West Virginians warned as floods recede, 3-24-1936

WEST VIRGINIANS WARNED AS FLOODS RECEDE

Vaccine and Serums Sent into Affected Areas of State

Receding flood waters throughout the Mountain State brought a warning for the health department today that the coming period provided the greatest menace to health.

The department, reporting no epidemics, assigned a dozen field men to checking water supplies in the affected areas, directed additional precautions and rushed new supplies of vaccine and antityphoid serum to the eastern and northern panhandles.

Point Pleasant, at the juncture of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers, remained under nine feet of water. Another child was born in the refugees' camp and gas supplies were cut off in the business section by water in the mains.

Mayor James Couch said there was plenty of food and coal. Four government boats stood by to offer assistance.

The Ohio, after hitting a crest fo 56.85 feet on the official gauge at Huntington, began falling; the river still flowed through the city streets, forced cancellation of classes at Marshall college and Cabell county schools.

Approximately 300 families still are out of their homes in that city. None is expected to be able to return before the latter part of the week. Guyandotte, in the east end, is most seriously affected.

Governor Kump arrived at Wheeling on an inspection trip of the flood area, put the flood damage at millions, adding:

"But there is no way to calculate the amount with any degree of accuracy."

He left for other northern Panhandle cities, and planned to go on to the eastern panhandle, then to Washington, where he will ask federal officials for funds to rebuild three damaged toll bridges in the eastern panhandle.

Red Cross officials declared the damage in Wheeling is "enormous," adding that 10,083 homeless families were counted between Wellsville, O., and Point Pleasant, W. Va.

Welfare agencies established thirteen registration bureaus in Wheeling and asked for all of the 5,000 to 6,000 refugees in, that city report their losses. Water supplies in the outlying districts were checked and all were urged to take the typhoid serum.

Hundreds of Families Homeless

The Red Cross said the situation at Wellsburg is well in hand. Hundreds of families still are homeless there, their residences filled with mud and debris and with utility service interrupted. Red Cross stations are providing relief.

The river inched back toward its banks at Parkersburg, but several hundred there are still being cared for at relief headquarters. Mayor H. R. Debussey directed the fumigation of all the flooded homes and the immunization of all refugees before they will be permitted to return.

WPA Administrator F. Witcher McCullough, who likewise is inspecting the flood areas, stopped at Parkersburg and announced an additional $25,000 had been allowed for relief. Allocations, each for $5,000 are for: Wellsburg, New Martinsville, Parkersburg, Green Springs and Huntington.

Highways and railroads along the Ohio valley still were blocked. Snow drifts curbed traffic through the central part of the state with the road commission getting out plows again to cut through 30-inch drifts in Tucker county.

Communication services still were hampered, with the telephone company reporting a three-hour delay on calls to many communities in the northern section.

The Moundsville city council, surveying damaged homes and debris, estimated $100,000 will be needed to restore the city.

In the eastern panhandle, officials estimated 650 are homeless with a damage of $250,000 exclusive of three washed out toll bridges. Mayor C. E. Marlett estimated damage at historic Harper's Ferry at $100,000.

Fourteen deaths in the mountain state are accounted for.