Salt Lake Tribune | 1904-05-08 | Page 1 | Big Reservoir Floods Ogden

BIG RESERVOIR FLOODS OGDEN Five Acres of Water Pours Mo City. Walls Burst, Loosing Contents Con-tents irrigation Basin With Frightful Roar. Citizens Almost Panic-Stricken, hut No Lives Lost, and Damages Only 815,000. Special to Tho. Trlbuno. OGDEN, May 7. Many thousands of dollars' damage was caused here by the bursting of the big Scars reservoir in Burch creek, about 3:30 this afternoon. The earth walls of the big basin gave way and a wall of water four feet high rushed down the side of the mountain moun-tain and poured Into Washington avenue ave-nue at Thirty-eighth street and flooded that thoroughfare to a depth of two feet. Scared tho Citizens. Residents along 'the streot wero panic-stricken and merchants were excited ex-cited as the water rushed toward tho business portion of the city. The big ditch which runs along Twenty-eighth street carried off most of the water and it did not reach the business district. j. ne reservoir is iuuiicu in .ouitu Creek precinct, about one mile east of Washington avenue, and is used to store waters for irrigation purposes. The walls aro of earth and the recent heavy rains caused the sides to give way, and an avajanche of water poured down the hill along Thirty-eighth street to Washington avenue. Here It turned north, and bore down upon the business district like a cyclone. Avenue Turned Into Sea. The entire avenue was a sea of water, and it looked for a short tlmo as If the damage in the city would be Immense. Im-mense. But tho Twenty-eighth street ditch was in the path of the flood and proved its Waterloo. This ditch is about twenty feet wide and four feet deep. As the wall of water poured over its sides it resembled a miniature Mississippi. Missis-sippi. The flood seethed and "boiled on Its "way to tho Weber river. Filled the Big. Ditch. Twenty-eighth street was simply a lake and the big ditch was full to the top in a few minutes. Tho flood subsided toward evening. It is Impossible to give an accurate estimate es-timate of tho damage. It is said that it will run between S10.000 and $15,000. In the city the damage will not exceed 55000, mostly confined to cellars, lawns and streets. Rocks and debris were brought down from the hills by tho avalanche of water and scattered promiscuously over the streets and lawns. Mr. Seam, owner of the reservoir, is absent in Wyoming, and the extent of his loss cannot be learned. The reservoir reser-voir covered about five acres and was from five to fifteen feet deop.