Cavalier County farmers press. (Langdon, N.D.) 1920-1921, 1921-07-28
COST
MANY LIVES IN
LAST 80 YEARS
Galveston Disaster in 1900 Took
5000 Lives.

YOUNGSTOWN DEAD WAS 2,2O9'
Rains Caused Indiana and Ohio Tor
rents in Which $50 Persons Perished
in 1913 Johnstown Catastrophe
Stands Foremost in Memory of
country-Texas Has Been Frequent
Sufferer From Swollen Waters
Pueblo Twice Visited.
Several disastrous floods in this
country in the last thirty years have
had death lists running into the
hundreds, but only two Of them have
been caused by torrential rains. One
was the flood in 1913 that ran up q
death list of 730 and a property loss
of $1S0,S73,000 in Ohio and Indiana
In 1903 about 800 lives were lost in
a cloudburst at Heppner, Ore. Two
floods at Galveston caused a loss Of
life running into the thousands.
The flood that stands foremost in
the memory of the country as a catas-
trophe was that at Johnstown, Pa, on
May 81, 1889, in which 2.2O9 lives
were lost and s1O,OOO,OOO worth of
property destroyed or swept away.
This was not due to a storm but to
the breaking of the reservoir of Lake
Conemaugh, a body of water two miles
and a half long, a mile and a half
wide and more than 100 feet deep.
This held then a larger volume. of
water than any other reservoir in this
country.
The dam that held the waters in
this pocket was 1000 feet long, ITO
feet high, 80 feet thick at the base
and 25 feet wide at the top. The
capacity of the original lake had been
quadrupled by this dam, but the
menace of a flood had been so great
since the construction Of the immense
stone wall that citizens Of the valley
frequently had caused inspections to
be made.
The reservoir, far higher thar Johns
town, belonged to a hunting club. 1t
had been constructed carelessly. Com
plants often had been made to the
owners. The dam of the reservoir was
made of earth, with no masonry re
enforcement. There had been long-con-
tinued rains prior to May 81, and
when the danger was seen gangs Of
lei were put to work to open a sluice.
But they could not work fast enough
to keep the pace with the rising
waters.
Inhabitants Warned.
At noon on May 81 a messenger was
sent to Johnstown warning all the in
habitants to flee. The warning was
not taken seriously. When it became
certain that the dam was going an en-
gineer named Traks mounted a fast
horse and rode through the valley to
Johnstown eighteen miles away, shout
ing an alarm as he went.
At 8 p. m. the whole center of the
dam gave way in a break 300 feet
wide. The flood, half a mile wide and
forty feet high, rushed on its way to
Johnstown. 1t tore, down everything
In its course, taking up whole villages
in a few seconds and carrying the tons
of building materials like so many
chips.
Two wings of the flood struck Johns
town almost simultaneously. The de-
struction was complete. Persons who
escaped were prompted to run at the
last moment when they heard the rush
Of water in the distance. Bodies
fioated in the ropids and whirlpools
and We're not found for days.
The distance from the lake to
JohnstoWn was eighteen miles and it
was estimated that the flood covered
this distance in about seven minutes.
1t was the highest pressure flood in
history, and even after sweeping
Johnstown the water rushed on so
swiftly that bodies were found mex
morning in the Allegheny river at
Pittsburgh, s~eyenty-eight miles away.
Another great flood due to the
breaking of a dam occurred in the
little town of Austin, Pa. A cement
dam, 40 feet high, 80 wide at the base,
and $50 feet long, storing water for
a paper-pulp mill, gave way. releas-
ing 400,000,0O0 gallons. The inhabi-
tants of Austin, eleven miles below
the dam, were warned by telephones.
Fewer than 100 persons lost their
lives. Fire followed the water.
5000 Lost il Texas Flood.
The worst of the flood disasters
along the Texas coast occurred on
Sept. 8, 1900, causing a loss Of 5000
lives and nearly S20OOO,O00 damage.
This flood was caused by a hurricane
from the Gulf of Mexico, which hurled
great masses of water miles Inland.
The greatest force of this food struck
at Galveston and for thirty miles along
the shore, both above and below
Galveston.
Thousands of persons were made
homeless, and plllage and robbery OF
the dead and living were unsurpassed
In the history OF disasters, according
to army officers who were at the city
after the flood, and also at San Fran
cisco after the earthquake, when SINH
E1ar nraoccnaH aI.oor.na - NO.