Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-12-12
Gets TO TeIsphone EXcNaHg0

| Zachary, Mrs. W. G. Schafer.
F.! Gets to Telephone Exchange
| Early Wednesday morning L was
able to get to the Citizens Bank
building, where the telephone opera
| tors are, by walking to the end of
the A. & w. P. bridge, where 1 got
| into a boat with Phil Lanier, one of
the county commissioners.
| Charlie Reid, plant foreman of the
telephone company, and his faithful
crew of five girl operators, were
found safe and sound, although they
have been marooned since Tuesday
might. They had to be transferred
from the telephone exchange to the
bank building about o'clock Tues
day evening. They were cut off
from food and water for some time,
but boats were later sent from the
Charles hotel nearby with the needed
supplies. The only line connecting
the city with the outside world goes
through the third story window of
the bank building. The girls names
are: Misses Whine Gwinn, Mary
Sue Meadows, Essie Harrison and
Lucille CroWder, and Mrs. r. B.
Wickham.
100 Marooned in Hotel
Something like 100 people, twenty
four Of them from out of town, were
marooned in the Charles hotel, in
Guiding those who were transferred
from the flooded business houses in
boats. A little food was got to them
Wednesday by boat and Thursday
morning many of them, including
number of travelling men, were taken
to the eastern shore largely through
the efforts of Chess McCord, travel
ing salesman for the Seege Walra-
ven company, of Atlanta. He was the
handspring also in getting food and
water to the hotel. One way of get
ting water was to climb the water
| tank of the Atlanta and West Point
! and dip it out with bucket.
| S. L. Harrison, construction fore
man of the Atlanta and West Point,
/ and his gang were among the most
1 active. Of the relief workers before
the Red Cross train arrived. They
! were out on the road trying to get
: in some rolling stock when they were
caught near the station. He used his
boat to help women and children and
others, padding from the door of a
| freight car. About IL o'clock We'd
nesday morning his boat was wreck
ed as he was trying to rescue some
men, and he himself had to be pulled
| out of the water with ropes.
The people at the hotel were in
! real need of food and water during
| Wednesday and Wednesday night, but
| the situation is much improved to-
! day.
Risks Life to String Wire
! Charlie Reid, determined to get into
| communication with the people on the
west side Of town, risked his life t
get wire across, and this morning
| the line was finally got into working
shape, connecting with the Citizens
| bank exchange. His boat came near
! capsiZing a number of times, but luck
was with him. The current is so
strong that it takes about three hours
sometimes to get a boat across one
| Of the wide streets.
L. D. Askew and Howard Sherman
were the first men to come from the
west side by boat. They reported
that there was no actual suffering
over there as yet, but that food sup
plies were running dangerously low.
| Water is getting very scarce also.
"Nsarer to Thee" on Pole
Two negroes who were forced to
! l.
when the boat in which they were
trying to escape was wrecked, were
not rescued until Thursday morn
ing. They presented a pitiful sight
as they chung to the cross beams.
Part of the time they were yelling
for help and part of the time they
sang Nearer My God to Thee"
Finally they walked along a heavy
cable, holding to the wires, until
| they reached some planks which had
! been placed between the cable and
a garage. When they got to the
! top of the garage, canned goods were
/ thrown to them, the first food they
! had had. They were still on the
garage Wednesday morning.
10000 People Affected
The gradually receding waters
of the flooded Chattahoochee
river at West Point and ada
! day began to reveal to the 10000 OF
ter the full effects of the havoc
| that will probably entail a loss of
| S1,5O0,0O0 to the community.
! While no lives are believed to have
! been lost and although the hard
ships of the many who were maroon
ed by the inundation had been nit
! lgated by the unceasing and intel
! ligently directed efforts of their fell
/ low townsmen and other citizens,
! the flood has been a tremendous
| blow to the civic life of West Point
and will require a gigantic outlay of
urageous effort to bring conditions
back to stage approaching normal.
The swollen river reached it's crest
an hour or two after sun-up We'd
uesday morning. At this moment the
entire business district stood from
five to eight feet deep in a raging
! yellow torrent, so violent that no
available boat could be sent to the
rescue of the business men maroon
ed on the upper floors Of store and
! office buildings. Beyond the business
! district on the east bank, substan-
! tial portion of the main residential
! section of the town stood submerg-
! ed, with here and there family
| cut off from the main land. On the
west bank, the remaining residential
| district was flooded for a distance
! of three blocks from the Chatta-
hoochee channel.
Cotton Mills Suffer
At Lanett, Ala, a cotton mill COM
munity divided from West Point
| only by the state line, the huge bat
| terry of electric motors of the big
manufacturing plant were under wa
| ter, although the structure itself and