Published in the Ventura County Star By Vitali Mostovoj: Lessons from the St. Francis Dam disaster 6:05 PM, Oct 4, 2014 columnists ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE This aerial view shows the St. Francis Dam following its collapse on March 12, 1928. More than 12.5 billion gallons of water poured down the narrow canyon, carrying more than 600 inhabitants to their deaths. Picture by Picasa Dam Disaster After the San Francisco 1906 earthquake, the second-worst disaster in California history occurred March 12, 1928, when the recently-completed St. Francis Dam, in northwest Los Angeles County, collapsed. A wall of water, reaching 55 feet high roared through Saugus, Castaic, Valencia and the Santa Clara River Valley in Ventura County. The collapse occurred just two minutes before midnight and most communities received no warning. It took five hours for the floodwaters to reach the ocean in Ventura. By then, nearly 600 people had been killed. Property and crop damage rose into the millions and nearly 24,000 acres were washed away. Many lives were saved in Santa Paula through the actions of switchboard operator Louise Gipe, who received a call warning of the impending flood. She immediately notified Highway Patrol officer Thornton Edward, and then risked her life to stay and call people and warn them of the imminent disaster. Edward and a partner rode through the town on their motorcycle with the siren blaring to wake up the residents. There is a monument in Santa Paula dedicated to these two officers who did their Paul Revere ride to warn the town of the oncoming floodwaters. In addition, Fillmore also did not receive a timely warning and many residents died. One survivor, a teenage girl, said that when her family was awakened by the rushing waters, her parents and brother went out the front door and drowned. She went out the back door and was swept by the flood 10 miles to Santa Paula and woke up alive in the morning on a debris pile. Many of the bodies of victims were swept into the ocean and some washed up as far south as Mexico. The disaster made headlines around the nation and the world. Yet, today few people in California have any knowledge of it. Hopefully, this will be rectified by H.R. 5387 recently introduced by Rep. Howard Buck McKeon, R-Santa Clarita. The St. Francis Dam Disaster National Memorial Act would authorize a national memorial to commemorate those killed by the dams collapse. Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Westlake Village, has agreed to co-sponsor the bill. Its hoped this same spirit of bipartisan cooperation will continue as the bill makes its way through Congress. If approved and signed into law, the memorial would not only honor those who perished in the disaster, but also serve as a reminder of the importance of proper design and maintenance of our critical infrastructure. After New Orleans, the major metropolitan area in the U.S. with the highest danger of a flood disaster is Sacramento. A breach of that citys levees could affect up to 300,000 residents and result in a large number of fatalities and billions of dollars in property damage. While we remember and learn from past disasters it is imperative that we take prompt action to address our current infrastructure needs. Vitali Mostovoj lives in Thousand Oaks.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 00:12:50 +0000
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