Imperial Valley press and the Imperial press., 1906-07-07
NEW RIVERS WORK
Destruction of MexiCaIi We'll Niqh Complete. CdIexiCO Apparently
 Safe

the worst is over and the river is not cutting any more still the people do not feel fully reassured.
 As noted in our last issue a strong effort was made to carry the overpour up the old channel of the river some four hundred yards west of Mexicali. For this purpose several tons of dyna- mite was exploded in that stream in an endeavor to deepen its course. But all in vain. The water elected to trav- el down the more easterly channel and wash away the town of Mexicali. 50 last Saturday the overpour cut through the hard formation in New river where the old wagon bridge used to stand and striking the soft dirt in the east channel began to cut away the founda- tions of Mexicali. So rapidly did this overpour cut back that in less than 24 hours it went more than a mile. This took it up to the intersection of the old channel of New river at the point where the railroad bridge crosses. It also stopped the water from going down the west channel where so much effort was expended to make it go and turned it all down the east channel. This in creased the volume of water running there till it began cutting away its banks very rapidly. All day Saturday the river chewed into Mexicali with relentless fury. carrying away practical ly the entire town and progressing so far as to threaten Calexico. Nearly all the houses in Mexicali being built of adobe or brick could not be moved so fell into the stream and were a total loss. We have not been able to get any estimate of the loss but believe it must be at least S5O,OOO. The Mexi- cans are quite stold about it as. they are confident of their ability to collect for their losses in damages from the parties responsible for the flood. The work of cutting away the bank went on with very little intermission all day Sat urday and Sunday and by Sunday even ing it had carried away the ground on which the railroad tank and round house had stood and the California De- velopment company's old blacksmith shop and water tower had gone into the river. The river steadily cut away at this point till within less than a score of feet away from the California De- velopment company's large adobe of flee building, taking away several of the shade trees and some of their ele- gant blue grass lawn.
 All day Sunday an immense crowd of people thronged the town and watched the work of destruction. On the Mexicali side there was great ac- tivity in dismantling houses and nov ing their effects from the adobes, as well as moving the frame structures.
 On the Calexico side there was aI- most as much going on The Cali fornia Development company moved out of their building early Saturday morning and occupied quarters in the First State Bank building. The work of dismantling it was then began and all the doors, windows floors and nov able wooden parts of the building taken out and carried away. Up in the busi- ness part of town the merchants began making preparations to move, tearing away their porches and side rooms, packing up their goods and in some cases cutting their buildings into sec tions for moving All day Monday this work went forward but meantime