The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1916-07-21
ANGRY TORRENTS CAUSE
DEATH AND DESTRUCTION

10 near DOG barking In one of the
houses. The postoffice and hotel were
washed to point several miles be-
low the village to a place known as
the Cox place.
A company had just built new
road to the top of Chimney Rock this
summer at cost of $4,000, and this
is said to have been completely de-
stroyed and will have to be rebuilt.
Chimney Rock is 25 miles from the
nearest railroad.
While Chimney Rock and Bat Cave
are two separate villages, several
| miles apart, it is possible that the
story reaching here tonight refers to
the report from Asheville of loss of
life at Bat Cave. The valley of the
Rocky Broad in the Bat Cave section
is very narrow but inhabitants
should have had no difficulty in
reaching places of safety.
Floods Death List Approaches Thirty.
Asheville, N. c., July 1S.-The
death list from the floods in several
Southeastern States is growing rapid
y as news comes in from isolated dis
tricts. Nineteen additional drownings
reported today brought the known
deaths to Sd and dispatches that the
town of Chimney Rock, in Rutherford
county, N. c., has been literally washed
away, has led to the belief that the
casualty list will be much greater.
First word reaching the outside
world from the Hickory-Lenoir- Nor
canton region of North Carolina,
brought the news that S4,OOO,OOO dam
age had been done in that section by
the overflow of the Catawba river
Two lives were lost.
Eight additional deaths are reported
from Bat Cave, a village in Hender-
son county on the Rocky Broad river,
North Carolina, two from Volga, small
town in Buncombe county; four from
Brevard and three from the Hickory
Nut Gap section. In addition un-
verified reports say three lives were
lost below Marshall, N. c., in the
overturning of boat.
The report received here early this
evening that eight people lost their
lives in the Bat Cave section of the
State last Sunday, when the Rocky
Broad river rose from Is to 20 feet
above it's banks, seemed to be con-
firmed by telephone message re-
ceived here tonight from John Patrick
at Fair View, eight miles from Ashe-
vile. Mr.. Patrick stated that six wo-
men and two children were carried
away on the flood waters at Bat Cave
and that only one body, that of
little girl named Wilson, had been
found. He was unable to give the
names of the others. Fair View is %
miles from Bat Cave. Mr.. Patrick
said that the conditions at Bat Cave
are really deplorable, more than half
of the houses of the village having
been washed away. He says that peo-
pie who have money to buy provisions
have no way of getting them, the
highways on both sides of Bat
Cave having been washed away in
several sections. 1t is feared that the
Bat Cave section will reveal heavy
loss of life when full communication
has been established.
Later reports from the Bat Cave
section, which includes the village of
Chimney Rock, two miles from Bat
Gave, state that every effort is being
made to reach the flood sufferers
there with food supplies. Two car
loads of provisions were sent over
from Hendersonville this afternoon,
being transferred from wagon to
wagon across bridgeless streams.
The report from Spartanburg that
the $4,000 scenic highway recently
constructed to the foot of Chimney
Rock was destroyed by the flood is
confirmed by dispatch from Hender-
sonville tonight. 1t is also stated that
two laborers lost their lives in q land
slide on the highway, but these deaths
are probably included in the Bat Cave
list of casualties.
The additional deaths reported to-
day include Mrs. John Heath and son,
John Heath, Jr., Brevard; Mrs. Cald-
well Sentelle and child, Brevard; Mrs.
Edgar Hunt and two small children of
Hickory Nut Gap section. To this
may be added three lives reported lost
in the flood waters below Marshall,
and three boys, names yet unknown,
reported to have put out in g. small
boat from Fletchers, Henderson coun-
ty, yesterday afternoon.
The earlier estimates of property
damage throughout the entire valley
may be considerably increased when
the rivers have returned to normal
levels according to a Madison county
lumberman today who stated that the
losses in the flooded sections may
reach $12,0O0.00O.
Relief work is being rapidly pushed
forward in the stricken sections, and
the greater part of the 1,2O0 men who
were thrown out Of employment by
the destruction of 25 industrial plants
(Continued on last pape)