The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-10-20
DISASTERS LIKE
that AT AUSTIN
.2,235 PeTlShed In the Johns
town Flood In 1889.
PROPERTY LOSS StO,OOO,OOO
Heavy Loss of Life at Sheffield, Eng
land, In 1894 Dam Gave Way at
Williamsburg, Mass, In 1874 and One
In Arizona In 1890.

land, In 1904 Dam Gave Way at
Williamsburg, Mass, In 1874 and One
In Arizona In 1890.
The disaster at Austin recalls the
food that overwhelmed Johnstown,
Pa, on May 81, 1889. The great res
ervoir Of Lake Conemaugh, two miles
and half long by mile and half
wide and its greatest depth about ten
feet, swept down on the beautiful
Conemaugh valley, destroying John
stown and all it's surrounding suburbs.
Fire completed the destruction. The
snumber of lives lost was 2,235, and the
property destroyed was valued at S1O,-
100000.
For ten years before the dam finally
broke 1t had been considered a menace
to the valley in times of freshet,
though equal to all ordinary emergen-
cies, The property belonged to a hunt
ing club, and complaints had often
been made to it. Panic had fire.
quently fallen upon the inhabitants of
the valley. 1t was the commonness
of the fear of a break in the dam
that made the destruction worse when
it did come, for the cry of danger had
been often raised before and found to
be unnecessary.
Before noon on May 81 1t became
evident to engineers that the dam was
in great danger of giving way. Long
and protracted rains had caused the
laval nf fhn 1ol 20 Y.fc
that when the danger was foreseen
and great gangs of men were put to
work opening a sluiceway they could
not work fast enough to release the
water.
AT noon messengers were sent to
Johnstown warning the people, but
they were not believed. The water in
the streets of Johnstown was already
knee deep, and a log boom had come
down from another creek in the morn
ing. Only few hundred had taken
the warning seriously and carried
their families to the hills. When it
became certain the dam was going an
engineer named Praks mounted a fast
horse and rode through the valley to
Johnstown, eighteen miles below, cry
ing out that the dam was bound to go.
Then Came the Flood.
At 3 o'clock the whole center of the
dam gave way in a break 300 feet
wide. Trees, rocks and earth bounded
into the air. A great flood of water,
half mile wide and forty feet high,
swept down the valley with the swift
ness of a cannon ball. 1t caught up
Mineral Point. 1t tore down upon
East Conemaugh, where the Pennsyl-
vania railroad had its yards. Every
house was destroyed Masses of iron
bars were caught up and became so
many battering rams, engines weigh
ing twenty tons were tossed like chips
of wood
The borough of Franklin was eaten
up. Woodvale, directly opposite Johns
town, with a population of 5000, was
annihilated. The distance from the
lake to Johnstown was traversed in
seven minutes.
Two wings Of the flood struck Johns |
town proper, and its destruction was
complete. At that time the city had a
population of $4,000. 1t was the seat |
of the Cambria Iron works, employing |
5000 men. The mass of debris borne
by the flood was checked by the bridge
of the Pennsylvania railroad, and an
effective dam was made. The water |
recoiled upon the city, meeting there
the wing that had been diverted and
ho Anurad nik
was a gigantic whirlpool which ground |
to pieces any building that escaped
the first onset. The noise of the de-
struction was maddening to the sur
vivors. Men who passed through the
experience said afterward that the
horror of the night could not be put
INTO words. Hundreds of persons float
ed around on frail supports in the
whirlpool through the afternoon and
the night.
The mass of wreckage at the rail-
-oad bridge was composed Of logs,
houses, masses of iron, with miles Of
Darbed wire wound through 1t. While
he work of rescue of living persons
from this mass of wreckage was going
IN the cry of fire rang out. The wa
.er soaked wood offered little resist
ince to the terrible conflagration that
started in many places at once. Hun
lreds of victime were burned alive,
while rescuers worked wildly to save
whom they could. The fire burned
FOR twelve hours.
Other Dams That Broke.
Failures Of dams in the last half
;entury have not been uncommon. The
Bradford earth dam at Sheffield, Eng
and, broke in March, 1854 The food
reached Sheffield at midnight, caus-
ng the loss Of twenty-three lives and
great destruction of property.
Mill river dam at Williamsburg,
Mass, gave way in 1874 while the wa
er was four feet from the top. In
.wenty minutes the reservoir was emp
led of 100,0O0,000 cubic feet of water.