Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1911-10-04
FLOOD KILLS HUNDREDS
Dam at Austin, Penn, Goes Out,
With Horrible Results.
THE WHOLE TOWN SWEPT OUT.
Terrible Catastrophe Destroys Six
Million Dollars Worth of
Property Besides Human
Lives.

More than 800 persons were
drowned and large number were
manned when the great dam of the
Bayless Pulp and Paper company at
Austin, Pa, holding back more than
500, 100000 gallons of water, went
out on Saturday.
The immediate scene of the oblit-
Grafton of Austin, covers an area
three-eights of a mile wide and one
and three-quarters long. This COM
valley residence portion and was
bounded by Main, Ruckaber and
Thorn streets and Costello avenue
crossed by lesser thoroughfares.
Nearly mile above stood the
mammoth concrete dam of the Bay
less Paper & Pulp company, six hun
dred feet long, fifty-two feet high
and thirty feet thick at the bottom,
tapering to a thickness of three feet
at the top.
Back of this large dam lay a
reservoir of water mile and half
long and an average of thirty-five
feet deep. Directly in front of the
dam stood the plant of the Bayless
company, with four main buildings.
Stacked high nearby was 100000
cords of fifty inch wood and slabs,
and also portion of the company's
immense timber stock totalling in
the Austin valley 100000 feet of
hardwood and 25,000,000 of hem
lock. This was a five year supply,
practically the last large cut of the
region. 1t was valued at $4,000, 900.
A mill stream, Four Mile run,
flowed through the town into Sinne-
mahoning creek, leading to the Sus-
quehana river. The town proper was
smart little place of comfortable
frame houses and more substantial
business buildings along the main
street, which ran from side to side
across the ravine.
Five minutes after the dam burst,
this stage had been swept of it's set
tings. Along the foothills were thrown
telescoped houses. At either end of
Main street, brick buildings acted as
buffers to the twenty-five foot wall
of water which rushed downward
with its mass of debris. Almost hill
high the wood, steel and brick were
piled, mixture of the contents of
stores and homes, and of varied
length timbers and sticks
The curtain of night which was
rung down on the Austin flood
scarcely before it's victims had all
been claimed and it's surviving spec
tators fully realized how great ira
gedy the elements of water and fire
had enacted in the natural amphi-
| theatre of the Allegheny mountains,
was lifted by dawn revealing a ghast-
ly scene of death and devastation.
Austin itself, once busy milling
town of 1900 persons, many of
whom were enjoying a fine autumn
afternoon as Saturday half-holiday
is ghost of a town. Torn to pieces
by water and eaten by fire. the wet
and charred remnants of its build
ings, holding the remains of 800 or
more persons, were strewn along the
valley edge, piled in rows where the
main street business section was, or
swept in scattered masses far down
the ravine
Spectators, many of whom barely
escaped being victims of the disaster,
and hundreds of persons from sur
rounding towns, looked down from
the steep hillsides on Austin and Cos
tello through a veil of fog to see the
wreckage of some 400 houses, a
score of business blocks, three
churches and several large lumber
mills, and three miles further down
the river at Costello the ruins of
more than fifty buildings.
The flood did not spend its force
until 1t raced more than ten miles
from the reservoir. Wharton, still
further on, suffered somewhat, but is
practically intact. The loss of life
at Costello. where the residents had
more warning, is believed to be but
three.
The property loss i'm the valley is
estimated at upwards of 100000.
In Austin, out of the hundreds
directly enveloped i'm the deluge,
hardly dozen survive. The furious
flood let loose when the Bayless Pa
per & Pulp companys dam crumbled,
picked up huge battery of heavy
timber in the mill yards at the foot
of the dam and with these thousands
of planks and logs rammed its path
with terrible havoc.
AT the hospital there were but six
injured for the care of the small
army of physicians and nurses who
poured into the devastated town all
night and day. The medical sup
plies remained unused in the cars
rushed in by the railroads.
The state constabulary took charge
of the situation which seemed too
appalling for the local committee. I'M
mediately orders were issued to the
railroads TO bring no more sight
seers to Austin and sentinels were
placed on the chief roadways with
instructions to pass none but work
men. Hundreds of automobiles and
carriages were turned back
During the night searching parties
with engine headlights, automobile
lamps, pine torches and improvised
lanterns of every sort, poked their
way into every pile of wreckage that
was accessible, seeking any who
might be alive, but scarcely a body
was found in which life was not ex-
tinct. The night had been one of
hardship and horror, which severely
tested the mettle of the men whom
circumstances had impressed into
first aid rescuers OF the food devas-
tated village.