Imperial Valley press., 1932-10-03
DEATHS IN
D|SAS TER
INCREASE
Total Dead In .Tehachapi
Desert Flood May Never
Be known.
ELEVEN IDENTIFIED
Score Of Itinerants On
Freight Train Believed
To Have Perished.

10
W.P)-The bodies of IL persons kill
ed in cloudburst which swept the
Tehachapi mountains Friday night
lay in morgues here today while
searchers dug through debris and
mud for possibly a score addition
al victims.
Only four of the bodies had been
identified today. They were Mr..
and Mrs. Peter Kaad and their son,
Peter, Jr., and Mrs. Nell H. Cooper.
The remaining seven were
thought to be itinerants who left
stranded Southern Pacific freight
train to take refuge in the Kaad's
tiny service station at Keene-
Woodford.
The little cabin was swept away
by a roaring torrent q few minutes
after the occupants had been warn
ed to seek higher ground.
Listed among the missing today
were A. H. Ross, engineer of the
freight train who had gone to the
service station for cigarettes, Har-
ny Moore, brakeman; Amelia Will
liams, 2 year old grand daughter
of Mrs. Cooper; Clifford Barron,
Bellingham, Wash, and John Tenn
pest, SO, of Caliente, small town
near Tehachapi.
Survivors, members of a group
of itinerants who had been riding
the freight train to Los Angeles,
told Kern county officers that there
were two girls on the train at the
time the flood gushed down Teha-
chapi creek to sweep the locomotive
and six box cars from the track.
The exact death toll may never
be known, for bodies were Carried
distance of 20 miles. Some are
believed buried in mud and de-
bris.
1t was recalled that for a year
after the breaking of the st. Fran
els dam in 1928, bodies were being
recovered from the Santa Clara
river.
Loss Is Heavy
The Southern Pacific railroad
and private enterprises estimated
the flood damage at nearly two
million dollars. Many miles OF
track were destroyed.
E. A. Brown, fireman of the
train, saved himself by clinging to
the smokestack as his engine top
pied over Rescuers threw him a
rope and pulled him from danger.
Two others were taken from the
train alive, but injured. They are
Claude Bobo, 80, Los Angeles, and
Ittsar aiC
Both we're taken to the Kern coun-
ty hospital.
The 10 missing persons, state
highway officials said, were known
to have been in tn service station
with the Kaads. They were con-
sidered almost certain to have per-
ished.
Bringing fear that many per-
sons may have been caught in the
flood, drowned and their bodies
covered with debris, numerous in
quiries were received concerning
automobile parties believed to have
been in tn vicinity and unreported
at their destinations.
The Southern Pacific Company
estimated its damage would amount
to $1,500000. Thirty-one miles OF
rails were damaged or destroyed
and 16 bridges washed out. 1t was
estimated Is days to three weeks
would be necessary to lay temper
airy tracks in place. Five hundred
men, work trains and supplies
were rushed to the task of repair
ing the rail damage. In the mean
time, trains were routed along the
coast.
Telegraph companies began the
task of stringing miles of wire and
cable destroyed by wind and water.
The Tehachapi highway was OPP
ened today three miles northwest OF
Tehachapi.
TEHACHAPI, Calf, Oct. 3. U.P)
Bodies of more than a score of
persons believed certain victims of
a cloudburst which turned the
deep, rocky canyons of the Te-
hachapi divide into raging torrents
were sought under clearing skies
today.
A renewal of the storm, fear
some in intensity but failing to re-
peat the damage of Fridays rain
when four and one-half inches
fell in an hour, hindered work
yesterday.
Cruelty mangled, the bodies of
seven dead rested today in Bak-
ersfield mortuaries. -Four others
were known to be dead, and 10
were listed definitely as missing.