Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1889-06-08
THE FLOOD HORROR.
"The Pestilence that Walk
eth at MONDAY"
PNEUMONIA AND DIPHTHERIA
The Defective Way in Which the
C0nemaugh Dam was Con-
structed Exposed.

ings this morning said the situation was
good, as far as reported. Bodies are be-
ing gradually recovered all the time, but
not in large numbers as the first few
days. Last night several ghouls were
wandering amid the wreck on evil intent,
and were arrested this morning. They
we're given the choice OF imprisonment
or working at So day. They promptly
chose the latter.
The Waits Mission is doing noble
work here. Within an hour after arrival
they had established bureau and were
receiving children and babies that had
been orphaned by the food and flames.
When all are gathered it is believed they
will number several hundred.
THE PLAGUE DREADED.
care the horrors of the flood to give
way to the terrors of plague?" is the
question now agitating the valley OF
Conemaugh. The day opened warm
and almost sultry. The stencil through
Johnstown is almost overpowering.
Sickness, in spite of the precautions OF
the sanitary authorities, is on the In
crease. Fears of an epide mic grow with
every hour. Five cases Of malignant
diphtheria were found this morning in
| five different houses on one street, and
| the health authorities anticipate much
typhoid fever and kindred diseases,
especially as the weather is growing
warmer. Scarcity of vegetables adds to
the danger. :.
As far as known, only eighteen bodies
have been recovered this morning in the
Conemaugh valley. One of them lay in
the middle of the road, and had been
driven over by wagons for two days and
horribly mapgled.
Two more cases of typhoid fever are
reported.
Governor Foraker offers, on behalf OF
Ohio, to send 1000 laborers.
| The number of people missing from
| Woodville is almost incredible. From
present indications, it locks as if there
are only about fifty people left in Bor-
oughaven.
| THE DAM WAS DEFECTIVE.
A. M. Wellington and F. P. Burt, as
sociate editor of the Engineering NeDs,
of New York, have completed the ex-
animation of the dam which caused the
great disaster. Wellington states that
the dam was, in every respect, Of very
inferior construction, and of a kind
wholly unwarranted by the good en-
gineering practices of thirty years ago
Both the original and reconstructed dams
were of earth only, with no heart wall
but only "rip-rapped" on the slopes
lrammed and watered layers, which still
| cloxr, I,e<sDot1u in tho xurockQd dam
! The new end hardly added TO it's stability
for it was, to all appearances, simply
dumped in like ordinary railroad filling
or, if rammed, shows no evidence o
good effect from it. Much of the ole
part is standing intact, while the ad
jacent parts Of the new work are
wholly carried off. There was nc
central wall of puddle" or masonry
either in the new or the old dam, il
Having been the invariable practice o.
engineers thirty or forty years ago to use
one or the other in building high damf
of earth. The reconstructed dam also
bears the marks of great carelessness in
having been made two feet lower in the
middle than at the ends. Had the breaE
begun at the ends the rueh of watel
would have been 30 gradual that little Oh
no harm might have resulted, and hac
the dam been at once cut at the ends
when the water began running over tbs
center, the sudden breaking of the dam
would have been at least greatly dimin
ished, and possibly prolonged, so tha
little harm would have resulted. The
crest OF the old dam had not been raised
in the reconstruction of 1881. The Ole
overflow channel through the rock still re
mains, but owing to the Gag of the crest in
the middle of the dam there was only
l51a feet of water in it, instead of the
feet that were necessary to run water
over the crest, and the rock spillway
narrow at best, had been further con.
tracted by close grating to prevent the
escape of fish, and handicapped by good.
sized timber and, in some slight degree,
also by the trestle foot bridge. The orig
inal discharge pipes at the foot of the
dam had been permanently closed when
it was reconstructed. and this, while q
minor matter as compared to the others
mentioned, further reduced the possible
rate OF the maximum of discharge. The
net fleet of all these differences of con.
dition was that the dam, as it stood, was
not much safer against excessive foods,
apart from its inferior construction, than
the original dam would have been with a
crest only 81 to feet high above the
bottom Of the rock spillway, instead Of 7
feet. A large amount Of the old rip-rap.
ping and slope wall. still remains intact
aud is OF excellent quality.
1t does not appear that there was any
great amount Of leakage through the dam
before it broke. The destruction came
from the water flowing over the top
| Wellington said that no engineer of
known and good standing for such work
could have possibly been engaged on it,
since. in the particulars mentioned it VIC
lated the most elementary and univer-
sally understood requirements of good
practice. The estimates of the original
dam indicate that it WAS made about
half of earth and half of rock, but if go,
there was little evidence of it in the
broken dam. The rip-rapping was
merely skin on each face with more or
less loose spauls mixed with the earth.
The dam was 72 feet above
the water, 2 to l., inside slope, and ~
to l, outside slope, and 20 feet wide on
the top. The rock throughout was about
one foot below the surface. The earth
was pretty good material for such dam
| if 1t was to be built at all, being of a
clayey nature, making good puddle. To
this TACT OF its standing intact since 1881
must be ascribed, as no engineer of
standing would have ever tried to SO con-
struct it. In fact that the dam was a re-
constructed one, after twenty years
aba ndenment, made it especially hard
on the older part of the dam to Withstand