The Elkins Inter Mountain

DISTRESS STORIES FROM FLOOD DISTRICTS INCREASING TODAY

FLOOD AND STORMS IN NEW ENGLAND HAVE CLAIMED MORE THAN 140 VICTIMS PARTY OF MEN TRAMP MILES OVER TORN ROAD TO GET FOOD FOR NEWPORT IN VERMONT FULL FORCE OF THE STORM WAS FELT AND SUFFERING GREATEST BOSTON. Nov. 8. (AP)—New stories of distress came from northern Vermont today with additions to the ever growing list of fatalities from last week's flood which has claimed more than 140 victims.

From Newport, Vt., near the Canadian line came the latest tale of suffering when a party of four men tramped miles over torn roads and swaying bridges to Burlington to tell of a town that was face to face with starvation. They brought the intelligence that at least three men had perished there with the possibility many more might have been claimed in the sudden rise of the Black river.

New Hampshire, taking calmer stock of its losses than was possible in the first few days following the storm, found them not as great as had been thought.

Connecticut, which had been apprehensive that the vast volume of water rolling down the river of the same name, might do heavy damage rejoiced at the decline of the flood crest.

In Vermont, however, the full blow of the storm fell, and there the situation persisted today that state officials and others, while praising the attitude of the citizens in their efforts toward reconstruction did not attempt to minimize.

The four men who reached Burlington from Newport said flood waters were still rising, drinking water was being obtained from one small pipe carried across a cracked and tottering bridge and food was hardly to be had at any price.

Practically every house along the river bank was under water and many have been toppled into the stream. The live stock perished almost to a head.

Other stories of acute suffering and immediate need came from the Winooski valley where 51 persons are known to have perished.

A rendering plant was offered more than 3,000 dead cows from the little area embracing the towns of Richmond and Williston and their environs.

Snow added to the difficulty of relief by making the roads more treacherous for relief trains. To add to the general apprehension, Lake Champlain today began to show the effect upon it of the enormous volume of water which it has absorbed from the hundreds of streams for which it acts as a catch basin. The lake was above its usual spring flood level and rising.

At Bolton where 25 persons were believed to have lost their lives including 24 workers in a road camp, the first relief party to break through carried a large supply of embalming fluid but found that only seven bodies had been discovered. They reported a fair amount of food left in the town from a quantity floated down the river from Waterbury on a raft made of coffins lashed together.

States and railroads face the task of restoring mile upon miles of shattered or undermined highways and roadbeds, bridges that have been swept away by the hundreds, steel trestles that have been twisted as if made of cardboard.

Major General Preston Brown, who made a first hand survey of the devastated territory, asserted the losses would run into unestimable millions.
A death list mounting into hundreds, and property damage of many millions were caused by the rampage of New England rivers. Above is pictured the Connecticut river roaring through Bellows Falls, Vermont, where it wrecked industrial plants and inundated parts of the city. It is hammering at the Pabbit paper mills here.