Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-02
EXACT NUMBER OF DEAD
NOT YET ASCERTAINED
Only Twelve Bodies of Twenty Re-
covered Have Been Identified.
sEARCHERS WORKING IN RUINS
Little Hope of Recovering Hundred
or More Bodies Believed to Be in
Debris-Property Loss
$s,0OO,OOO.

| arrival of a carload of coffinS here this
morning the grimness of the tragedy
which has practically obliterated this
and considerab bic number of work
ers. who today began anew their ef-
forts to mine deeply into the hard hills
of debriS Twenty victims, including
TWO at Costello. had been placed in a
temporary morSue at Odd Fellows
Hall, one of the few buildings standing
on the ruined district. The identified
dead are twelve, as follows:
j. f. Baldwin. father of State Sena-
tor Baldwin; Mrs. Martha Kinnicut,
Miss Ida Miller. Mrs. William Nelson,
Mrs. DIR. y. E. Mansuy Miss Annie
Jackson Mrs. Charles Sofeld, Mrs
Morton Schwold. Mrs. George Rennicks,
Miss F'lossie Melzer, Mrs. Lena Richie
and Ralph Donafro.
Plans for the funerals are being
made today.
Taking Census of Survivors.
The most essential matter in hand
mere, aside from the persistent work of
clearing away the more accessible
ruins. is the completion of a census of
the living Austinians. If the death
list aggregates anything like the enor-
nous number some have estimated, the
health officials realize that conditions
demanding prompt attention will arise
within few days in the ruins.
The most careful and well informed in
Vestlgators. however, are unprepared to
learn that more than two hundred have
perished. There is indeed possibility
that LOO will be the total. There is little
hope that any of the bodies remaining in
the wreckage will be found intact. rhe
general aspect of the debris indicates
that hundreds of thousands Of javelin-
like splnters of houses were shot through
and through the first accommodations of
ruins and of debris subsequently hurled
onward by the flood.
The policing conditions today are prac-
tically perfect.
a twelve-hour downpour of rain served
to materially reduce the number of in
coming SightseerS, and to this extent the
police were relieved. The state consta bu-
larry. state sanitary engineers and chief
officials of the state health department
are cooperating in the measures for pro-
lection and relief.
Pictures of Desolation.
valley beyond today is as dreary as it is
appalling. The towns are pictures Of
desolation. The valley side hills in which
tered homes of the people and the rem
nants of prosperous places of business
and manufacturing plants. No reliable
estimate of the property loss has been
or can be soon made, but it is safe to
say IL will not be less than $e,GOOJO. The
,I,,,@
destroyed.
The timber supply, indeed, was rapidly
nearing exhaustion. and at the best it
was thought five years from now the
industry would be practically at an end;
In fact about 100 families had moved
from Austin this fall. Five hundred men
would have gone within the next year
or two unless some industrial develop
ment came in to hold them.
Questioned to the cause of the sud-
dent failure of the Bay1ess Pulp Paper
Conpanys dam, citizens and business mer
accustomed to visit Austin shake their
heads ominously. They recall the scare
year ago last January. when a con-
siderable leak was discovered in the i'm
mense cement structure.
Although two feet along the rim Of the
dam was removed to relieve the pres
sure and fourteen-foot patch was
placed where ii was needed, the align
ment of the upper edge of the dam grad
ually became a slight arc instead Of q
straight line This bulge caused worry
on the part of the citizens and led to a
somewhat recent inspection. Protective
measures were determined upOn but the
delay was fatal
Hotel Guest Had Fears.
81 never went to sleep in the hotel on
Main street here" said visiting railroad
official today, without mighty fervent
prayer that the apparently inevitable
might be delayed.
Below the torn dam today the valley
for d mile more is swept practically
clean to bedrock, and Freeman's run, the
reservoir feeder. swollen by last nights
rains, is sweeping through new channels
where the main business portion of the
| town once stood.
Costello, three miles away, is proper
| tionately as shattered as Austin