The Hawaiian gazette., 1916-08-11
Floods SubSide and Leave Trail
ofDeath and Ruin Behind Them
In Valleys of West Virginia
For Rescue Parties To Succor
TOLL OF DAMAGE WROUGHT
BY STORM FIVE MILLIONS
Sixty-Six Lives Wiped Out Ac-
cording to Fragmentary Ac-
counts Received At State Cap
itaI From the Stricken District

ASSOCIATED Press by Federal wirslsss)
- HARLESTON, August ll.-Floods
following the terrific cloudbursts
of Tuesday night and Wednes-
day morning have now almost subsided,
laying bare a fearful scene of desola-
tion, but permitting progress in the
"ru"some work of searching for the
dead. - ~ RIa" ~
Latest returns from this district show
sixty.six lives lost by drowning or
crushing in the wreckage Of homes and
other buildings swept from their found
ations and hurled along by the fefo-
cious torrents. Early yesterday fifty
bodies had been discovered. Sixteen
more wore added to the list before
nightfall
Damage Total Grows
The damage to property is consider.
ably more than was originally estimat.
ed and will amount to at least Ave
million dollars. Ten thousand persons
have been rendered homeless.
Flying to the hills for safety, able
to save scarcely anything except the
clothes on their backs, so abrupt was
their fight of necessity, thousands are,
camped on the hillsides and hilltops,
some in rudely exteLlporized shelters,
others in tents provided by the state
militia, and some without shelter of
any kind save what nature affords be-
meath the trees of the slopes.
Seek Missing Ones
Constantly they inquire of those in
touch with the searching parties, asking
concerning missing relatives and
| friends, and pitiful indeed are tho
scenes enacted when news comes of this
one or that one having been found a
victim of the catastrophe.
Most Of the refugees have been strip
ped of all their possessions, save those
who are owners of pieces of land, and
some are suffering for immediate neces-
sites in the way of food and clothing.
Relief is being organized and women
and children are receiving first atten-
| tiOn.
Valley Wreck Uttered
For n distance Of sixteen miles the
valley is strewn with the wreckage Of
demolished homes, stores and other
structures, the havoc wrought by the
bursting clouds having piled bridges,
churches, barns and houses in the indie
scribable confusion, until il is difficult
t" imagine how the ruin could have
| been more complete.
1t will take some time to examine
the mass of debris for the missing, but
when the sad work has been brought to
completion it is feared that the death
rCll will be considerably increased.
In the Cabin Creek valley twenty.
three bodies have so far been brought
out of the subsiding food and mate of
shattered habitations piled here and
there against natural distractions in
the course of the onrush of waters. 1t
is reported by rescue parties returning
to Huntington that numerous mining
villages have been swept away or tum.
bled to ruins.
Hundreds upon hundreds escaped the
rising food by taking to the hillsides.
Families separated in the panicky flight
are seeking each other, rejoicing over
reunions or enduring the pangs Of cruel
disappointment when some loved one
cannot be found.
Guardsmen Ordered Out
National guardsmen ordered out by
Governor Hatfield soon after the dis.
astcr, are accomplishing good work in
rendering aid to the afflicted. pre-
venting the robbing Of bodies of vie
TINS of the deluge and guarding
against thieves such buildings as still
remain standing.
telegraph hneman, returning to
Huntington after making repairs in the
Miami DCsOta valley, reports that
forty persons were drowned in that
section.