Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1911-10-06

| Dam Was Property OF 6ayiess TG'P
G. Paper Co. and Helped Form
Lake As Feet Deep and Mile and
Half Long-Gave Way Without
Warning and Residents Were
CAUGHT Unawares-Only Few
Hillside Houses Are Left-Rail-
road Tracks Are Torn Up for Miles
Search for Dead.
Austin. Pa.-Austin, town OF 3,2oo
residents in the northern part OF the
State. was swept out of existence ana
more than 200 of it's people killed by
flood, followed by the breaking OF
the Bayless Pulp and Paper companys
dam, one mile and half north OF the
town, Almost five hundred million
gallons of water rushed, in wall ~
feet high, over the place, wrecklng
every structure in its path.
An accurate estimate cannot be OBJ
tanned of the financial loss that the
disaster will mean to Austin, but the
opinion of several townsmen who are
in a position to know places it at S4,-
600 900 OF this the Bayless company
is assigned Sl,500,000, the Buffalo d
Susquehanna railroad 100000 and
the rest in proportion
The water ran into the first fork
of the Sinnemahoning Creek, which
was turned into a seething current,
and the village of Costello, three and
a half miles east of Austin, was also
inundated The Buffalo & Susque-
hanna Railroad Bridge at Costello
was swept away Communication
with Austin was broken completely.
The tracks of the Buffalo & Susque-
hanna Railroad were torn up for 25
miles.
Practically every building in Austin
was destroyed. The buildings were
swept into gorge that was checked
quickly. Fire followed the food at
once, and those imprisoned in the
houses who were not drowned, were
burned to death Only few houses
on the hillside of the gorge of Slime
mahoning Creek escaped.
The pillar of water that jammed it's
batteringram of cordwood through
the valley, swept itself clean path
for an even mile. There 1t smashed
a broadsiGe against the full length of
the principal street of Austin, gath
ering up as it went the boards that
minute before we're houses, and heav-
ed the splintered fragments against
the more substantial line of brick
stores.
Brick and steel gave way almost as
completely as had the less solid con-
struction But the wave was hinder
ed long enough 10 pile up to the height
of three-story building the mass of
torn debris. Then the flood rippled
ahead, swirling over the few small
buildings that lay below until it came
to railroad shops, where cars and To-
comotives were fiipped onto their
sides and stripped of their wheels
and roofs, and where the natural gas
pipes in the engine rooms were snap
ped off. Then came the fire that fin
ished the job in the yards and in the
nearby kindling shops. After that the
wall kept on going through the valley
until it had brought down all but four
of the houses in Costello, the village
that lies three miles below.
The loss of life is still uncertain,
but the estimates lie between $50 and
800. Enumerators of the last census
have begun the task of going through
the houses upon the hillsides where
the homeless ones have been taken
in. 1t is only by elimination, the au-
thorities believe, that anything like
an accurate count can be made. The
work of clearage has begun, but it will
be a long task and even the census
takers work cannot be completed for
many days. Only 60 are positively
missing.
1t is curious fact that the list of
the injured is practically negligible.
The state physicians ard Eurses, who
came supplied with bandages and
medicines, have found nothing to do.
They have turned their efforts to
feeding and clothing the population
that had every grocery store and
meat market wiped away The break
in the dam that brushed off the one
business street and crumpled up four
churches did not injure or MAIN. 1t
stamped out life or left those men
and women untouched
But it will be ten days before an ac-
curate tally of the dead can be made.
The work of digging the bodies from
the mountains of timbers seems al
most hopeless. Most of the houses
were of wood and with hundreds of
cords of lumber their ruins form a
breastwork sixty feet high across
half of what was Main street.