Evening star., 1936-03-24

Il was one Of the worst battered towns
in the whole food area.
This village is the site of the big
tie-treating plant Of the Baltimore g.
Ohio Railroad Nearly half a million
ties were in the yards waiting to be
treated with creosote. They broke
loose under the impact of the food
waters and were hurled against houses
with crushing force.
Climb Up to Roofs.
Nearly the whole village was flooded.
The waters rose so quickly that few
had an opportunity to seek safety.
Families sought the refuge of their
second-floor bed chambers and from
there climbed on their roofs.
Everybody is talking about the hero
ism of the two boys, Carl Foley and
Jean Gertner, both Of whom are work
ing as section hands for the B. & o.
They happened to own the only boat
in town-curiously enough for a town
on the Potomac.
In this boat Foley and Gertner
braved the swift current running over
the telephone wires and the booming
railroad sleepers to take the people
from the roofs of the houses. From
the roof Of George Taylor they took
a family Of eight, including one woman
who weighed more than 300 pounds.
1t was necessary to lower them all into
the boat with ropes From the roof
OF Mrs. Eula Seedars' general store
they took of Is, including Mrs. Seed
ars and her four children.
1t was desperately dangerous work.
Foley padded. Gertner pushed away
ties with pole. They even made a
futile attempt to rescue Harvey Gross,
foreman at the sleeper plant, who with
four or five companions sat all night
in the rain on the roof of the plants
coal tipple, blowing the whistle for
help. Two men sat all night on the
roof Of the railroad station.
The current was too swift, and the
sleepers coming too thick and fast, for
the boat to get to the marooned men.
They sat in chill drizzle.
The food played some queer tricks.
1t picked up piles of sleepers and de-
posted them 400 or 500 feet away,
almost as neatly piled as at first. 1t
practically buried some small homes
in logs and without jsmming the
walls. At one house it drove ties into
the windows so that the next morning
the building looked like a pin cushion
Of logs. 1t deposited ties neatly on
beds and on kitchen tables.
The families rescued by Foley and
Gertner were rowed to the second floor
of the school house, where they were
let in through window. That is their
shelter at present Although the
school stands on fairly high ground,
water surged through its first floor.
The problem of relief for Green
Springs has been especially dificult
sice. until Saturday, the town was
almost entirely cut off from commu-
nication. There was believed to be
grave danger of an epidemic. The
nearest source Of food supply was the
State School for the Blind at Rom
ney. Truck loads of canned goods
were taken to where q bridge had
been washed out few miles below
Romney. There they were loaded on
two fiat-bottomed boats tied together
and equipped with outboard motors.
The experienced river men managed
to get the boats through the swift
current Mattresses and bedclothing
also were sent from Romney. The
town itself was almost without bed
ding after the flood had swept
through its chambers. Its drinking
water remains badly polluted. State
health officials and Red Cross work
ers, operating from Romney, are
ferrying over the river supplies OF
lime to be used in sanitation. Around
the town were many dead animals.
swept in from the farms farther up
the river. Pyres were made for these
from creosited logs.
OF all the towns hit by the hood,
Green Springs is perhaps in the most
pitiful condition. Six or eight of its
homes disappeared into the river.
Many of the others, their floors
buckling and their furniture falling
to pieces, never will be flt to live in
again.
No lives were lost but, as everybody
says: IF it hadn't been for Foley and
Gcrtner."
Modest Heroes.
Gertner was nowhere to be found
yesterday but finally Foley was To-
Gated, rushing from his lunch to the
section car which was ready to set
out down the track. He -poohed
the idea he was q hero.
ITS Just because I happened to
have the only boat" he said. But
that 300-pound woman-"
He was climbing on the car as the
camera was leveled ut him. He