Johnson City, Tenn., June 15—In a scene of mountain wreckage which beggars description, only two more of the 12 bodies of persons known to have been drowned in the double cloudburst of late Friday night had been recovered up till tonight, bringing the total of bodies found to five. Fully 2,000 persons from Elizabethtown, Johnson City and other towns in the vicinity of the flooded area tonight were picking their way through debris along the banks of the Watauga and its tributaries searching for the remaining seven lost bodies.
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Johnson City, Tenn., June 14—Twelve known dead, four seriously injured and more than a dozen houses, barns and mills demolished, 20 miles of the Appalachian division of the Southern railway made impassable, with parts washed away, and thousands of acres of farm land ruined, constitute the toll of the most disastrous cloudburst ever recalled in this section. It appeared to have its center near Hunter, Siam and Carden’s Bluff, and on Little Stony Creek and Blue Springs Creek, where a house in which were two families went to pieces, taking nine lives.
The dead are:
Mrs. Cecil Lewis and five children, aged 14, 10, 4, 2 and four months
B.W. Smith, his wife and 7-year-old son, Willard, all of whom were living in the Lewis house
A 6-year-old daughter of N.C. Ellis
An unidentified saw mill hand
A.B. Irick of Fish Springs, Tenn.
Four dwellings, a storehouse and a mill, with considerable livestock, were washed away in the vicinity of Siam. Four small houses at Fish Springs went with the tide.
Came Without Warning
Houses destroyed in the Hunter section include residences of P.F. Smith, A.J. Oliver, D.P. Lewis, James Lewis, Ellen Morton, Mrs. C.W. Smith and Y. Vaughan, Ed Smith, Bruce Smith and Cecil Lewis; also mill of Alfred Bowers and four small houses at Fish Springs.
the storm came without warning last night and early today, and its fury was graphically told by Cecil Lewis and his sons, Walter and Chrles, 7 and 11 years of age, who were brought to a hospital in Johnson city suffering from bruises and cuts, the younger boy having his cheek cut open through into his mouth, in which condition he remained in a tree top three hours, waiting for the waters to recede.
Lewis stated that he was thrown from his house when a wall of water he estimated to be 12 feet high, and filled with rock, earth and trees, struck the house. After being washed down the valley a short distance, he reached the bank, and made his way to a neighbor’s house, Edward Smith. As he entered the house, it was struck by the torrent, which turned the house completely around.
Lewis was again thrown outside, but landed against a barbed wire fence and escaped. His two sons, Charles and Walter, escaped by catching the branches of a tree, almost submerged. The younger boy caught and tree and pulled his brother up, and there they remained until the receding waters allowed them to climb down. A neighbor hearing their cries came to their aid, and they were hurried to the hospital. The bodies of Mrs. Smith and her son have been recovered. None of the bodies of the Lewis family have been recovered.
A six-year-old daughter of N.G. Ellis was washed away while her father was attempting to rescue other members of the family from their home. Her body was found later with the dress caught against a barbed fence.
Communication Destroyed
The unidentified saw mill hand was swept into the river; and likewise no trace has been found of the body of A.B. Irick, who was swept away while attempting to walk from Fish Springs to Butler. All communication out of and east of Hunter, six miles from Elizabethton, and from Hampton, four miles to the south, was cut off with the destruction of telephone lines, washing out of railroads and demolishing of roadways. Information as to the extent of the storm was not received until parties who had walked a distance of about 20 miles reached Elizabethton.
The railroad tracks of the Southern Railway Appalachian division were washed out in seven places between Hunter and Carden’s Bluff. About four miles beyond that point the tracks were deeply covered with earth, boulders and trees. An embankment between Fish Spring and Butler was washed out for a distance of 200 feet, and several trestles were made unsafe.
Residents of Fish Springs, fleeing from the storm, abandoned their houses as the water rose, and first took refuge in box cars. A number gathered in a church, remaining there the remainder of the night.
The highways were strewn with boulders, logs, trees and earth.
Waters of the Watauga are said to have risen eight feet in a single hour, forcing campers to higher ground.
Power lines of the Watauga Power company, whose plant is operated at a 55-foot dam across the Watauga near Siam, were put out of commission. Water which had been flowing over the dam at a depth of three inches suddenly rose until a torrent five feet deep was sweeping over the top, threatening the dynamos and generators at the foot of the dam, and protected by a concrete wall.
The storm was viewed from a distance by many in nearby towns, who reported that black clouds gathered about 9 o’clock in the evening, swinging first south then southeast and turning north and finally northeast. Two sets of clouds appeared to meet at a point near Hunter, presenting the spectacle of an apparent cloudburst. Its intensity spent, the clouds appeared to swing to the northwest, gradually dispersing into showers, deluging the country in their way for a distance of a dozen miles.
From the front page of The Robesonian, Lumberton, N.C., Monday, June 16, 1924
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