After the Dam Burst

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 348, 8 May 1928, Page 13

After the Dam Burst

VULTURES TO THE FEAST Terrible Scenes in California

A description of the terrible scenes after the St. Francis dam had burst in California is contained in a letter sent to a North Shore resident.

“Six billion gallons of water were released when the thing went,” states the writer, “and the torrent swept down the canyon in a solid Avail 25ft high, carrying everything before it. Even when it got into practically flat country, it swept along like a tidal wave, six feet high, smashing down houses, trees—everything that stood in its way. Lots of the missing were swept right out to sea at Ventura.

“It occurred shortly after midnight when everybody was asleep, so that the majority had no chance to save themselves. Practically everybody recovered (about 290 bodies out of 450 missing) is stark naked and battered almost beyond identification. FEAR OF PESTILENCE

“The latest danger is that of disease and pestilence. Thousands and thousands of cattle, horses and pigs were drowned —so many that it has been impossible to remove and bury more than a small proportion of them —every effort having been concentrated, on getting the human bodies. For the first few days also, the mud was so soft right along the pathway of the flood that it was like quicksand. Meantime, vultures collected in hundreds to feast upon the bodies and then it was found that the dogs and pigs which had escaped drowning were beginning to feed on the dead, there being nothing else for them with the whole countryside covered with mud and silt. Men have been occupied all the time shooting the brutes and the vultures.”

The writer says that it had been known for the past month that the dam was unsafe, but not a single warning was issued. No steps were taken to release any of the water and

lessen the pressure, no watch kept and no provision made for warning people j in the path. Two ends of the dam were i embedded not into solid rock, but into ; shale and not a single caisson had been sunk to anchor the wall to the rock , lower down. The centre portfnn of the wall, which j was the only part built into solid rock, i was still standing intact—shorn off on | either side as if it had been cut with j a knife. A liuce inquiry had been j started, but wh* flier anything would, com© of it depended on how much j money there was to hide the facts. “There is another dam just back of j Hollywood, built by the same engineer, j Mulholland, which is big enough to i sweep through the heart of Holly- j wood business section and wreck j hundreds of houses and take thousands ! of lives.” continues the writer. “People j are now beginning to inquire whether | this is built more securely than the j St. Francis, and there is a. general feeling of uneasiness about it.”