THE ARIZONA DISASTER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6834, 23 April 1890, Page 4

THE ARIZONA DISASTER.

The detaik of the bursting of the Walnut Grove dam across the Hassayampa river, in Arizona represent a more shocking disaster than was at first supposed. The number of the dead is now estimated at one hundred and fifty, although fewer .than thirty bodies have been recovered, .many having been torn to pieceß, or deeply buried, or, flung into inaccessible spots in the perpendicular sides of the canon. .-Some of the > victims were carried thirty miles away from where they were killed. The dam was one of the four largest on the Continent. It impounded four ■thousand millions of gallons, the drainage of five hundred square miles, in a reservoir of an area of seven hundred and fifty acres. .From the dam to the town ot Wickenburg, a distance of thirty-five miles was .traversed by the .flood within an hour, thus outstripping a fleet horseman, who was .drowned within sight of the catup before he could deliver his warning .message. ■Twenty-oae persona were killed seventyfeve miles away, at the junction -of the i.Gila and Hassayampa rivers. Buildings wese destroyed one hundred miles away; and -one solid iron implement, which, had been carried five miles, is now visible, lodged eighty feet above the present level ot the brook. ' Huge glacial boulders wece tossed about like children's balls, and substantial dwellings were not »nly overturned, but torn to pieces instantly, beam from beam.