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How bad was it?

There were 60 business establishments in town 鈥� all had flood damage.

The town鈥檚 two banks had acted wisely and moved their assets and books to the second floor of the courthouse. There, they continued to operate 鈥� although, they could only be reached by canoe.

The post office relocated to the second floor of the old Livingston Hotel, where they managed to both receive and send mail.

Because the rails into town were under water, the train had to stop at Dalton鈥檚 station, a mile or so down the line. Passengers then had to catch a canoe or small boat to finish their journey.

In fact, the town didn鈥檛 have enough boats to handle both the traffic and freight from the train. The town of Red Boiling Springs sent five boats down to help out and others were brought in from the river.

M. F. Hall took his grocery business up the street to the old Methodist church鈥ater the Russell鈥檚 popcorn factory 鈥� and continued to do business there. 鈥淧ap鈥� Freedle and R. T. Wright each had small grocery stores downtown, but their homes were close by, on dry ground. They carried their stock to their individual homes and sold groceries out of their living rooms.

Owen鈥檚 Store and Littleton鈥檚 Store, were on the south side of Main Street. Due to the lay of the land, both stores had been built with a split level floor鈥hat is, the backs of both stores were four or five steps above the level of the front of the stores. Both men moved their merchandise to the higher level and continued to serve customers out of the back doors of their establishments.

Not everyone was able to carry on.

Cunningham鈥檚 dry goods business had to wait until the water went down before they could try to salvage any thing.

There were others.

The Vidette, a week after the flood, wrote, 鈥溾�erkins and Swaney Druggists were damaged to some extent. E. V. Hale furniture, was badly damaged, as well as the Hartsville Bakery, J. L. Dalton and Son, Taz Upshaw dry goods, Owen Tire Co., Owen Motor Co., the Broadway Garage and the Farmer鈥檚 Tobacco Warehouse, which had over 100,000 pounds of tobacco on the floor at the time and all this was covered by the water. R. F. Simon, jeweler, lost his entire stock from the high water as everything in his building was ruined.鈥�

The hotel鈥檚 downstairs were under water, and hotel manager Mr. McCormack and his wife, turned an upstairs room into a temporary kitchen and they continued to cook for the hotel鈥檚 occupants.

Mr. McCormack was under a lot of pressure with half of his hotel under water and using a makeshift kitchen, but his worst memory of the historic backwater came the second night of the flood.

Although the power lines in town were damaged and not working, the local phone lines were still operable.

After dark on that second night, both Mr. and Mrs. McCormack had gone to bed when they were awakened by the phone in the hotel lobby ringing. The phone, the only one in the hotel, hung on the wall and was just inches above the water.

The phone rang鈥nd rang鈥nd rang!

Reluctantly, Mr. McCormack got dressed, put on a pair of huge wading boots and headed downstairs using a lantern to find his way.

Getting to the phone, he answered, and the voice on the other end said, 鈥淚鈥檓 calling from Lafayette and I heard that water was knee deep in your hotel in Hartsville鈥s that true!鈥�

We can鈥檛 repeat Mr. McCormack鈥檚 exact reply, but it would have made a sailor blush!

As the water receded, businesses cleaned up with mops and brooms and elbow grease. Most of the stores didn鈥檛 have enough insurance to cover their losses. Ruined goods were taken to the dump or burned. And, a few stores offered sale prices on water damaged merchandise.

Yet, by late summer folks were once again commenting on the latest dry spell and the need for a good rain!