The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-02
Over 300 Dead May Lie Under the Charred and Soaked Ruins StreWn
 Along Valley and Down Racine
SIX INJURED AT HOSPITAL;
 ARMY OF PHYSICIANS IDLE
Property Loss Valley Is Estimated at S6O00O0OPartie Search All Night With Torches and Troops Arrive to
 Thwart Pillagers Already at Work

, searched mutilated bodies for papers of | Identification ere they had been long al work in the debris. One corpse among so many did not seem ghastly, but the l first sensation was appalling.
 The immediate scene of the obliteration of Austin covers an area three-eighths | of mile wide and one and three-quarters miles long. This comprised the business | section and the valley residence portion and was bounded by Main, Ruckaber and Thorn streets and Costello avenue, crossed by lesser thoroughfares.
 | Nearly a mile above stood the man. moth concrete dam of the Bayliss Pulp and Paper company, 600 feet long, 5C feet high and 30 feet thick at the bot
 tom. tapering to a thickness of three feet at the top.
 Back of this dam yesterday lay res ervoir of water mile and half long and an average of 35 feet deep. Directly l in front of the dam stood the plant of the Bayliss company with four main buildings Stacked high nearby was 700, i 900 cords of 50 inch wood and slabs and also portion of the companys immense timber stock, totalng m the Austin val ley 100000 feet of hardwood and 25,000,- GOO feet of hemlock This was a five years supply and practically the large cut of the region.
 It was. valued at s2,00O,000 A small stream known as Freeman Run flowed through the town to Sin nemahoning Creek leading to the Sus- auehanna river. The town proper was smart looking little place of com fortable frame houses mostly and more sub bstantial business buildings along the main street which extended from side to side across the ravine. The prominent business buildings included the brick structure occupied jointly by the Austin bank and the postoffice, the department store of A. R. Buck. the Goodyear hotel and the Commercial house and numerous general stores. Five minutes after the dam burst this stage had been swept off It's scen- {, cry and setting. rt l Along the foothills were thrown tee- scoped houses. At either side of Main street brick buildings acted as buffers | as the twenty-five foot wall of water rushed downward with its mass of debris. Almost hill high the wood, steel and brick were piled a strange mixture of | the contents, stores and homes inter- mingled, and all sizes of timbers and sticks making it up. The wreckins of the town was as complete as it was 1 sudden. Two sections 150 feet long were thrown out like the gates of an immense canal lock- The outward
 
 side the remaining structure began gradually to crumble away.
 Repairs last spring had consisted oi patch of cement IA feet square. One of the severed sections Saturday began at the patch.
 | The cause of the breaking of the dam is matter which District Attor- ney Jones of Potter county has taken steps to investigate. The Bayliss dam was examined by experts over a yea, ago and certain recommendations were made looking to the Safety of the dis trict. The district attorney has se- cured the names of several of the ex- ports who submitted the report to the Bayliss company, and will summor them to testify at an inquest to begin some day this week.
 Relief work has systematically gone forward It is hoped by Monday morn l ing the chaotic condition will have been somewhat relieved
 | Shortly after Il o'clock this morning irst relief train arrived over the
 ylvania railroad. Four carloads oi oa md medicine supplies from the state A4....--
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