The 1936 Flood

High Water Marks Since 1877 Exceed at Bergton—Isolation Broken.

Mrs. Cootes Home is Badly Damaged.

New River course Made at Bergton—Road Must be Rebuilt.

"The Great Flood of 1936" broke all known high water marks at Bergton and Cootes Store and left in its wake between Broadway and Bergton a trail of washed-away barns, outbuildings, fences, uprooted trees and phone poles, damaged roads and destroyed bridge abutments, a survey of the Brocks Gap section revealed yesterday when a Daily News-Record representative, accompanying C. W. Thomas and Augustus Julias, followed state highway engineers into Bergton yesterday morning in restoring contact with that section.

At Bergton, the flood waters Tuesday night ran into the old Wittig home for the first time in known records. Sam Wittig, descendant of the Brocks Gap pioneers, said the height of the flood went beyond marks of all previous floods, extending back to 1877.

Cootes Store Hard Hit

At Cootes Store, there is a scene akin to desolation. The water was two feet higher than any other known stage. The flood at its height stood four feet on the lower floor of Mrs. E. A. Cootes’ home. It washed away the barn, the chicken house, a small cottage occupied by Mrs. Dora Stroop, a garage and a warehouse attached to the late E. A. Cootes’ store building. It ran over the counter in Shoemaker’s store and filling station, and lapped the floor in Brennemann’s Brothers store and postoffice.

Along the highway from Broadway to Cootes Store, road embankments were washed away, leaving the road as though it is along a precipice. Huge logs were seen caught in crotches of trees 20 and 30 feet above the ground. Pieces of buildings were strewn along the banks of the river. Lumber was scattered about as if a tornado had swept through that section. Tables washed from houses were seen along the river.