The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1911-10-04
And Carried Hundreds to
Death and Injury.
DAM OF BAYLEss PULP MILL
Broke and Threw Huge Wall Of
Water on Unsuspecting
Little Town.
A SCENE OF DEATH AND RUIN


dred million gallons of water swept
over the town of Austin this after
noon, when the great dam of the
Bayless Pulp and Paper Company
went out, and of Austin's 5000 pop
ulation at least 500 were drowned,
while untold numbers were MANNED.
Austin lay in a valley between
the hills, with the dam mile and a
half away.
The structure, built two years
ago to conserve the water during
Z droughts, was Eye hundred and
I thirty feet long, forty-nine feet
high. and the walls were thirty-two
feet thick at the base.
The paper pulp mill was Just un-
der it, and thousands Of logs,
caught up by the food, battered to
pieces everything in the wake of the
torrent.
Many had gone to the dam to see,
Yfor the first time, the water running
over the top, and were Mortified to
see a portion of the wall give way,
and then more so, when the great
volume of water rushed toward
the town.
From the hill they could see the
people running toward the heights,
swept Up in water and carried away.
A wall of water forty feet high
swept down the valley with roar
that was deafening.
The food raced through the city.
sweeping away all the principal
buildings and crushing the houses
like egg shells.
The flood, which passed soon,
among other devastations, wrecked
gas pipes, and the fluid poured out.
Soon heaps of debris and the re-
naming buildings In the path OF
the flames took fire, and many bod
les were incinerated.
The business portion of town. In
line OF the waters, had practically
nothing left.
The survivors are in a frenzy.
The water passed quickly. Dark
ness followed, lit up by the burning
houses. The fire burned itself out.
Many bodies lie in the track of the
flood. Chunks of concrete from the
dam itself. built two years ago and
never filed till to-day, were carried
&or dnuvvn fha ua1Iax
= A thousand buildings, it is esti-
mated, were destroyed, and the loss
of life / sanywhere from 500 to
700.
Town An Eternal Ruin.
Austin, Pa, Oct. Estimates
of the loss of life in the food that
overwhelmed the town of Austin
yesterday, diminished to-day when
an army of volunteer rescuers
worked their way into the masses
of wreckage. In the opinion of
many on the ground the number of
deaths will not reach $50, while the
less hopeful place the list OF fatali-
ties az 800.
The property loss will exceed $6,-
100000 and 1t is the general opin-
ion that the town never will be re-
built. Two at least of the large
plants will never be reconstructed
and a majority of the business men
have been ruined.
Rides on Bicycle and Saves Many
Lives.
Costello, Pa, Oct. 1.-While the
town of Costello was almost de-
stroyed by the flood, it's death list
is only two. The victims are Ed
ward w. Earle and Mrs. Hughes.
That the fatalities are not proper
tionately as large as those In Aus
tin is due to dramatic and sue
: cessful warning given OF the inn
pending disaster.
Edward Young. workman In
the Standard Lumber Mill in Aus
tin, whose home is In Costello,
heard the roar Of the flood while 1t
was still half mile away, and his
first thought. as he saw the wall Of
water, was OF his wife and little
ones. here, three miles from thu
mill. Coatcess and hatIess ne jump
ed on his. bicycle and made for Cos
tello.
Down the three-mile valley he
pedaled with the roar ever swelling