Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1901 — DEATH IN A FLOOD [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DEATH IN A FLOOD

Mining Towns in West Virginia Are Swept Away. - n-; KEYSTONE WIPED OUT Elkhorn Creek in Pocahontas Field Rages High Over Its Banks. Cloudburst Sweeps, Valley Along the Norfolk and Western Railroad—Coaldale, Elkhorn and Many Other Place* Are Washed Away Completely—Loss of Life Placed at 200 to 300 and Property Damage Is Vast—A Horrible Disaster. From 200 to 300 lives were lost and property estimated at several millions of dollars was destroyed by a flood which swept down the Elkhorn valley from Ennis to Vivian in West Virginia Sunday morning. The mining towns of Keystone and Vivian are practically destroyed and a number of smaller towns have suffered heavily. About thirty miles of track of the Norfolk and Western Uailroad are swept away, with scores of freight and box cars and a number of passenger coaches. Some of the finest houses in the valley and hundreds of miners' cabins are gone. In the valley is located the celebrated Pocahontas coal fields. Nearly all the machinery and buildings vj’ere wrecked. Millions in -Property Los*. The property loss will run into the tens of millions, but it will be many days before the real extent of the loss to life and property can be ascertained. The

entire valley has been devastated, and the loss to the Pocahontas coal region is enormous. The railway loss is also heavy, for the track and roadbed washed away was probably tho most expensive piece of engineering work in the country for its length. The roadbed was almost carved out of solid rock, and only last year $1,000,000 was spent in betterments. It had been raining hard for several days in the Elkhoru region, and the hundreds of small mountain creeks were swollen to their®full capacity and pouring their waters into the Elkhorn river. Early Saturday morning the heavy downpour of rain became more noticeable, and it was accompanied by a severe electric storm, which violently increased in volume and continued for several hours. The storm continued throughout the entire day and night. Saturday toward noon the rain ceased, but the heavy storm clouds hung over the valley, threatening every moment another downfall. The clouds held back, however, until about midnight, when the rain again began to fall. Cloudburst Adds to Terror. The storm increased in violence every minute and finally culminated in a cloudburst which preeipitnted a great volume of water into the Elkhorn valley, already flooded to the danger point by the rains of the preceding forty-eight hours. The great mass of water started down the valley with a roar' that was heard above the storm. It swept everything before it —trees, telegraph poles, huge bowlders, whole buildings, railroad ties, steel rails, box cars, and coal sheds. Into the mass of tangled wreckage of the flood were swept helpless men, women and children, caught in its path, and as all were swept along in the fury of the storm they went to their death with none to hear their last cries for help. Buildings Float Away. The valley was peopled almost entirely with miners and their families. Their frail cabins and cottages offered no resistance to the impact of the flood and the buildings were tossed upon the front of the great wave which was rushing down the valley. There was no chance for escape for the unfortunate people, caught without warning. The flood began to make lt*N terrible force felt at Ennis, and it extended the entire length of the valley to Vivian. As the crow flies the distance is fifteen or sixtfeen miles, but by the tortuous path of the river it is thirty-five. Thqse bituminous coal fields are in the southeastern part of West Virginia, and the western part of A’irginia, on either side of the dividing line between the States. The Norfolk and Western Railroad taps the coal fields and carries their products to Norfolk, Va. Everywhere ridges of mountains—spurs of the Cumberlands—cross this country. Towns, whose prosperity is due to the coal industry, line the railroad, with collieries, “tipples” (great structures for loading coal cars), coke ovens and miners’ cottage*. , ..

BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF SCENE OF THE WEST VIRGINIA FLOODS.