The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1937-02-11
FLOOD DEATHS.
ADVANCE TO $50
Want Congressional Quiz
in Tragic Sinking of
Steel Barge

-(UP)-The death list in the Mis-
sissippi valleys "supcr flood rose
to 400 today as an aroused group
of Missouri citizens demanded q
thorough" congressional nvesti-
CATION into the drowning OF at
least 26 persons on Il government
barge near New Madrid.
While the citizens group, head
ca by the Rev. NJ. II. Markley,
pastor Of the Bloomfield. Mo-,
Methodist church, termed the re-
cent New Madrid county inquest
into the barge tragedy as too
limited" and merely a straddle,
two additional bodies were rccov-
cred from the Idly Birds Point
New Madrid floodway-in which
the overloaded barge sank Janu-
airy 80.
The evermounting death list
was swelled further today by the
drowning of two Red Cross res
cue workers near Tunica, Miss,
while they were helping endan-
gered persons from Moons Land
ing. Miss, and Peters Landing,
Ark.
The men were Tommic Henson.
2S, Raleigh, Tenn, and Dan
Mann. ~, Brownsville. Tenn.
They, with two others, were IN a
motorboat which rammed a part
IN sunken steel barge anchored
near the Arkansas shore, accord
ing 10 c. J. Reid. Memphis, who
witnessed the tragedy"
Reid said apparently the motor
stalled. and when they got II
started il lurched the "Johnboat'
forward with rush against the
barge. "Whcn the boat hit the
barge, the back end went under
and spilled the four men over
board" he explained.
The two in the back end o!
the boat went out of sight. The
other two men swan to the barge
and climbed aboard. My boat was
so far away. and the waves so
high you couldn't see whether the
other men caught on drlttwood or
not"
Henson and Mann were missing
hours after the accident and aC-
thoritics ali but abandoned hope
they may be alive on driftwood.
Meanwhile, U. S. army engi-
neers gave q different version rs
to how the accident occurred.
They reported the boat ran under
drift and did not strike the
barge.
The two men escaping were W.
A. Stigier, Tunica, Miss, attor-
ney, and Kelley Mitchem. Tunica,
levee timckcepcr. Stigicr said the
boat struck something and went
out from under them. When ne
rose 10 the top of the water ne
said he couldn't see anything OF
the boat or the two other mon.
The victims had been doing Red
Cross rescue work for three OF
four weeks. Their l6-foOt boat
was having 4 mighty tough time
battling the strong current before
it submerged, Reid said.
Four additional persons still
were missing in the New Madrid
floodway disastcr-greatcSt sin
gle tragedy of the flood siege.
They were Eugene Tyler, Craw-
ford Shannon, James Tyler, and
William Faulks, addresses UNI
known.
The coroner'S investigation two
days ago reSulted,in verdict that
the men drowned because of in
efficient organization on a gov
crnment quarter boat. and due TO
the carelessneSs and thoughtlcSS-
ness of the men themselves.
The "inefficicncy' on the quar-
ter boat-anchored to the set
back levee of the floodway and
used rs q base--waS cOndOned by
the jury on grounds it was caus-
ed by "the creation of an emer-
gency in the flood situation, and
the set-up of foremen and bosses
was necessarily hurried and in
adequate"
The barge sank after close to
200 hungry. tired lcvee workers
crowded il. against warnings that
li0 was the capacity.
The death list attributable to
the flood was expected TO rise
considerably higher because dan
ger-particularly from exposure
still turks in scattered areas.
Scores of refugees were sick with
pneumonia and influenza brought
on by the floods.
Two negro convicts taken from
Cummings prison farm, near Pine