How the Dam Eroke.

How the Dam Eroke.

约翰·g·帕克,Jr .)一个年轻土木工程师参与on the grounds of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, gives to The Pittsburgh Commercial a very interesting account of the breaking of the Conemaugh Lake dam and the scenes preceding it. “On Thursday night,” says Mr. Parke. “the dam was in perfect condition, and the water was not within seven feet of the top. At that stage the lake is nearly three miles long. It rained very hard Thursday night I am told, for I slept too soundly myself to hear it, but when I got up Friday morning I could see there was a flood, for the water was over the drive in front of the club house, and the level of the water in the lake had risen until it was only four feet below the top of the dam. I rode up to the head of the lake and saw that the woods were boiling full of water. South Fork and Muddy Run, which emptied into the lake, were fetching down trees, logs, cut timber and stuff from a saw mill that was up in the woods in that direction. This was about 7.30 o'clock. When I returned Col. Unger, the president of the club, hired twentytwo Italians, and a number of farmers joined in, to work on the dam. Altogether thirty men were at work. A plough was run along the top of the dam, and earth was thrown in the face of the dam to strengthen it. At the same time a channel was dug on the west end of the dam to make a sluiceway there. There was about three feet of shale rock, through which it was possible to cut, but then we struck bed rock that it was impossible to get into without blasting. When we got the channel opened the water soon scoured down to the bed rock, and a stream twenty feet wide and three deep rushed out on that end of the dam, while the weir was letting an enormous quantity on the other end. Notwithstanding these outlets the water kept rising at the rate of about ten inches an hour.

“ By 11.30 I had made up my mind that it was impossible to save the dam, and getting on my horse I galloped down the road to South Fork to warn the people of their danger. The telegraph tower is a mile from the town, and I sent two men there to have messages sent to Johnstown and other points below. I heard that the lady operator fainted when she had sent off the news, and had to be carried off. The people at South Fork had ample time to get to the high grounds, and they were able to move their furniture, too. In fact, only one person was drowned at South Fork, and he while attempting to fish something from the flood as it rolled by. It was just twelve o’clock when the telegraph messages were sent out, so that the people of Johnstown had over three hours’ warning.