The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-04-08
Railway Train Wrecked and Its Pas
sengers Barely Saved from
Death i'm the Flood.
MUCH PROPERTY DESTROYED
NUMEROUS BUILDINGS SWEPT FROM
THEIR FOUNDATIONS.
Railway Traffic Interrupted on Sew.
eral Roads-CircIeviIIe Said to
Have Been Washed Away.


a cloudburst. in central and southern
Texas, have caused great destruction of
property and the loss of an unknown num-
Der of lives. The Colorado river has risen
Brazos and Trinity are also rising. Five
serious washouts on the Austin & North
western Railroad are reported and traffic
has been abandoned
This city is tonight in pitch darkness
with raging river one mile wide and
swollen far beyond its natural banks, roar
ing and surging through all the lower por-
tion of the town. having spread destruction
and death in its wake. In addition to the
vast loss to property interests, ii is cal
culated that between thirty and forty lives
have been sacrificed and the reports COM
ing in from the tributary country tonight
do not tend to improve matters. The flood
is not unlike the Johnstown disaster some
years ago. in that a raging river, already
swollen far beyond it's capacity. bore too
heavily on an immense dam spanning the
reservoir of water thirty miles long, half
mile wide and sixty feet deep, to aid in
carrying destruction down the valley of
the Colorado river.
The great dam in the Colorado river gave
way at noon to-day from the enormous
pressure of water and debris and with a
roar and crash swept the valley below the
city. wrecking the immense light and
power plant and drowning eight workmen.
Following is list OF the known dead IN
cluding those killed in the power house:
FRANK PINCET.
FRANK KINNEY.
WALTER FLOWER
WALTER JOHNSON.
ALFRED JOHNSON
FRANK FITZGERALD.
WALTER BLOSSM.AN.
JOSEPH NEWMAN.
DICK MORRIS (colored).
JOHN PROES.
CHARLES BURCHARD.
Six negroes.
ROSE FORTY FEET IN TEN HOURS.
Last Wednesday night it began to rain
very hard at this place, the storm extend
ing north of here along the water sheds
of the Colorado river. The precipitation
continued until this morning, the down.
fall averaging six inches within an hour.
All this vast quantity of water along the
water sheds OF the Colorado river rapidly
swelled the current until at S o'clock this
morning the river, which had been rising
steadily since last evening, was raging
torrent, having risen forty feet within
ten hours.
After daylight this morning 1t became
evident that the situation serious.
The river began to rise so rapidly that 1t
was evident that the immense dam and
all the power houses and contents, costing
one and one-half million dollars, were in
imminent danger. To add TO the terror of
the situation, small frame houses, trees
and debris os every description, in varying
quantities, began drifting down the river
and piling UP against the upper face of
the dam. This weight was augmented
every moment until by 10 o'clock there
was a mass OF debris lodged against the
dam which threatened the safety of the
structure In addition. millions OF gal
Ions of water, muddy from its long jour
ney, was whirling and pIunging 10 the six
ty-foot fall and IL was evident that no
wall could withstand the immense pres
sure.
The crisis came shortly after IL o'clock.
when suddenly with report like the roar
OF the ocean, a great wedge twenty-five
feet high. 500 feet wide and about eight
feet thick rolled out of the center section
of the dam. down the face Of the sixty
foot depth into the river below. This left
a yawning gap in the very middle OF the
dam through which the debris and water
fiercely poured while the flood, already
raging, was threatening everything in its
path. this sudden breaking of the dam but
serving to add to the horror of the cat
astrophe.
DROWNED LIKE RATS
The released water poured into the power
house. catching eight employees at work
there. drowning all OF them instantly. The
breaking OF the dam caused wild excite
ment in the city. The telegraph companies
at once wired 70 places below here TO look
cut for the great wave. and runners were
dispatched on horses 10 notify those living
I'm the valleys below the city. The tele-
graphic messages served as timely warn
ing 10 many. but the rushing waters out
stripped the horsemen and many houses
Were ,fclred nm. and swept away before the