Show HUNDREDS BROWN WHEN DAM BURSTS LOCATED IN VALLEY BE DE t TWEEN TWO HIGH HILLS AT OF FLOOD great wall of water which swept everything in front of it pol fol lowed by fire which roasted victims pinned underneath wreckage akstin pa ru nearly men 1 romen GI and children more than a fourth of the total population were drowned and counties countless numbers were injured when the mammon dam of tte the ba bailess aless pulp and paper company burst sith ith a roar surpassing ur passing that of 0 niagara and poured its more than halt a million gallons of water down upon this town late at saturday after noon located in a valley between two high bills hills that extend east and vest for miles austin wag was at the mercy ol 01 the flood which swept nearly all of the buildings away them up at the mouth of a narrow gully cast of town there as elsewhere in austin fire quickly added its terror roasting allie the victim victims who remained in the debris in the valley below austin are the he t villages billage s of C costetto Cost Os to elto a and whar wharton wiarton on after laying the larger towns in ruins the flood swept on to them caught in tho the maw of at the rushing waters they too succumbed but warned by a modern paul ke re ere who dashed ahead of the flood over rocky loads in a motor car the in h abt tants bad had timo time to escape blame for the disaster Is 1 brine placed upon the bayless pulp and paper corp company pany which owned the dam the dam etching from III to hill 11 and lug freeman run lust just before it reaches honing boning creek was fiet long and CO 60 feet high it was t t chapleted on day 1909 in exactly two inantha it began to leak and the inhabitants of austin fearing such a flood its swept away the town sat ardt Y fled to the hills repairs re were ado ade to the dam at that time but defects in tb th construction which made possible the disaster were not remedied tto tte first alarm of the dam break ing was given by a dell telephone linc toan who saw the advance of the water from the top of a pole he ile tore open a long distance wire and noti notified fled gaheton with his test set and then fled to the hills bills barely ea es caping with his life 0 nearly all the men were at work at work a and aid id the women and chil dren were at home alone they had heard the warning sent out li by the telephone girl at least some of at the people say the fire belt bell rang and th they thy y though it as ft a fire isome of them dashed to the bust ness section and were yere caught in the water those not nit drowned were crushed in the crumbling buildings and others were caught in the flames little children playing ta r yards yard 8 at home va mere ere caught up by tha tho water a er and tossed about on an the flood lie playthings cattle and horses were swept on and eielt the sidewalks were torn up and 01 er and above it all were the shrieks of 0 the bun hun deeds of people who could cot not es cape it is estimated that of tho the houses in the village fao 00 haro have been swept sept away nearly all were dwellings property loss will exceed and it Is the general opinion that the town never will be rebuilt two of the large plants pla ilits ill no bo be con peon trusted truc ted and a majority of the bull buil ness mn of the flae ame been ruined financially the cause of ine breaid in the mill dam la Is a matter which the dis trie attorney ai at torne oe or the county will in the bayless dam was ex by experts more than a year ago and recommendations ere made looking to its the district at torney has secured the a of ex 01 perta rho submitted the report and will summon them to testify at an inquest to begin this week seek tho the town of at auttia was built in the valley in ho the last census the enumerators gave its population as 2910 more than 60 per cent of these were native born A fair percentage had been brawn to the settlement by the work in the day ices pulp and paper nilla |