BURSTING OF BIG DAM

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 140, 9 December 1911, Page 10 (Supplement)

BURSTING OF BIG DAM

HUNDREDS SWEPT TO DEATH. Many hundreds of lives have been lost by the bursting of a dam on Saturday, September 30, at Austin, Pennsylvania. The loss of life was at first put as high as 2000, but a later telegram from Harrisburg says the death-roll is now estimated at 850. Telephonic messages report that a number of villages below Austin have been wrecked. The dam was the property of the Bayliss Paper Company. Millions of/gallons of water were stored in the dam. The town of Austin, with a population of 2TOO, lay in the valley immediately below the dam stretching in a single long street. The dam burst shortly after two o'clock. The water swept down upon Austin. Many of the inhabitants fled to the hills, but the dam being so close to the town there was no time to give warning. All telegraphic and telephonic communication with Austin was broken for a time, but a telephonic operator who tapped a wire near the town stated that the wreckage of houses left by the flood was burning fiercely, and it wa3 feared that the people imprisoned in them would be cremated. A wall of water, added the report, swept on the town from a distance of only half a mile, and of 300 houses only half a dozen were left standing. Mr. Stump, manager of the Austin Telephonic Exchange, who escaped, telephoned that the wall o( water appeared without any warning, filling the valley from side to side, and tore houses to pieces, sending the wreckage high into the air. Mr. Stump reached the hills, but saw many people engulfed as they fled from the -floods. Houses on the hill escaped serious damage, although nearly all were partially flooded. Tbo central part of the town is wiped out. A huge quantity of logs carried by the flood accounts for the wrecking of the buildings so completely. Most of the bodies first found were those of women and children. The dam was 530 ft long, 49ft high and 32ft broad at the base. It was built of reinforced concrete. The dam was rebuilt a year ago, after a partial break. The damage on that occasion was slight. The occurrence proves to have been a disaster which immediately recalls to mind the terrible catastrophe which occurred in the, same State at Johnstown in May of ISBO. Whereas on that occasion, however, the death roll reached a total of 6000, the Austin flood, so far as can be learned at present, has been responsible for a much smaller loss of life, though the death-roll is terribly heavy. Austin, situated on the Susquehanna river, is one of many large lumber towns of Pennsylvania, and its population of 3000 consists chiefly of the families of the men engaged in the trade.

While -there may bo points of similarity between the Austin catastrophe and its predecessor at Johnstown, there are also points of difference. The occurrences of 188!) were the direct outcome of a period of heavy rainstorms in the Ajlleghanics, which flooded lakes and rivers and caused the breakage of the dam of the South Fork reservoir. In the case of Austin there have been no phenomenal storms to presage disaster. Indeed, on Saturday afternoon the weather was perfect, and there was nothing to suggest that death and destruction would stalk abroad in the evening. The bursting of Bayliss dam was the immediate cause of the disaster, and, as in the case of the South Fork reservoir dam, reason existed'to fear that the dam was not capable of withstanding the strain to which it was subjected. The South Fork dam had given visible signs of being insecure and improperly constructed. The Bayliss dam was partly broken last year. Since then the people of Austin ha,ve suffered uneasiness.

The bursting of the dam let loose a volume of water estimated to be 500,000,000 gallons in measure. With a mighty roar the overwhelming mass of water', freed of its bonds, rushed down the valley in n,7i irresistible avalanche. Austin and the neighboring town of Costello, with its population of five or six hundred people, stood immediately in the course of the swirling waters, advancing as a giant wave of fifty feet in height. The crushing wall of water swept through the towns, levelling nouses to the ground, uprooting trees, and very speedily the foam crested destroyer bore upon its surface an appalling collection of wreckage and debris of every conceivable kind. Again, as in the Johnstown case, fire added its ravages to the already terrific work of destruction. As houses crashed to the. ground torn and broken gaspipes let loose another danger. Fire broke out in several places, and many who escaped death by the flood met an even more shocking end. Immediately the flood showed signs 'of abatement, those who had not fallen victims-'to its relentless rage commenced the heartrending task of searching for friends and relatives. This grim task, carried out at night, and resulting in most instances in the recovery of bodies, was attended by many pitiful scenes. The engineer who was the first to give, a telephonic warning to the town says that when ho was watching the water pouring over the edge of the dam there was no indication whatever of any weakness. "All of a sudden," be continued, "there was a sharp report, and a hole appeared in the west end of the structure. The water poured through the whole, which rapidly grew larger, and was soon 20 feet wide, and extended from top to bottom of the barrier. Then there was a second report, and the whole dam seemed to crumble. The crowd of spectators fled to the high (ground, but some were caught and drowned. When I looked hack, a wall of water, 50ft high, was sweeping down the valley, carrying away everything. The sound was deafening, but the shrieks of ihe panic-stricken people rang over the noise of the waters. I'rushed to the nearest telephone, gave the alarm, and then hurried towards Austin Fire broke out in a score of places simultaneously, while buildings vanished one after another in quick succession. The flood travelled with racehorse speed. Many of those who were not drowned were crushed to death in the crumbling buildings. The flood was felt for more than ten miles down stream, and a number of villages below Austin also suffered severely."