Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1900 — DAM CARRIED AWAY. [ARTICLE]

DAM CARRIED AWAY.

GREAT STRUCTURE AT AUSTIN, TEXAS, DESTROYED. Flood in Colorado River Deale Death and Ruin—Forty-eight Persons Are Drowned and $8,000,000 Worth of Property Destroyed. The great dam across the Colorado river at Austin, Texas, which was constructed seven years ago at a cost of (1,500,000, was swept away Saturday morning by an unprecedented Hood in that river. The break occurred at 11:15 o’clock, caushig an instant rise of fully fifty feet in tho river below the dam. This torrent of water swept down upon the broad valley below in all of its force, leaving death and destruction in its wake. Forty-eight persons arc known to have been drowned, and the losses at that point, including the destruction of the immense electric light and power plant, will reach $2,000,000. Last Wednesday night it began-to rain very hard, the storm > extending north along the Water sheds of the Colorado river. The precipitation continued until Saturday morning. All this vast quantity of water aloug the water sheds of the Colorado river rapidly swelled the current, and at 8 o’clock Saturday morning the river had risen forty feet within ten hours. Small frame houses, trees and debris of every description in varying quantities descended the river uud massed against the upper face of the dam. This weight was augmented every moment until by 10 o’clock there was a mass of debris lodged against the dam which threatened the salety of the structure. In addition, millions of gallons of water, muddy from its long journey, was whirling and plunging to the sixty-foot fail, ana it was evident that no wall could withstand the immense pressure. The crisis came shortly after 11 o’clock, when, with a report like the roar of the ocean, the great wedge twenty-five feet high, five hundred feet wide and about eight feet thick rolled out of the center section of the dam, down the face of the 60-loot depth into the river below. Tins leit a yawning gap in the very middle of the dam through which the debris and water fiercely poured, while the flood, already rag.ng, was threatening everything m its path, this sudden breaking of the dam but sertfing to add to the horror of the catastrophe. The released water poured into the power house, catching eight employes at work there, drowning all of them instantly. The breaking of the dam caused wild excitement in the city v The telegraph companies at once wired to places below there to look out for the great wave, and runners were dispatched on horses to notify those living m the valleys below the city. YVithin a short time all the valleys to the south and west of Austin were filled to overflowing with water, and the southern portion of the city tributary to the river was inundated. Large crowds collected on the river banks, and several persons were swept into the river when the dam broke, but all were saved by boatmen. It is below Austin for a distance of 200 miles that the greatest havoc has been wrought. Reports received show that the wall of water came down upon the homes of hundreds of families without warning. Almost every wagon road bridge across the river between Austin and Columbus, a distance of probably 150 miles, w’as destroyed. This accumulation of drift added to the destructive force of the flood, and few residences and other buildings that were in its path are now standing. Many reports of loss of life have been received by telephone and messenger from points below Austin. A few miles downstream there is a narrow bend in the river, and there was situated quite a settlement, known as Hornsby’s Bend. The flood struck that place in nil its unrestrained fury and destroyed several houses. Thomas Helsey, a farm hand, and Joe Burns, a negro, were drowned. The brick walls of the municipal water works, electrie light and power plant just below tbe dnm collapsed early Sunday morning. The expensive pumping machinery and dynamos fell into the river and they will probably be a total loss. The destroyed plant was erected by the city at a cost of (6,000,000, exclusive of the dam, which cast another (1.000,000. The Colorado river is not the only west Texas stream that is on a rampage. The Concho, the Guadalupe, the San Marcos, the Llauo, the Nueces and the Honro rivers are out of their banks and are flooding hundreds of thousands of acres of cultivated lauds.