Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1916-08-11
DISASTER GROWS
AS WATER RECEDES
Scenes of Absolute Desolation
Found as Relief Parties
Penetrate Valleys.
COUNT OF DEAD NOW is 66
Flood Comes SO Quickly People
Have No Time to
Escape
COUNT OF DEAD NOW is sc

CHARLESTON. w. VA. August 10
sixty-sx persons are known to have
lost their lives in tho food which swept
the West Virginia mountains yesterday,
rendering 10000 persons homeless and
causing property loss estimated at
100000 Reports were still mcager
tonight. owing to interrupted wire and
rail- communication, but the authori-
ties expressed the belief that the death
toll might reach 100.
The national Red Cross this after
noon offered aid to the food sufferers,
nut the local and State authorities re-
piled that they believed the situation
could be successfully handled without
outside assistance. TWO companies of
tho Second Regiment West Virginia
National Guard. are already in the
mood district with tents and provisions
inc announcement ".#s made this
afternoon that all lr'fcs intended
for flood sufferers o,Ts be handled
free OF charge hy ru Dads entering
the devastated districts
SIXTEEN PERSONS KNOWN
TO BE DEAD Al FERNDALE
Reports tonight Indicated that the
greatest loss OF life was at Fcrndale.
where sixteen persons are known to
be dead. The number OF dead at other
Villages and mining settlements fol-
lows:
Eskdaie. i; United. ), Miami. g.:
Dawes .: Dry Erauch. 8 Holly. IL:
Giles. .; Oakley, . Lcewood, !; Acme.
aud Cherokee. .
been washed down tho streams towards
the Ohio River. and probably never will
be recovered
The excursion train. carrying 500
sunday school picnickcrs, which was
C;riarooned between two creeks with
washouts on either side arrived at ST
Alhans Tonight. after the passengers
had spent twcnty-four hours in the
day coaches without food. on the
Cabin Creek branch az the Chesapca sc
aud Ohio Railroad another passenger
train lies on It's side with no tracks
nesr 1T, All tho passengers escaped
safely.
-Four hundred square miles were de-
wasted by thc food. Eighteen miles of
track on tho Chesapeake and Ohio
Railroad practically have been demol-
ished. Every bridge has been swept
awHv and the roadbed for miles wash"
out one tunnel was washed full of
dehris Railroad official declare sis
days Will be required TO rebuild tn"
main line TO Cabin Creek.
cabin Creek. whose food waters tore
through IT'S little mountain valley yes
,erday and carried with them more
than threcscore lives and millions OF
dollars worth of property, to-day re-
turned to it's narrow bed. But for six
teen miles from Ronda, where the creek
e.nptics into tho kanawha River, there
stretched scene of absolute dcsola-
ton. which was duplicated along every
little branch coming down out OF the
hills
! The flood came upon the people early
Wednesday, morning w \. Smith. an
Insurance broker. OF Cincinnati. who
was in the district declared that water
rolled down the narrow valley, foam
| crested. and from his point Of vantage
on an engine at Esl<dale, where he and
others had taken refuge. he saw the
roundhouse fill with ten feet of water
in less than half an hour. while the
/ food stretched from hill TO hill across
the valley.
MANY DROWN BEFORE
THEY CAN REACH HILLS
l dations, and women and children hur-
riedly leaving their homes were in
some instances drowned before they
could reach the hills. The food came
In contact with the carbide supply of
a moving picture thcatcr at Eskdalc
and it exploded. blowing the place TO
pieces, while loaded coal ears were
jammcd one against the other in in
!, describabc confusion. The Cabin
Creek Coal Company lost 2l5 cars of
coal at Crane Fork, the cars and coal
| being washed away. while fifteen feet
of mud and sand was deposited in their
place. ~ street carnival company,
| showing at De Sofa, lost all of its
equipment and animals.
These and similar accidents by the
| dozen were reported late to-day when
couriers from rescue parties, penetrat-
ing the valley, returned with pressing
appeals for help. Fully 10000 persons
we're said to be homeless. the majority
/ of thcin without food and clothing.
Every store in the Cabin Creek Valley
| seems 10 have been washed away and
i,s contents destroyed.
STATE TROOPS DIRECT
WORK OF RELIEF
| Early in the day the First Battalion
OF the Second West Virginia Infantry
SCI, out from its camp near here for
the valley, and by noon Major Ride
nour had established headquarters at
Ronda, four miles from Cabin Creek
| Junction. from which to direct relief
| measures. Tho men took with them
tents, $500 travel rations and large
quantities of other supplies, and more
we're forwarded to them later in tho
| day.
All the mules from tho machine gun
company were taken. as the railroads
In the valley will be out OF commits
sion for days.
other relief forces were set in mo-
tion by oil. mining and railroad COM
panies whose property had suffered
great damage and whose employees
made up the sufferers. DR.. S. L. Jep-
son, commissioner of health OF West
Virginia, sent force OF sanitary en-
Eineers into the district with instruc-
lContlnued on Second Page.)