Terrible Dam Disaster

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXI, Issue 5454, 24 August 1901, Page 4

Terrible Dam Disaster

The following account of a terrible | disaster doea not aeem to have been cabled to the oolonips :— New York, June 24 Batween two and five hvindred people are reported to havo been !oat in the terrible flood which devastated the West Virginia coal mining region yefItrday. According to the latest reports, it appear* that a terrific rainstorm conapeoosii early on Saturday, and continaed ail day, culminating in an awful cloudburst, which swelled the ttreams and rivers and flooded the surrounding diatriofe, where th« flood did its worst damage, ia sifua fed In a long narrow valley, bordered on either side by the towering AUeghany MotraUitie,' 1 while the likhorn River fiowa through the middlet Innunaorable small streams flow down the jmaajatain sides. to the river. "When It!ie ; downpour , oame the river and tribotariea overfbwed, letting loose a roaring torrent which ewepfc everything before it. In the centre of the Elkhorn Valley stood Keystone, a mining; towjo, with a population of 2000 Hundreds of miners were in the town, with their families, doing their weekly shopping* The flood poured into the town shortly after midnight, and large num* bera ol people succeeded in fighting ..their way through the water and reaching the monntain side. The houses were mostly frail, wooden structures, which were swept away like (corks, Rafts were hastily constructed by some and whole families were floating along in them ; othera eat on the roofs of cabins cr clung to logs until exhausted or rescued,

Fifteen whisky saloons, filled with drunken men were overwhelmed, and meet of the occupants drowned. In the darkness the shrieking of the victims and the roiring of the waters made an appalling sconp. The Barvivors on Send ay morning witnessed a terrible spectacle. The Elkhom River Was completely filled and the valley coverod with debris, horses, farms, the bodies of men and women and animals, here and there, with living persons perched on the wreckage shouting for help. Two handred people are reported to be drowned in Keystone alone. Only one hoose there has remained standing' Seven counties of Virginia and West Virginia suffered from the storm, which devastated a district extending for a distanse of a hundred miles. Fourteen villages in the path of the Blkhora failey fLod were partly destroyed. At Vivian the extensive railway yards wera completely de molished. In one village 35 houses were jammed together into one massi Pestilence is threatened from the dead bodies and decaying debris strewn along the rifer banks, Thirty bodies were found in one heap yesterday. The dead are beiog Sburied as quickly as possible is rode boxes hastily knocked together. The loss of life is chiefly coofiaed to miners and their families. Many thrilling stories of hair breadth escepa* are being received. A train on the Norfolk and Western Railway wag overtaken by the flood, The passengers were panic-striken and the mea e»«icd the women through the wa*er &° *'ie hill sides.

Ropes were tied aboatjjthe waists ot others, who were hanled to places of safety jast before the train wag snbmergecl. The flood came so suddenly that many families were separated and cinldren lost. Still greater loss of life was averted by the. fact that many people became alarmed and fled to the hills before the florod occurred. Scenes of horror and desolation are reported throughout the flooded district, The railway lines in "many-"places, are twisted into a landred different shapes bnge trees are uprooted, and telegraph poles smashed into chips A despatch from Wheeling (West Va.) states that, according to advices received there, thirty small towns and villftgei have been washed away and at least 200 miles of railway rendered impassable-

Accounts are most corflicting as to the losß of life* The Governor of West Virginia feara that the persons who have perished nnmber 1000, while on the other hand, a telegram from Blaefield says it is now positively known that the reports of hundreds of lives having been lost are exaggerated j although the number of fatalities ia at least seventy five—Renter,