130 



SOUTHEKN APPALACHIAN EEGION. 



mountain region and in the wider valleys along their 

 courses across the lowlands beyond. Bridges, mills, set- 

 tlements, public roads, dams for developing water power, 

 indeed, everything in the course of such a mountain 

 stream is liable to be swept away by its rapidly increasing- 

 force. 



Damages from During the Spring of 1901 this region was visited by the 

 most severe rain storm of its recent history. Many of 

 the streams rose to unprecedented heights, and the flood 

 damages to the farms, bridges, and dwellings on or near 

 practically all of the streams flowing from these southern 

 Appalachian Mountains were enormous. During the sum- 

 mer season later floods added largely to this destruction. 



Along the valley of the Catawba River in its course 

 across the two Carolinas these flood damages to farms, 

 bridges, highways, buildings, etc., during the high-water 

 season of 1901, aggregated nearly two million dollars. 

 The storm damages during the same season along the 

 tributaries of the James, the Eoanoke, the Yadkin, and 

 the Broad, in Virginia and North Carolina, added a million 

 dollars; and those on the tributaries of other streams rising 

 about the Blue Ridge in South Carolina and Georgia add 

 still another million, making four million in all for the 

 streams flowing from the Blue Ridge across the Piedmont 

 Plateau. Add to this the damages along the streams flow- 

 ing out of the southern Appalachian Mountains to the 

 north, west, and southwest, and we have another and a 



larger stoiy of destruction: 



On the New ( Kanawha) and other smaliei adjacent streams 



in Virginia and West Virginia $1, 000, 000 



On the Watauga, in North Carolina and Tennessee 2, 000, 000 



On the Nolicliucky, in North CaroUna and Tennessee 1, 500, 000 



On the French Broad and Pigeon, in North Carolina and 



Tennessee 500,000 



On the Tuckasegee, Little Tennessee, and Hiwassee, in 



North Carolina and Tennessee 500, 000 



On the tributaries of western Georgia and Alabama streams 



rising in this region 500, 000 



This aggregate of ^10,000,000 tells a story of destruc- 

 tion never before equaled in this region. Bridges were 

 swept away by the score; houses by the hundred; thou- 

 sands of miles of public roads were washed away almost 

 beyond the possibility of repair. (See PI. LXXVI.) The 

 soil in the narrow, irregular, fringing valley lands in the 

 mountain region was in many cases partiall3^ and in other 

 cases completely washed away. In the lowlands bej'^ond, 



