Article published on July 6, 1939 in the New York Times on the Flood of 1939

New York Times

English

Morehead State University

33 TO 100 DROWNED IN KENTUCKY TOWNS BY 'FLASH' FLOODS Mountain Streams, Swelled by Cloudbursts, Sweep Down on Sleeping Families MOR~HEAD IS INUNDATED Other Communities in Breathitt and Rowan Counties Are Isolated-Aid Rushed By Th~ Alloclated Pru .. I MOREHEAD, Ky., July5.-Thirty-three persons are known to have I been drowned today ~hen swiftly I rising Eastern Kentucky mountain I streams, following cloudbursts latc la.s~ night. rushid down creeks and rivers to inundate communities along their banks, Government and reliet officials said they feared the death toll might reach 100, since I eighty-one persons arc still missing. r Aid was scnt to the stricken areas. I Postmaster W. E. Crutcher of I Morehead said thirty-eight persons had been drowned in that part ot Rowan County. The known dead at Morehead numbered twenty - six, with twelve missing. The known dead at Keck was seven, with slxty-nine missing. At Washington, the Red Cross gave out the followlng report from Roger W. Jones, chairman of the Breathitt County Red Cross: "Seventy-five to 100 drowned or missing on Frozen Creek, Ten to twenty homes swept away. Hunt-ing Creek flooded but no reports of loss of life." Water Rises 16 Feet The Unlled Slales engineers' of-fice al Cincinnati received a re-port lhal "between 25 and "aO per-sons" had been drowned in a I "flash" flood in Carter CounlY, east of here. Workers were dispatched I immedlalely. However, Police Chief C. B. Womack at Grayson, seat of Carter Cpunty, said a "fairly com-plete" check" dl8clo8~d no loss of life. Creeks and streams cramped in narrow banks In widely separated sections of the mountain country were unable to carry the water oft fast enough. At many poInts resi-dents reported streams rose ten to fifteen feet in less than an hour. Mayor Warren C. Lappin said "sanitary conditions are the worst possible" in the stricken area and appealed to the "Red Cross and Gov-ernment relief agencies for aid. Mrs. N. L. Wells, chairman of the Rowan County Red Cross Chap-ter, said after a survey that the county's death toll might reach 106 persons. Medical supplies and Red I Cross nurses arrived here during : the afternoon. " Fifty townspeople wel"e swo'rn In as speCial deputies and aided In patrolling the roped-off downtown section. Tho sleeping residents of More-head, whiCh has a population of 2.500, had little opportunity to es-cape the rushing torrents. Fire sirens and factory whistles screamed in the early morning, but before many persons could flee the avalanche of waler was smashing at their homes, Postmaster Crutcher estimaterJ "at least" 100 houses were ripped from their foundations, Dr. Philip E. Blackerby, assistant Kentucky health director, dis-Continued on Page Five 33 TO 100 DROWNED IN KENTUCKY TOWNS Continued From Pare One related, "and we ran to the door. The force or the water swept ua into the torrent and we were sucked into the atreet. A. few sec-onds later our house 'swept by and we were unable to Clo anything for our children. We could hear their cries as our house went by." Sparkman and his wife were r es-cued from a tree top at 6 :30 A. M. by boatmen. Rescuers said between fifty and seventy-tive per~on. were· taken from tree tops along the banks ot the creek. patched doctora, nul's .. and medi-cal supplies to Morehead. Governor Chandler ordered fifteen State pa-trolmen and ::tate highway timer. Townspeople sought to rescue gency crews sent here to aid rescue Mrs. Harley Boyd from a house workel·s. slowly breaking up against a t ree. Highway bridges were washed She could be seen plainly In the away, railroad tr!lcka twisted and gleam of searchlights acrosll a. 300-undermined and highways blocked yard stretch of ragl!,g water, Post-. I master Crutcher said, but the tor-With debris. Telephone and tele- rent was so swift boats had not graph linesmen struggled to restore i been able to reach her. . the almost wholly disrupted com- The mountaineers call tloods such municatlons in the affeeled area. as today's "flash" floods, because Water completely Isolated Farm- the water rises and subsides quickly. ers, a community at 250 persons seven miles west ot here, and Clea.r"-field, a factory settlement of 500 person8, across T riplett Creek from Morehead. It was feared the death toll in both communities would be high, as they apparently bore the brunt of the wa~r's force. At least two distinct cloudbursts apparently struck Eastern Ken-tucky during the night as Morehead and J ackson are in different water-sheds a nd the cloudbursts hit at separate hours. The deluge struck here shortly before midnight and at Jackson at 3 A. M. The see.rch for the bodies ot victims was taken over by enrolles at a. CCC camp at near-by Rodburn and scores of vol-unteers. Water in Railropad Street, More· head 's main thorQIIghfare. va.rled in depth from four to ten feet at the peak ot the flood. Ted Sparkman !laid the force of the rushing torrent8 swept his house from its foundation. "I grabbed my wife," Sparkman 

33 to 100 Drowned in Kentucky Towns by \u27Flash\u27 Floods

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33 to 100 Drowned in Kentucky Towns by \u27Flash\u27 Floods

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