The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1889-06-14
THIRTEEN MILLIONS
The Pennsylvania Railroad
Will Lose That
Amount.
Flosd Sufferers Will Hold
Special Thanksgiving Ser
vices Tomorrow.
Engineers Conplete an Exsmina-
tion OF the Dam and Find
That 1t Was Very M&anly
Constructed.
A Railroads. Loss.

AAioi "AH5 upoh tnS aulhoIlty u HlSE
official of the Pennsylvania Railroad com
pany's loss in property destroyed
by the flood and by suspen
sion of traffic will reach Sl3, 900, 900.
WILL GIVE THANKS.
WnLIAMsroRT, Pa, June s.--The
situation here has not materially changed
and the work of cleaning up and releay-
ing sufferers goes on steadily. 1t is now
raining quite hard here again. The
mayor has issued a proclamation recon-
mending special Thanksgiving services iii
all the churches tomorrow,
ENGINEERS EXAMINE THE DAM.
JoHNsTowN, June S.--A. Nj. Yelling
ton, with F. P. Burt, associate editor of
the Engineering News, of New York,
have completed the examination of the
dam which caused the great disaster.
Wellington statea that the dam wns in
every respect a very inferior construc
ton and of kind wholly unwarranted
by the good engineering praatices of
thirty years ago. Both tile original and
reconstructed dams were of earth only.
with no heart wall, but only riprapped
on the slopes. The original dam. how
ever, was made in rammed and
watered layers, which still shows dis
tinctly in the wrecked dam. The new
one merely added to its stability,
but it was to all appearances simply
dumped in like an ordinary railroad fill
Much of the old part is standing intact.
while the adjacent parts of the new works
are wholly carried off. There was no
central wall Of puddle or masonry either
in the old or new dam. 1t has been the
invariable practice of engineers for thirty
or forty years to use one or, the other In
building high daiils OF earth, The recon
structed dam also bears marks of great
carelessness in having been made two
feet lower in the middle, which would
have concentrated the overflow if il
should occur at the ends instead OF the
center. Had the break began at the ends
the cut of the water would have been SO
gradual that little or no harm might have
resulted Had the dam been at once cut
at the ends when the water began run.
nlng over the center, the sudden break.
ing of the dam would have been at least
greatly diminished, possibly prolonged
so that little harm would have been
done. The crest Of the old dnm had not
been raised in the reconstruction OF
1881. The old overflow channel
through the rock still remains but, ow-
ing to the sag of the crest in the middle
of the dana, only five and onelalf feet in
it, instead of seven feet We're necessary
to run the water over the crest. And
| me rock spillway, narrow at best, had
heen further contracted by the close
grating to prevent the egcape of fish,
capped By good sized timbere. and In
some slight degree aiso by trestle foot
bridge. The net effect of all these differ.
| cnces Of condition was that the dam as it
stood was not much safer against ex-
cessive floods, as was apparent from is
inferior construction, than the original
dam would have been with crest only
three and onehalf to four feet high
above the bottom Of the rock spilway
instead OF seven feet. A large amount
Of riprapping and slope wall still remains
intact aud it is Of excellent uuali:y. i
does rot atpear that there was any grea
amount of leakage through the dam be
fore it broke. The destruction cam.
from the water flowing over the top.
Wellington said no engineer of know
and good standing for such work coult
possibly have been engaged on it since il
the particulars mentioned ii violate,
most of the elementary and univeraall,
understood requirements of good prac
tees. the estimates OF the original tiar
indicate that it was made about half G
earth and half Of rock, but if SO ther
was little evidence of it IN the broke
dam. The riprapping WAS merely a ski
on each face, with more or less loos
shale mixed with the earth. The da,
was 70 feet above water, 9 TO insid
slope, II to outside slope, and 20 fet
wide on top. The rock throughout W.
about one foot below the surface of IL
earth and was pretty good material f
such dam, if it was TO be built at al
The fact of its having been standing il
, tact since 1881 must be ascribed to thi
as no engineer of standing would .ev
have tried to SO construct it. The fa
that the dam was reconstructed on
l after over twenty years abandonment
7 made it especially hard on the older pa
, of the dam to withstand the pressure
the water
CHINA's GREAT FLOOD.