The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-02

"It is possible this figure will cove | the loss" he said. land 1t is possible there may be not more than 100 dead.'
 The burgess and the Rev. P. W
 O'Brien, who had been pastor of th'
 Catholic church for many years. and wh,
 are familiar with business conditions ant
 values, estimate the property damage a
 about $6, 6,000,000.
 The Bayliss Pulp company, which owned
 the dam, will lose s1,50O, 900, according tC
 Father O'Brien, the Goodyear Lumber
 company $1,000,000 the Buffalo and Sus
 quehanna railroad s5oO,ooo, and the So' houses destroyed with their contents il
 is said will total s1.0oo,Ooo more.
 One of the striking pathetic features
 according to Dr. Thomas H. A. Stytper
 chief of the state dispensaries, was the
 practical absence of children among the
 survivors. It is thought that when the
 wreckage has been cleared and the bodies
 of victims recovered, although many have
 been entirely destroyed, it would be found that large proportion were those of children.
 Boyd Lockhard. young business man of Austin. had a narrow escape MT. Lockhard said that when he heard the alarm given he thought someone was playing practical joke. and he went into the street to watch the peoples actions. | He looked in the direction of the dam | three blocks away.
 Tt looked like a wall of wood, % feet high" he said. At first glance I did | not see the water at all because the wood at the pulp mill was carried before | the water and became a sort of batterng ram that tore away the buildings of the town. l ran toward the hill, and by the greatest effort got above the level of the water while it was surging within 10 feet of me. The ground began to give way under me, but I managed to chamber | few feet further up and caught hold of | a tree to which I clung"
 Throngs of people came to town from | all parts in the Sinnemahoning valley be- | low Austin to ascertain the extent of the damage and to seek friends and relatives The rush of the waters had carried away every means of wire communication and inlpeded travel.
 J. C. Borchard, who lived within half a mile of Costello, said when the crest Of the flood swept past his home there were no signs of human beings or their l houses in the debris.
 The entire surface of the flood was coy- erad with newly sawed timber and pieces of lumber, he said, adding: Tt was not until lapse of five or six minutes that house tops, broken furniture and other evidences of the destruction of the town began to appear"
 The people of Costello received ample warning from Austin that the dam had broken, and although 40 or 50 houses were demolished, it is believed only three fa- talities occurred. The annihilation of the town came in a beautiful autumn after noon. The fine weather had attracted the young people to ball game in a nearby town. and many escaped the fate of their friends and relatives at home
 Women were about the StreetS for tba;r Saturday afternoon shopping and these and the merchants who were selling them goods were caught by the onrush of water almost before they had time to | think of escape. There were small crowds amusing themselves also at motion pic- ture theatres which were swept away by ! the water
 | The greatest loss of life by fire oc- cured at sharp turn of the valley just | below Main street where the debris was | caught and compressed with terrific gin like power by the circling sweep of the ] flood. The wreckage of the business DOT tion of the town was carried to that point and from upset stoves caught fire | It is believed scores of persons are bur
 jed under some 10 to 20 feet of wreckage there and that the task of recovering them will necessarily be difficult. In drizzling rain which later chang | ed to a beating storm hundreds of vol | unteers carried on the work of rescue while many visitors looking for friends and relatives viewed the muddy corpses anxious and fearful to know if any | among them were those sought. Fires still were burning briskly in some DOT tions of the wreckage this afternoon, but they had been under control for sev- eral hours.
 l The Buffalo and Susquehanna found a way into Austin today by a branch track that followed the hill. By this route fire companies from Clean. Gale tona, Renova and Smithport were land ed.
 Not a manufacturing industry is left and not a business place is intact. A | few cheaply constructed wooden houses occupied by foreigners and located on the hillside is all that remains of the resi- dence portion. A fortunate deception tc | the general destruction is the fact that
 the little hospital remained practically undamaged on the hillside. The schoo building was also saved.
 Chief of Police Baker of Austin, one oi the survivors, with the assistance of Ern- est Hamilton and number of constables from nearby towns, maintained as good order as could be expected throughout
 the night, and until the arrival of com
 pany of state constabulary this morning
 There were St mounted men in the states
 squad, but on account of the wreckage II
 the valley il was found not practicable tt
 Vicket the ruins of the villages on horse
 back Lines were established and only
 workers and searchers were allowed t' | pass them. There was but little pillagint
 today During the forenoon Chief Bake
 discovered a man and a woman removing
 a watch from mans pocket, but an al
 tempt to make an arrest was useless, ant
 the pair got away after some rougl
 handling by the crowd. In the wreckag' of three stores he found that the casf
 register had been broken open and th'
 contents stolen. One man with thre, watches was locked up in freight car.
 A primary election was in progress il the town hall when the flood broke. /
 man passing by yelled to the crowd abou
 tho booth something about the dam burst ing and the election spectators and voter dashed out and took to the hills, leayin, their ballots unmarked.
 There were 300 or more men working il the ruins late this afternoon. Heavy log ging ropes were tied about the bigge |, pieces of wreekage, the end paid ou until 200 or 300 men had room for a hold
 In this primitive way the ruins wer
 forced apart, often to fall again into
 tangle and make the work all the nor,
 difficult.
 Tho dam of debris which formed save' the western part of Costello. It staye' the rushing current temporarily, durins P which the alarm spread down the valle,
 and tho residents of Costello had time t , flee to the hills.
 , The eastern side of the village, however
 was entirely destroyed, rendering abou
 l01 persons homeless.
 , The work of clearing up the debris i
 under the direction of Senator A. T 7 Baldwin, who lost his father, mother, wifi