TRAGIC DAM BURST

Taranaki Daily News, 16 March 1928, Page 9

TRAGIC DAM BURST

LOS ANGELES CALAMITY KNOWN DEAD NUMBER 300 MANY MORE STILL MISSING ENORMOUS DAMAGE DONE By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. Received March 15, 10 p.m. A. and N.Z. Washington, March 14. An unofficial list of the dead as the result of the bursting of the St. Francis reservoir is now 300. Ail official list cannot be compiled for several days. There is a danger of disease breaking out among the rescue workers and home-lessfe-and relief stations are being established where they can be inoculated against typhoid. Most of the bodies, it is believed, are buried under the sand near Santa Paula, where those found are badly mutilated. Damage to the extent of five million dollars has been done to orchards. The top soil has been carried away and a blanket of saud left in its place. Six investigations into the cause of the dam’s collapse are under way. President Coolidge has offered Federal aid if necessary. The rescue workers have hardly more than begun to be able to work in the devastated areas. So far 287 bodies have been recovered, and 300 to 400 people are listed as missing. Many bodies have been located that cannot be reached just now, and others are probably buried deep in the silt and will never be found.

■Stragglers are beginning to come In from isolated points, carrying their dead. Nearly all the people in the valley are. searching through the hills and ruins for their relatives. Children seem to be the majority of those killed. More than 1000 men, with shovels, picks and tractors, are working to clear away the mud and silt, State architects and engineers say that the dam was not based on solid rock, but that one end was fastened to ehale and the other to conglomerate formation. Water is said to have penetrated the soil on either side and weakened the structure. Both sides gave way, and the centre portion remains standing. The dam was known as the gravity type, 'being arched upstream. It was built of solid concrete and was 250 feet high and 160 feet wide at stream level.

A message from Los Angeles states that the Mayor announced that the city of Los Angeles would take care of all property damage caused by the flood. The most conservative estimates place th© damage at not less than 10,000,000 dollars.