THE ARIZONA DISASTER.

Timaru Herald, Volume L, Issue 4828, 26 April 1890, Page 4

THE ARIZONA DISASTER.

New York, Feb. 26.

From details now being received here regarding the Prescott disaster, it appears that 20 miles below the main dam of the reservoir was a smaller dam, a deep and narrow canyon being between them. The main dam gave way at two o'clock on Saturday morning and an immense volume of water rushed down the gorge, sweeping everything before it, and lifting the smaller dam from its moorings. The flood, which is declared to have presented the appearance of a wall of water 40 feet high reached Wickenbnrg m an hour, and completely destroyed the place. The bodies of I bix men, four women, and a child, inhabitants ' ot Wiekenburg, who fell victims to the disaster, have been found. Travelling onwards down the valley of the Hassayampa the waters destroyed some structures at Seymour, a place soms 12 miles off, where seven of the inhabitants are known to have perished. Three persons also lost their lives at Bmith'a Mille, four miles further on, while many intervening houses were demolished and their inmates drowned. In fact, from Smith's Mills to where the Hassayampa empties its waters into the Bio Gila.a distance of 75 milea, nearly every building m the valley was destroyed, and scarcely a building remains standing between tbe Gila and the main dam. The Mexican settlement at the junction of the two rivers was obliterated, 21 persons perishing. The inhabitants of the valley consisted chiefly of miners and chopherds. The dam was one of the four largest m the United States, and restrained over four billion gallons, collected m reservoirs covering 750 acres.