The Story of the St. Francis Dam

90 years ago Los Angeles chief engineer of the Department of Water and Power was determined to supply the ever-growing desert community of Los Angeles with its most vital resource water William Mulholland born in Belfast Ireland in 1855 moved to Southern California with his brother Hugh when he was 15 years old mahalo had later become a leader in engineering after years of being self-taught and moving through the ranks of Los Angeles Water and Power he had earned his reputation after engineering projects that were built under budget and ahead of schedule the Los Angeles Aqueduct was considered his crowning achievement a six-year effort that ran 200 miles across the desert bringing water to Los Angeles through man-made pipes and canals at the aqueducts grand opening on November 5th 1913 Mahal and said to the people of Los Angeles there it is take it because of the rapid growth and droughts in the area Mahalo naught alternatives for backup reserves of water Mahal and spearheaded the effort to create his most ambitious project yet located 45 miles north of Los Angeles and San Francisquito Canyon construction of the Saint Francis dam began an ambitious but tragic project the dam opened in May of 1926 just two years after breaking ground at the site she stood 205 feet tall and 150 feet thick at its base it carried 12.5 billion gallons of water and was 2 and a half miles long at length a one-year reserve of water for the city of Los Angeles it was March 12th 1928 and things began to take a turn for the worse dam keeper Tony Harnish burger Kozma Hollen with urgency stating there was dirty water running through the dams crust new leak on the Western abutment and it was showing it was muddy and that means that it would been undercutting the dam which could lead to the failure one of the many warnings that Mahalo didn't find alarming later that day two minutes before midnight dozens of workers at powerhouse one wake up after hearing a crash echoing through the canyon Saint Francis dam had failed 12 billion gallons of water were released a wall of rushing water standing 125 feet high destroying everything in its path all the way to Ventura they called us and told us is a dam it broken and everybody came over to our house and they were all sitting there discussing what cannot spa scible it's only been completed for about a week no way and so the men said well I'll tell you what we'll do we'll go out and drive up along the river and see if we see any water coming and that said they stepped outside and they could and our nearest neighbor who is half mile away came up woke us up told us what was going on and all four of us mother dad my sister and myself went out and listened in the middle of the road just listened to the roar farms and ranches were either heavily damaged or destroyed while entire homes were lifted off their foundations over 7,000 acres of agricultural landscape were destroyed including citrus and walnut trees livestock were either swept away or drowned trying to escape their pens unidentified bodies were found as far as Catalina Island in San Diego and entire families were consumed by the floodwaters there were many accounts of what happened including Henry Ivan Dorsett whose sister Lillian Curtis and her husband Lyman were living at power station one just down the road from the base of the dam break she recalls the water clipping at her ankles soaking her nightgown while rocks and dry wheat were bruising and cutting her bare feet in the pitch black of night she looked down to see if Lyman had made it he was gone along with her two daughters Maisy and Margaery and when I run over to the car why here's my sister in the backseat it was a sedan and when I opened the door she started to cry and she was saying I've and this is all that is left of my family funerals from Newhall all the way to Santa Paula took place gathering visitors including William as Hart to pay their respects to the victims families stood there looked at that hunk in the middle that could grief both sides of them is gone and here's this piece in the middle i I just was amazed I couldn't believe that it had happened he said they didn't want people to have to be reminded of it so it was dynamited a for safety and B to try to start to bury the memory of it he's not only the center structure was dynamited but a lot of the larger blocks downstream were dynamite and reduced to rubble and actually trade tried to contour to look like the what the rest of the area looks like experts say the dams failure was due to poor engineering and geological miss reading investigations into the dams collapse led to the creation of a set of laws to ensure that a tragedy like this would never happen again groups from local communities came together including the Red Cross Boy Scouts local high school students and even Calvin Coolidge serving his last year as president of the United States offered the Army Services to help with relief efforts major newspapers including the San Francisco Chronicle the Los Angeles and New York Times and countless others covered the story William Mulholland was devastated by the tragedy and took full responsibility for the dams failure and paid in total 5 million dollars in response to the victims claims he lived the rest of his life in seclusion the st. Francis dam collapse is considered the worst man-made civil engineering disaster of the 20th century claiming the lives of more than 400 people [Music] you

Channel: Santa Clarita

Views: 104,032

Rating: 4.7401128 out of 5

Keywords: City of Santa Clarita, This Week in Santa Clarita, Santa Clarita, News, Events, St Francis Dam, History, Dam

Id: YWf6H3l4T4E

Length: 6min 42sec (402 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 13 2018