Lee Beatty - The Flood of 1916 Lyrics

It started in the hills of Carolina
Two cyclones met, and formed a mighty pair
They dumped their driving rain upon the mountains
Where the lumber lords had stripped the forests bare

The angry clouds dropped buckets down on Asheville
The rain gauge said 2 feet in just a day
The swollen river swept the land like broomstraw
And claimed a ransom no one could repay

And the people bowed and prayed
From the river to be saved
As the bridges and the walls came crashing down
And the cotton bales did float
And our house became a boat
When the Flood of 1916 came to town

The torrent reached its crest by early Sunday
The locals thought they heard old Noah call
Forty-seven feet above the flood line
The water peaked, then it began to fall

It washed away the mill at Mountain Island
5 floors of brick and timbers, spools, and thread
The river had declared its awful power
That Mountain Island milltown, was dead

And the people bowed and prayed
From the river to be saved
As the bridges and the walls came crashing down
And the cotton bales did float
And our house became a boat
When the Flood of 1916 came to town

The flood survivors found the muddy mill bell
They saved it, but it never rang again
Silently, it sits inside the town hall
A witness to old Mother Nature's pain

So if the sky turns black and rain starts fallin
And then you hear a single mournful bell
The ghosts of the Catawba shout this warning...
To higher ground, you better run like hell!...

And the people bowed and prayed
From the river to be saved
As the bridges and the walls came crashing down
And the cotton bales did float
And our house became a boat
When the Flood of 1916 came to town, And all around

When the Flood of 1916 came to town