The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1911-10-02
TOWNS DESTROYED
WHEN DAM BREAKS.
Great Wall d Water Carries
Death and Destruction
in Its Sweep.
LIVES ARE sMuFfED OUT
II Is Estimated that Fully Three Hun
bred Persons Were Caught in
the Raging Torrent and
Drowned.
Associated Press Special.


Austin, Pa, Oct. 2.-Deyelop-
ments today still continue to indicate
that the death list in Saturdays
flood will not exceed three hundred.
A census of the survivors of the ter
rible disaster has been started in Or
der to verify. the death estimates.
As the estimated loss OF life de-
creases the damage to property in
terests is increasing. Today 1t u es-
timated that the damage to property
will reach not less than $4,000
Below the torn dam today for a
mile or more the valley Ia swept al
most bare down to bed rock. Free
mans Run, the small creek which
| fed the big reservoir, Ia now swollen
| by last nights rains and Is sweep
ing through the new channel cut by
the flood through the main business
section OF Austin.
The death list as Costello, the little
town three miies below Austin, ha
been definitely fixed At two
Nh Owing TO IN outward hutRo IN IN
Z
Twas recently determined to take pr
a plated work WAS postponed t6
9 long.
The flood swept through Austin
crushing nearly every one Of Its So
houses There was no warning. There
came roar. and then the shock Of
the flood, the crash of tfmbers. the
! screams of fear.
I On the crest of the wave rode 8
thousand cords of pulp mill timber.
This hit houses and stores like sue
cession OF battering rams. II riddled
the frame homes OF the mill workers
like charges OF canister and left gaps
In their sides.
1t struck into Inconsistencies the
terror-stricken people seeking to
swim the flood to safety.
The water passed the city in a sol
i'd wall two miles In length. The
course from the creek was down the
valley of the Sinnemahoning river,
along whose banks there are hun
dreds of houses covered by the swol-
len river or wreckage.
The town OF Costello, three miles
south, but much smaller, was also
wrecked, but timely work from Aus
tin, saved the lives Of most Of those
there.
The pulp MILL half mile north of
Austin. felt the force Of the flood. II
was torn from its foundation, with
its great pile OF logs, and doubled
back upon the city. The Goodyear
Lumber yards had 100000 feet OF
lumber in storage.
At the outskirts OF the city this
was added to the great log water bat
tering ram which formed the apex Ok
the flood.
The escape of more than two
score who survived the first on
slaught of the flood was cut off by a
creek. When the flood had passed
rescuing parties found the bodies
caught in the wires and terribly
torn.
State Senator F. A. Baldwin, mar
rowly escaped death in the deluge.
His father and his mother were
drowned Baldwin fought gallantly
against the waters to save his aged
parents, but without success.
Fire department from Smithport,
Coudersport. Bradford and Heating
Summit, were rushed to Austin 10
fight the flames, The wreck OF the
building left the gas mains open and
the flames spread rapidly
All of the buildings not complete
" destroyed by the flood were swept
by fire, which blazed along the ruins
jumping from gas pipe to gas pipe.
The school house OF Costello ~
the hospital at Austin, stands on
hill. But 1t was destroyed and that
tells in nutshell the damage to the