Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-06-14
THE YOUNGSTOWN DISASTER.

Although the newspapers are full OF 1t,
there is really very little to add to the
story of the great disaster in the Cone
maugh valley of Pennsylvania. The
generosity of the country has kept the re-
lief committee supplied with funds to
purchase food for those made destitute,
to prosecute the work of clearing up the
site of the city and the mass Of ruins at
the railroad bridge. Up to Wednesday
night over 5000 of the survivors had
registered Eleven hundred and ninety
two bodies had been recovered IN Johns
town alone and considerably over 2O00
in the whole valley. The latest estimate
of deaths by the flood is $500 to 1000. The
State has taken hold of the work of clear
ing up the site of JOhnstown. Some of
the iron works have started.
The Pittsburgh Commercial prints the
following account of the breaking of the
dam, from the lips of John G.. Parke, Jr.,
civil engineer who was engaged on the
grounds of the South Fork club. 1t
gives the clearest notion of the cause of
the disaster that we have seen:
ION Thursday night the dam was in
perfect condition, and the water was not
within seven feet of the top. At that
stage the lake is nearly three miles long.
1t rained very hard Thursday night | am
told, for slept too soundly myself to
hear it, bat when got up Friday morn
ing could see there was flood, for the
water was over the drive i'm front of the
club house, and the level of the water in
the lake had risen until it was only four
feet below the top of the dam. | rode
up to the head of the lake and saw that
the woods were boiling full of water
South Fork and Muddy Run, which
emptied into the lake, were fetching down
trees, logs, cut timber and stuff from a
saw mill that was up in the woods in
that direction. This was about "a
o'clock. When returned, Col. Unger,
the president of the club, hired twenty
two Italians, and a number of farmers
joined in to work on the dam. Alto
gether thirty men were at work. A
plough was run along the top of the dam,
and earth was thrown in the face of the
dam to strengthen it. At the same time
a channel was dug on the west end of the
dam to make sluiceway there. There
was about three feet of shale rock
through which it was possible to cut, but
then we struck bed rock that it was i'm
possible to get into without blasting.
When we got the channel opened, the
water soonscOured down to the bed rock,
and a stream twenty feet wide and three
deep rushed out on that end of the dam,
while the weir was letting an enormous
quantity on the other end. Notwith-
standing these outlets, the water kept
rising at the rate of about ten inches an
hour.
"By III had made up my mind that
it was impossible to save the dam, and
getting on my horse, | galloped down
the road to South Fork to warn the
people of their danger. The telegraph
tower is a mile from the town, and | sent
two men there to have messages sent to
Johnstown and other points below.
heard that the lady operator tainted
when she had sent off the the news, and
had to be carried off. The people at
South Fork had ample time to get to the
high grounds, and they were able to
move their furniture, too. In fact, only
one person was drowned at South Fork,
and he while attempting to fish some
thing from the flood as it rolled by. II
was just II o'clock when the telegraph
messages were sent out, so that the
people of Johnstown had over three
hours warning.
Gas | rode back to the dam / expected
almost every moment to meet the lake
coming down on me, but the dam wa:
still intact, although the water had reach,
ed the top. At about o'clock | walked
over the dam. At that time the water
was three inches deep on it, and wa:
gradually eating away the earth on the