WELSH DAM DISASTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19196, 9 December 1925, Page 13

WELSH DAM DISASTER.

BURSTING OF THE BANKS. LOSS OF SIXTEEN LIVES. VILLAGE WASHED AWAY. HOUSES AND CHURCH VANISH. The disaster, which resulted in the loss of 16 lives, is without precedent in the history of North Wales. The embankment, constructed 17 years ago, was to impound water for use in generating electricity at the works of the Aluminium Coroporation, Limited, of Dolgarrog, in the Vale of Conway. The lake is one of several belonging to the company in the same region The dam raised its level about 25ft, and the water issuing from it passed into a smaller lower lake called Coety, which was also increased in storage capacity by means of a dam. The weight of water caused by heavy rain found its way through a corner of the dam, which must have developed some weakness, and suddenly that part of the dam burst with a noise like thunder. The water swept down into Coety, and damaged the dam of that reservoir, and then down the old bed of the river which, before the dam was made, formed the natural effluent from the lakes. But it came down in a volume never attained before, and finally, after rolling on as a mighty deluge, it dived over the precipitous cliff and descended by its old falls of about a 1000 ft.

In its course, the raging flood demolished the Dolgarrog Church and a row of small houses called Machno Terrace and other houses. It was the occupants of these dwellings who lost their lives. Their bodies were swept down toward the powerhouso or the River Conway, or were buried beneath the accumulation of stones, gravel and other material brought down by the deluge, and deposited where the houses bad stood

Tho Porthllwyd Bridge soon went, then the adjoining liotel was cleared out of its contents, the masonry alone being left, while water, mud and gravel invaded the power-house, the lower floor of which was soon flooded to a depth of four or five feet. It passed on into the great hall, where the electrical furnaces were in action, and, the water reaching the furnaces, caused them to explode with great violence. Happily the furnace-men had a bijief warning, and all escaped. The deluge went on to the rolling mills contained in another great building of corrugated iron; it also spread over the land around the works, and submerged the road to the company's bridge over the Conway about a mile away. The Porthllwyd Bridge, which spans one of the streams coming down from the hillside, was washed away, and no communication between the Talybont side of the flooded area and Dolgarrog could be established. Between these points there was a series of raging torrents, one or two of which must have been at least 20ft deep. Huge boulders were carried down the hillside like pebbles, and a long section of 7ft piping, through which a man could

walk upright, was tossed about like a tin can. Thousands of acres of low-lying land wm flooded. The family of a timekeeper Darned Jones, who lived in a wooden bungalow, had a remarkable escape. Mr. Jones was on the way home from his work when he heard the rushing of the water, and he was just in time to get his wife and child to safety, for ten minutes later the flood had swept the bungalow away, and it was carried 60 or 70 yards and turned completely round before it came to a stand near a huge tree. The roof of another bungalow could be seen tossing about in the gathering waters. It was a weird scene in the darkness—steam rising in clouds above the wrecked furnace house, amid the noise of the waters sounding like distant thunder. In an interview Mr. Brown, who lost his wife and one child in the disaster, said that when the alarm was given his family were all sitting in the house. "We heard a terrible rumbling on the top of the hill," he went on, "and when 1 got to the door I found people shouting that the dam had burst. I rushed inside again and had only time to clutch my youngest daughter in my arms and tell the others to follow me. I ran up the hill toward a point which I thought might be safe, and on the way we were caught by an avalanche of water, which swept us all down into the valley. My little daughter was torn from my grasp, and I was struck on the heao by a stone and became unconscious. When I came to I found 1 was a good distance down the hill—over 500 yds. from where I started—the water still rushing past me. I managed to jump on to an electric current standard, and by climbing it I made my escape from the flood." Some heroic rescues were effected under the greatest difficulties. In the early hours oi the morning four people, including the curate of the little church that was swept away, and an engineer, were saved at the power-house by rescuers, who worked up to their shoulders in the water. Scores ol cattle were carried away and drowned; thousands of acres were completely submerged; and the torrent swept rocks and trees in its path. The whole valley of the Conway was for miles inundated by the flood water coming down the river, to which the torrent added its enormous quota. The ravages of the waters were manifest on all hands on the following day. The main road was covered with silt to a depth varying from a few inches to a couple of feet. Here and there the road had been torn up, and where the church and Machno Terrace had stood was a vast pile of granite boulders, some of which would weigh forty toDS.

"Where was; the church?" a visitor asked a resident after the waters subsided. "I think it stood here," was the reply, with a finger pointing to a heap of stones.