| Reminder from: | californiadisasters Yahoo! Group | |
| Title: | 1928 St. Francis Dam Disaster | |
| Date: | Tuesday March 12, 2013 | |
| Time: | 11:45 pm - 12:45 am (GMT-08.00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) | |
| Location: | Los Angeles / Ventura County | |
| Notes: | At 2 and 1/2 minutes before Midnight, the St. Francis Dam catastrophically collapsed. Located in San Francisquito Canyon, above the city of Santa Clarita, the dam was designed and built by the Los Angeles Bureau of Water Works, now know as LADWP. The St. Francis Dam was of the curved-gravity design with off-centered abutments, 209 feet in height and 700 feet in length. At the time it was impounding a filled reservoir, 2.8 miles long which contained over 38,000 acre feet of water (12.4 billion gallons) weighing almost 52 million tons. Within 70 minutes post collapse it was empty. Within the canyon, the flood wave had a depth varying from 110 to 140 feet. Washing pieces of the dam, some which weighed more than ten thousand tons, over one half mile down stream. As the flood continued out of the canyon, it made it's way into the Santa Clara river channel, cutting a deadly path which ended 54 miles away. 5 hours and 27 minutes past the inception, it emptied into the Pacific Ocean near Montalvo, a small town in Ventura County. Before doing so, behind it the towns of Newhall, Castaic, Piru, Fillmore, Saticoy and Santa Paula were devastated. A partial review of the records reflect an estimated 600 dead, 900 homes and buildings totally destroyed, 331 damaged, 10 bridges washed out and over 23,500 acres of agricultural land destroyed. Unlisted was the extensive amount of damage to roads, railways and utilities. The frequently used estimated 600 deaths is now believed to be incorrect. More recent estimates put the number closer to 900. This is due in part, to to the lower than now known number of immigrant, undocumented and transient workers along with others who, with their families, lived in the areas affected. It is considered the worst engineering disaster of the 20th century and remains the cause of the second-greatest loss of life due to a disaster in California's history, after the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and fire. | |
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