BURST DAM DISASTER

Hokitika Guardian, 16 March 1928, Page 2

BURST DAM DISASTER

(Australian Press Association & Sun. SEARCH FOR THE DEAD. . LATEST DEATH ROLL. NEW YORK, March 16. The unofficial list of dead is now three hundred. The official list cannot be compiled for several clays. There is a .danger of disease breaking out among the rescue workers and homeless, and relief stations are being established where they can he iniioeiilated against typhoid. .Most of the bodies arc believed to be buried under sand near Santa Paula, where those found are badly mutilated. Five million dollars damage was done to orchards, the top soil being carried away and a blanket of sand left in its place. State architects and engineers state that the dam was based oil solid rock, but one end was fastened to shale, and the other to a conglomerate formation. The water is said to have penetrated the soil on either side and weakened the structure. Both sides gave way and the centre portion remains standing. The dam is known as the gravity type arched upstreams and built of solid concrete, 250 feet high, 100 feet wide at stream level. A VICTIM ALIVE. MORE BODIES FOUND. (Received this day at B.SO a.m.) NEW YORK, March 15. A message from Santa. Paula states search for the victims of the flood continues. With dynamite and tractors, workers are slowly cutting their wavthrough the piles of debris. The first victim to he found alivo since Tuesday was an unconscious child in the limbs of a citrus tree on a ranch. The search is now centred at a point whore the river widened and the flood spent itself. Eleven bodies were found huddled in a basin badly mutilated. It is believed more will be found hero under tons of clay and sand. Fourteen automobiles from the camp in Southern California of Edison Company are ideated and steam shovels will he used to discover whether they contain bodies. The re-establishment of communication is progressing rapidly, likewise efforts to reduce the risk of disease. Many of the hundreds missing will obviously never he found, though the number of missing is lessened with the return of Mexican families, who fled to he hills. Ruzzards and coyotes appeared in the valley to-day.