Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1916-03-16
FOpu!I.fs sd,Ift;SJDENT
: 'naITES OF FLOODS
IN CALIFORNIA
Rev. L. "A. Goddard Tells
of Recent Devastations
in that Stat>.

of the Congregational church in Bara-
boo and now at 80 Boyleston street,
Pasadena, California. He says that
he is grieved at the passing of 80
n any faces he used to meet, that tha
! family likes California very much al
though they liked the middle west and
were not easily weaned from it, that
the winters there are delightful that
Mrs Goddard is doing some dramatic
reading and impersonation, her perfor-
mances pleasing the people, and that
she breaches for him once in a while.
He will be back at work one of these
days he says Concerning the recent
flood she writes:
Two devastating floods have visited
Southern California within ten days in
January. Beginning on the 10th for
four days the precipitation approxima-
ted eight inches. After day or two of
sunshine came another storm of equal
volume and duration. Both of these
storms raised havoc with the transit
facilities of the whole southern half of
the state 80 that traffic between Los
Angeles and the east and San Diego and
San Francisco was utterly demoralized.
So ne thirty trains from the east we're
held at one time for nearly three days
in the vicinity of San Bernardino wait
ing the restoration of the road bed.
Gov. johnson was delayed three days
by the second storm at Corona on his
trip to Los Angeles, where he holds
open court for the people of the south
ern part of the state at stated periods.
Within fifty miles of his destination,
yet 80 isolated that railroads, trolley
system and automobile were helpless to
bring him to his destina ton so bad was
the destruction wrought by the waters
on the transit systems and the fine
boulevard system of that vicinity.
Exacted Toll of Lives.
Both storms have exacted a toll of
lives. A dozen or more were lost in
the first flood land in the second it will
reach a hundred or more. The first
storm was most severe in Los Angeles
county, the second in San Diego county.
The toll of lives in the second was
large because of the breaking of the
Otay Dam which held back some 49,.
600, 600, 900 gallons of water covering an
area of about 100 square miles. When
this dam went out it's torrent of wa
ters, thirty feet in height swept every
thing before it and the whole Otay
valley was laid waste. All the rivers
of San Diego county were on a ram
page and the towns and farms along
their pathways suffered and lives were
lost.
The first flood did most of its damage
in the citrous fruit region of Los An
geles county. Here, because of the ex-
cessive amount of water, and the shall
lowness of the river beds, which are
entirely inadequate to carry off the wa
ters at such time, the waters romped
through the fine fruit grove bearing
away trees and soil until the denuded
land left an ugly picture. 1t will take
weeks to restore the transit facilities
to normal again, but years of labor
have gone with the orchards and mile
NUNS of accumulation have gone with
the fertile soil.
Two years age that same region wa
visited with like flood though not 80
destructive. Now these two have come
in quick succession and there is nothing
to prevent others following with the
came violence. The fact that Southern
California has already received her nor
NAL rain fall for the year is no guaran-
tee that there will not be still more to
follow fo1 it looks as if she was due to
have an excessive amount of moisture
to season.
Silt Filling the Port
Los Angeles is raising cry that her
port harbor is being filled with silt
coming down with the floods and is
trying TO get congress to take some
action that will preserve to her port.
AS one sees this periodic devast-
tation and views the lavished
expenditure of millions of dollars on the
fine boulevards that thread the cities
and towns and even the country sides
of that region one is impelled to ask
why is not some of this money spent to
protect that region from these floods.
Surely there must be some way to tame