12 Dead 20 Missing  

12 DEAD IN STORMS; 20 OTHERS MISSING; VIRGINIA IS STRUCK

Cloudbursts and Winds Also Hit Tennessee and Kentucky

HOMES BLOWN DOWN OR ARE SWEPT AWAY

Hail and Electric Disturbances Add to Damage; Torrents in the Valley

May 30, 1927 Bristol, Virginia

Twelve persons are known to have been killed, more than a score are reported missing, a number injured and property damaged to the extent of approximately $1,000,000 in a series of rain, wind, hail and electric storms that swept parts of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia late last night and early today.

Houses were washed away and buildings undermined by streams swollen beyond their banks by heavy rains; earth slides blocked highways and railroads in some sections; lines of communication were destroyed and more than 60 houses in widely scattered areas were reported to have been either blown down or damaged by winds of cyclone violence. Crops also suffered serious damage from hail, wind and rain.

Southeastern Kentucky, where rains of cloudburst proportions lasting eleven hours converted mountain streams into torrents and drove people from their homes, reported the greatest loss of life with nine known dead, but it was feared the total number of fatalities would be increased when communication was restored over the stricken area.

Six Drown, Trying to Flee

At Roxana, Ky., six persons were drowned while attempting to flee to places of safety after being trapped in their homes by flood waters. Three perished when their home was swept into Toms Creek, in Johnson County, Ky. Two were drowned near Elizabethton, Tenn., and another was electrocuted by a submerged live wire in the backwaters of a creek at Johnson City, Tenn.

Unconfirmed reports said 20 or more persons were missing and believed to have drowned in the vicinity of Prestonsburg and Garrett Ky.  Three were reported to have met the same fate near Gate City, Va., and one at Elsiecoal, a mining camp.

The Dead:

Mrs. Chester Fields, Mrs. Green Callahan and two children and two unidentified persons at Roxana.

Mrs. Agnes Bailey, 80: Mrs. Maud Bailey, 40; Willard Bailey, 11, in Johnson County.

Mrs. Andy Lewis and infant, near Elizabethton, Tenn.

Dave Humphreys at Johnson City.

Business Districts Hit

Business districts in Greenville and Elizabethton, Tenn., were flooded, while stores in Kingsport, Tenn., also were damaged by overflow waters from creeks and rivers. Washed out railroad trestles in southwest Virginia left some two score coal mines faced with the prospect of suspension of several days in operation and further delay in shipments.