Evening star., 1916-07-20
FLOOD DEATH TOLL
MOUNTS Up TO 83
Nine Persons Are Still Missing
as Waters ReCede in
the South.
LINES OF COMMUNICATION
ARE OPENING GRADUALLY
officials Are Busy Caring for the
Hundreds of Homeless and Rush
ing Food to Hungry.

| ASHEVILLE, n. c., July 20.
The list of deaths from Sun
dav's flood in five southeastern
states, which has been constant
ly growing as channels of COM
munication were restored. stood
at eighty-thrce today, with nine
persons still reported missing,
Most of the deaths have been in
western North Carolina, and in
vestigators returning yesterday
from isolated mountain hamlets
brought reports that raised the
death toll from yesterdays thirty
four.
Property loss also has been heavy.
great damage being done to railroads.
industrial plants and agricultural in
terests. This has been confined to
great extent to the Carolinas, but
adjacent portions of Tennessee. Vir-
1t was thought Tuesday that SIS, 900, 900
would cover all property loss. and in
only a few instances have damage es-
Inmates been lowered as rivers re-
turned to normal. The section directly
around Asheville, including. the VAN
derbilt estate and the village of Bilt-
more, was one of the exceptions. Loss
was overestimated there. it was said.
and it now is believed that the total
damage to property in this section will
not exceed s1,5o0.000.
Caring for Flood Sufferers.
Efforts were being continued today
by local relief committees to care for
food sufferers and repair work was
being rushed. although it will be weeks
before all railroad traffic will be nor
NAL.
From Brevard. n. c.. where some 200
college boys are camped. came report.
signed by the director of the camp.
that conditions there are normal, the.
camp having escaped damage.
Ten dead and great property loss at
and near Alta Pass, n. G. was the re-
SuttIe OF this city. who arrived here
last night afoot from Alta Pass. That
town is at the top of the mountain be-
tween Marion and Johnson city on the
c., c. and o. railway. The railway line
is practically demolished at many
places, according to Suttle's statement.
Estimates of property damage at Mar
shall, \. c., amount to S250,000.
Rocky Broad Valley Damage.
A description of the scene in the Rocky
Broad valley. when parts of Chimney
Rock and Bat Cave were swept away,
was given to a newspaper man at Hen
dersonville by DR.. L. 3. Morse, resident
of that place, who returned there from
Chimney Rock, where he spent the Sun
day of the food.
Dr. Morse. who, with his brother, built
the s25 coo scenic highway 10 the foot of
the roadway had been destroyed and some
ten or twelve houses in Chimney Rock
washed away, but that the two tourist
hotels near there, the Esmeralda Inn
and Mountain View Inn. were not in
jured to any great extent. Two men.
Dr. Morse said. We're swept away while
on the highway. but he did not learn their
names They probably were included in
the list already given out.
There has been much suffering in the
Bat Cave section from lack of food, DIR.
Morse said, adding that he saw flood sur
vivors who had nothing to eat except
parched corn. And they were glad to
get that" he added. He doubted if sup
plies had yet reached them
This disaster, said DR.. Morse,
which has wiped out a part of a once
smiling countryside, was sudden
so startling. that words are powerless
TO convey ones Impressions. / shall
never forget the horrors of that Sat-
| urday night and Sunday morning The
extent of such a catastrophe in so
narrow a gorge. where the waters rose
| t,tIy
with the grinding force Of great bowl
ders swept along like bubbles cannot
be estimated until the waters have re-
turned to their natural channels.
Caught Full Fury of Flood.
"Bat Cave seems to have caught the
full fury of the food which came down
! the gorge from Chimney Rock. but the
! latter place suffered more than it can
recover from in long time"
DR. Morse said that he saw supplies
| forwarded from Hendersonville being
transferred from wagon to wagon
| across the bridGeless streams between
| Hcndersonviile and Bat Cave.
The people made homeless by the
! foods" he said, have found shelter in
! the houses Of more fortunate neigh
/ bors, but the need for food is pressing -
Chimney Rock. situated in the Hick-
! ory Nut gap a mile and a half from Bat
| Cave, and. like the latter place having
no railroad connection with the outside
world, is a village of about thirty
| homes with not more than $50 people
| There are two tourists hotels and FIVE
| or six boarding houses. 1t derives it's
name from the mountain. 1000 feet
high. which is pinnacled by chimney
! shaped rock, reached by the scenic
| highway recently constructed and now
| partially destroyed. The mountain is
! one of western North Carolina's attrac-
| tions. The Asheville-Charlotte auto
motiie highway. completed last summer
| and which has been seriously damaged
| In many places by the food, runs
| through the village.
Marooned Passengers Rescued
| sPARTANBURG. s. c., July 20.--The
| southern railway yesterday rescued the
remainder of it's marooned passengers
at Melrose, n. c., on the Asheville divi-
sion, thirty miles north of Spartanburg.
The tracks were repaired and the seven
! sleepers and day coaches pulled back to
| Iryon. There were in the cars only
| twenty-five persons. who had remained
since last Saturday. They were old
people and small children. All were
| taken to hotels at Tryon. Two hun
dred and fifty passengers who had been
| ma rooned we're brought to Spartan
/ burg Monaay.
J Lam nioht Southern railway of1cials