Florence, S. C.
The next point visited was Florence, Florence County, 81 miles from Columbia. Reports of heavy flood losses had come in from the Lynches River section. A Relief Committee had been formed by the Honorable Hartwell Ayer, editor of the Florence Daily Times and a small sum of money raised.
After conferring with the committee, I concluded that it would be desirable for me to make some investigation of conditions for myself, and went down to Cowards, which is located in the flooded district, 16 miles from Florence. Here, at the recommendation of the committee, I called upon Mr. Z. C. Lynch, who keeps a large general store and supplies the needs of over 200 farmers in that vicinity.
Immediately after the flood Mr. Lynch had spent three days in riding around through the section that had been flooded, noting carefully the conditions of the crops, and talking with the farmers. He gave me a positive assurance that he had not met a single case of destitution, and that, as a rule, the loss in that section would not average more than 10% to 25% of the crop. After this frank statement from a man who is in a far better position to get the exact truth than I could possibly be, I decided to make no further investigation, but to await the report of Dr. Hicks.
After spending two days in the flooded district, under circumstances which enabled him to come into touch with representatives from every point, Dr. Hicks returned with exactly the same report as that given by Mr. Lynch. He said that while the losses had been heavy, and many people were considerably crippled, there was no destitution and there was not likely to be any that could not easily be met by local resources.