The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1900-04-13
More Than a Hundred Persons in
All Have Probably Been
Swept to Death.
TIE PROPERTY LOSS IS MILLIONS.
Big Dam at Austin, Tex, is a Wreck,
Also the Water, Electric Light
and Power Plant.
BnstrOp is Entirely Surrounded by
Water and Cut On-The Damage
There is EnOrmOus-Trnf-
&c AbantioneC.

|
&c Abandoner.
Austin, Tex, April 1O.-The har-
rowing details of devastation and de-
struction of life wrought by the col
lapse of the colossal Colorado river
dam, caused by the unprecedented
flood, are becoming more and more
appalling as each hour glides by.
Scores of people are known to have
already perised in the merciless food
while the death list is increasing
hourly.
The power-house and municipal
water and electric light and power
plant, which were flooded by the col
lapse of the dam, are completely
ruined. The dam was constructed by
the city several years ago at a cost
of $1,O0O,OOO. The power-house and
electric light plant, which are owned
by the city, cost $750,000.
The city authorities are paralyzed
by the magnitude of the catastrophe.
This city Sunday night was in COM
plete darkness and services in many
churches were suspended for want of
light. Electric street cars are mop
erative, as the two systems derived
their power from the wrecked muni-
cipal plant.
The great dam which broke was
the second largest in the United
States. 1t was LAB feet long, 60
feet deep and so feet across at the
base. 1t formed in Lake Mcdonald,
which was thirty miles wide.
Dallas, Tex, April 1O.-Reports
received at Dallas up to noon from
the southern and southwestern Texas
flood sections show conclusively that
more than so lives have been lost, in
Guiding those at Austin. The names
of at least one-half of the victims
are not obtainable because of the
isolation of the localities from rail
road and wire lines.
Most of them ar, in the Colorado
valley south of Austin and Bastrop.
La Grange at noon says the river is
still rising and menacing more coun-
try districts. The stream is now four
feet higher than during the great
flood of last year.
Bastrop is entirely surrounded by
water and cut off. The property dam
age is enormous. The wires in the
southern section arc in a worse con-
dition than Sunday All the wires
along the Missouri Kansas & Texas
railroad south of Temple were lost
Monday. Railroad traffic of the
southern half of the state is practical
ly abandoned, and all ouCltts to Cal
ifornia are gone because of the big
washouts on the western divisions of
the Texas g. Pacific.
Austin, Tex, April 10.-Reports
Monday morning from Bastrop, Fay
cite and Wharton counties on the
Colorado river below here are to the
effect that the full force of the flood
is just being felt there The waters
are rising so rapidly that the people
are compelled to desert their homes
with all possible speed to protect
their lives. Even this has not saved
some, as reports come from Bastrop
that 12 people were drowned there
during the night. In Wharton and
Fayette counties the situation is ev-
en- more grave and it is expected
that Mondays reports from this sec
tion will not only pile up an immense
property loss, but the list of human
life lost will be considerable.
Dallas, Tex, April 10.-E. II. y,
Green, son of Hetty Green, and presi-
dent of the Tarpoon club of the Gulf
Coast, has received kilograms from
Rockport of heavy damage to club
property on st. Joseph Island, by a
severe storm in Matagorda bay, along
Matagorda peninsula and Matagorda
island. A number of small vessels
were wrecked and some lives are be-
lieved to have been lost. None of
the Tarpoon club members are down
on the coast. This storm is in the
same locality where Mr.. Green and
party had such an exciting and
dangerous experience last fall.
Trinity river, at Dallas, continues
to rise. The stream is nearly a mile
wide here. Much property has been
lost in the valley. No lives reported
lost as yet.
San. Antonio -. AcTil 1Q--Jefi
-----,,-----ioreN, - who was All eve witness
TO the collapse of the dam at Austin,
thus describes the great flood:
81 was gazing intently at the great
body of water as it swept gracefully
over the crest of the dam, carrying
} with it acres of drift that parted as
il went down the falls. The water
over the crest was more than ten
feet in depth, and was rising at the
rate of IS inches an hour. The fal.
of the water was about forty feet
and the roaring and surging that II
produced can be better imagined thar