Evening star., 1938-03-05
FLOOD DEATH TOLL
RISES ABOVE zoo;
FRESNO IN DANGER
ECCIeS' Hail. Sister Is Amonu
Victims in California
Disaster.
RESORTS ARE ISOLATED:
AIRPLANES RUSH. FOOD
Business District of Sierre Nevada
Foothills Town Threatened
by Roaring Water.
pictures on page A-3.)

LOS ANGELES, March 5.-The toll
OF dead and missing in Southern Cali
fornias most devastating food SCARED
over the 200 mark today as rehabili.
tatlon work continued. Waters from
the rain-drenched Sierra Nevada foot.
hills inundated outlying districts OF
Fresno and threatened canal levees in
the business district
The latest check showed lO4 bodies
have been found, n of which have
been identified. Authorities estimated
at least another 100 persons are miss
ing and will require days to check
The death toll is expected to be
considerably swelled. Surrounded by
yellow flood waters are farm houses
as yet inaccessible. Fate of the in
habitants Is still matter of guess
work.
Mountain and canyon resorts in this
area, known to travellers the world
over, were almost completely isolated
Food was dropped from airplanes to
several of the larger resorts. Four
hundred pounds of food were flown to
Palm Springs, society and movie star
playground.
Exact condition of the resorts was
unknown, but authorities feared there
had been considerable loss of life
and property damage.
Eccles' Kin Drowned.
Mrs. Vida Eccles Savage of Los
Angeles, half-sister of Mariner S.
Eccles, chairman of the Federal Re-
serve Board, drowned at Camp Badly
IN San Antonio Canyon. Her hus-
band, Roy T. Savage, is a son of
Charles r. Savage. a pioneer leader
of the Latter Day Saints at Salt Lake
City.
San Antonio Canyon was struck q
staggering blow by the storm. Other
mountain districts, which had been
enjoying winter sports until the rain
washed away the snow, were Lake
Arrowhead and Idylwild in the San
Jacinto Mountains. Both were re-
ported heavily hit.
At Fresno Undersheriff Jack Tarr
said water had reached second-story
windows of some homes in the ex-
elusive Figarden residential section
and Mayor Frank Homan declared a
state of emergency.
A 40-foot break in the Herndon
Canal was reported, but Tarr said the
south side Of the big irrigation ditch
was holding. It was from this side
the threat to the business district
came.
Several hundred workers were piling
the canal banks with sand bags.
The laborious, SLOW removal of thick
carpets of flood silt and debris con-
tinues to swell the count of victims
over the entire area.
Nor will the damage-caused when
prolonged. torrential rains caused
Southern California's customarily thin,
gentle rivers to swirl over their banks
be estimated for some time.
Preliminary estimates by officials,
however, indicated that the havoc
wreaked upon public property will ex-
ceed S50,000,000 in the four of the
five affected counties of Los Angeles,
San Bernardino. Riverside and Orange
No estimate has been hazarded as
to the damage done to homes and
crops.
Worst Damage.
The worst damage and most fatali-
ties were recorded along the Santa
Ana River which runs out of the Sierra
Madre Mountains above San Bernar-
dino and flows to the Pacific through
rich citrus lands.
Many thousands of persons were
made homeless in this region Mud
died food waters still lay in wide
stretches over the farm land.
Communication networks and trans
.|portation were slowly brought back to-
ward normalcy.
Highways were being opened, en-
abling traffic to move all directions out
OF Los Angeles, with occasional de-
tours. Landslides still blocked the
coastal road north, but the inner route
to San Francisco was open, as were
highways east and south to San Diego.
Bus service was resumed on high
ways to the north, east and south.
Train service was partially restored
from San Francisco to Los Angeles
over the Southern Pacific tracks. The
Santa Fe Railroad, its tracks impassa-
BILE, used buses to carry passengers to
and from Barstow, where it's trains
were halted.
The region emerged painfully from
Its lnundation and citizens worked
feverishly to throw off the storm pa
ralysls. In some sections, the threat
OF further death and disaster still i'm
pended.
At Claremont, 300 men worked to
keep the rebellious San Antonio River
from sweeping through the town.
National Guardsmen co-operated
with police in Anaheim to prevent
looting. The measures were prompted
by thefts from a liquor store.
Planes Take Food.
Airplanes dropped food to persons
marooned In the Sierra Madre Noun
talns.
Rescue workers who emerged from
the Camp Baldy region brought out
dramatic. stories of how huge wall
of water, armed with boulders, roared
down the slopes, sweeping all before it.
It was reported that 500 mountain
cabins were destroyed. So was a hotel
at Camp Curry and new tavern
Many were marooned in this sector
but only one death was reported. =
Telephone and telegraph companies
opened many crippled lines, but facili-
ties were taxed to accommodate the
thousands of messages sent by anxious
friends and relatives.