The Chipley banner. (Chipley, Washington County, Fla.) 1893-1943, 1900-04-14
LIVES LOST IN
TEXAS FLOOD
Big Dam on Colorado River at
Austin Gives Way.
WREAKS FEARFUL DESTRUCTION
City of Austin Was Heaviest
Loser--Disasters the Result
of Heavy Rain Storms.

Saturday night the city Of Austin,
Texas, was in darkness with raging
river one mile wide and swollen far
beyond its natural banks, roaring and
surging all through the lower portion
OF the town, having spread destruction
and death in its wake.
:. In addition to the vast loss OF prop.
srty interests, il is calculated that be.
tween thirty and forty lives have been
sacrificed, aud the repoite coming in
from the tributary country do not
tend to improve matters.
The food was not unlike the disas-
trous Johnstown food some years ago
in that raging river. already swollen
far beyond its capacity, bore too heav-
lily upon an immense dam spanning
the river at Austin, breaking the same
and letting loose reservoir Of. water
thirty miles long, half mile wide and
sixty feet deep, to aid In carrying de-
struction down the valleys of the Col
orado river.
The great dam in the Colorado river
gave way at noon to the enormous
pressure of water and debris and with
Q roar and crash swept the valleys be.
low the city, wrecking the immense
light and power plant and drowning
eight workmen.
Three days before ii began raining
very hard at Austin, the storm extend
ing north along the watersheds Of the
Colorado river. The precipitation CON-
tinued until Saturday morning and as
finale the downfall averaged six
inches within an hour. All this vast
quantity Of water along the watersheds
\pf the Colorado river rapidly swelled
We current until at 8 o'clock the river,
khich had been rising steadily. was
saging torrent.
The crisis came shortly After IL
o'clock when suddenly, with report
like the roar Of the ocean, q great
wedge, twenty.fiv feet high, 500 feet
wide and about eight feet thick, rolled
put OF the center section Of the dam,
down the face of the sixty.foot depth
INTO the river below.
This left yawning gap in the very
niddle Of the dam, which through the
chris and water fiercely poured. While
be food, already raging, was threaten
70 everything in its path, this sudden
leaking of the dam but served to add
the catastrophe. The released wa.
poured into the power house. catch.
eight employees at work, drowning
of them ipstantlv
II is estimated that more than 100
buses have been destroyed and the
PISS to property will be great, indie.
pendent Of the light and power plant,
costing 81, 500, 900. The breaking OF
the dam engulfed the old water COM
psny's plant below the city and it is
now lying fifteen feet under water,
while the city is in darkness and with.
put water.
Reports from points below Austin
ire to the effect that the food has been
most disastrous, and the breaking of
he dam has occasioned many thousand
pf dollars worth OF loss to property.
according to reports received it Is be-
ieved that at least thirty lives were
lost. 's
LATER ADvICrs.
Sunday fully 80, 900 people gather
pred at the dam and power house TO
witness the ruins Of the plant which
cost the city one and three quarter
millions OF dollars q few years ago.
The waters Of the Colorado river were
still plunging and foaming around the
wreck, eating away the big pile Of
granite which once formed the dam
as though 1t was nothing more than
chalk rock.
Reports from the neighboring coun.
try were to the effect that everything
was under water. In Williamson
county, north Of Austin, railroad
bridges and trackage have been laid
waste and oil trains stopped running.
The country tributary TO the Colo
RADIO river all the way down its course
Is being inundated, and while IL 10 be-
ieved that the worst 10 over, the loss
q estimated 90 fer will exceed some
S,OOO, 600, counting Austin - the
largest loser.
Fortunately the list Of drowned il
limited to those reported in the Asso-
aated Press dispatch Of Saturday, -
seems the only drownings reported
we're ct Austin when the dam broke
and caught the victims unawares.
Reports from several sections OF
central and south Texas are 70 the Of.
iect that large acreage IL under Wa
w end much damage has been attend
ant upon property and live stock.