ard Lumber company 1t had on hand
a large stock of stove wood ready for
shipment. When the pipes burst
there the burning gas broke through
the building and it was soon destroy
ed. Here, too, debris had piled high
and the luckless ones who had been
swept down stream met death at this
point.
For hours the machine shops and
the lumber plant burned. And, the
odor of burning flesh was so strong as
to drive many persons from the scene.
How many died here will never be
known.
Futile Efforts.
Here is where the first organized
effort at relief was made Maddened
by the sights about him, one man, with
tears streaming down his cheeks,
cried for volunteers to save the lives
of men whose cries for help were
gradually growing fainter. The
wreck of the Austin Hardware COM
ho1
ron Main street to the lumber mill.
Here were buckets in abundance and
there was the little stream, still swol-
len although the force of the flood had
passed. Seizing bucket this un-
known hero dashed into the stream,
filled it with water and calling for
help ran toward a point where it ap-
peared one man might be saved.
Others followed his example. But to-
no purpose. Gas and heat combined
to drive them back and they. EVENT.
.t1ally gave up the battle
Crushed to Death.
Over at the paper mill, the great
factory where so many of the people
of the town find employment, the sit
uatien was little better. Although not
so many persons were killed, some CT
them were crushed beyond recognition
when part of the factory went down
before the water. 1t, too, caught fire
and the scenes to which the half par
alyzed people were rapidly becoming
acc ustomed were re-enacted.
One little girl, she could not have
been more than fifteen years old, had
been caught in the crush. The flames
were approaching her with the rapid
ity only equalled by the speed of the
food which had made her plight possi-
BILE Pinned down under heavy
timber, one leg crushed, it was i'm
possible for her to free herself. No
one seemed to know her name but her.
cries for help were not unheeded as in
the fire at the machine shops an un-
known man rose to the occasion.
Running into part of the factory net
destroyed by the flood he seized an
axe and, returning to the spot where
the helpless child was imprisoned, he
chopped at the timber. But his
strength gave out. iN
Doctors Heroic Stroke.
Meantime crowd had gathered.
i There were @ot more than dozen
men but when a volunteer showed
signs of weakening another sprang
1 forward, snatched the axe from his
hand and attacked the timber with
vigor. Meantime the fire was ap-
! preaching. The heat drove him. AM
other took his place and they say he
was doctor3 whose family had not
been seen since the flood of few
i hours before.
He saw at a glance the fire would
be upon them before the timber would
! be made to yield Carefully he looked
at the girl Then with calm precision
he levelled the axe at the helpless
.vfctim-a stroke or two and it was
over. The leg was severed. Willing
hands caught up the poor scorched
and bleeding girl and carried her to
the hospital on the hill. She may die
from shock.
Warning Too Brief.
The contents of the great dam,
which was filled to overfowing by the
heavy rains of two weeks, swept
through natural gorge in which the
Towns of Austin and Costello were
situated. While many CT the residents
of Austin escaped to the hills border
! ing each side of the town the warming
given by the blasts of the Bayliss mill.
whistles was too brief for hundreds OF
/ others.
Fhe catastrophe parallel in many
respects the destruction by food Of
/ Johnstown, Pa, in 1889 in which over
two thousand lives were lost.
/ Work of Rescue
1 within an hour of the first general
knowledge of the calamity special
trains bearing physicians. nurses and
/ food supplies were on the way to the
! scene. Hundreds Of automobiles bear
ing rescuers also toiled over the
I rough and torturous mountain roads