National Park After Dark - Liquid Avalanche: Saint Francis Dam Disaster National Monument

Episode Date: August 29, 2022

Water – we live and die by it. Today, we head to southern California and visit the ruins of the Saint Francis Dam to learn about the worst civil engineering failure of the 20th century and the second greatest loss of life in California state history. Make a donation: Kentucky Relief Fund For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Feals - Become a member today and save 50% off your first order of Focus Melts with promo code: AFTERDARK Cozy Earth - Save 35% with our promo code: NPAD Stride Career Prep - Prepares your teen for in-demand careers in business, tech, health science, criminal justice and more! Aspiration - Fight climate change by planting trees with every swipe. Apply for the Aspiration Zero credit card today and earn a $300 welcome bonus after spending three  thousand dollars in the first ninety days. For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Close your eyes. Listen to Monday.com. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform. So flexible and intuitive, it feels like it was built just for you. Now open your eyes, go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally, breathe. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want.

Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off-campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. The world can be a scary place, and you don't need to look far to be reminded of that. The news is overflowing with stories of all kinds of disasters,

so much so that it seems we're confronted with a new one, every single day. Natural disasters are especially eerie. Humans have always feared nature as we are helpless in the face of her profound power. Droughts drying up the land, blazing fires, the ground splitting open during quakes, whipping winds ripping away homes and tornadoes, and landslides sweeping away entire faces of mountains. These are all just the tip of the iceberg. While we have spent thousands of years finding ways to understand weather patterns in an attempt to predict the unpredictable, it's abundantly clear we are no match in the ring, pitted against the elements.

The ancient Greeks believe that there were four elements that everything was made up of, earth, water, air, and fire. Not surprisingly, all four of these things we need to survive. They may be essential to our survival, but as history has proven, repeatedly they serve as our lifeline, but also potentially as our demise. Welcome to National Park After Dark. This feels like a disaster episode. Well, I think I said disaster three times. Maybe that's where I got that from.

Yeah. I'm glad you're paying attention. Maybe those small little hints contributed to it. We are doing a disaster episode and it's a gnarly one and it's one that I have never, ever heard of before. Where are we going? So we're going to be going to Southern California for this. And it's all centered around L.A. pretty much. So that's why I'm super surprised that I've just never, ever heard of it in such a place that is so like all, you know,

Everyone knows everything about L.A., I feel like. Yeah, L.A. is pretty big place to be. Yeah. So I kind of got inspiration, I guess if you could say that, inspiration for this story a while ago. I know I've talked about her before. Her name's Caitlin Doughty. She is an amazing author. She has written a lot of books that I enjoy.

And I also follow her YouTube page called Ask a Mortician. And she has a lot of really cool videos on there. And none of them are really related to national parks or anything really wilderness related, you know. But I was watching some videos a few months ago. And she covered the story of the St. Francis Dam disaster. And I was just so intrigued by it that I wrote it down because I'm like, there has to be some sort of like memorial. or like, I don't know how I can tie this into the show, but I just kind of put it off to the side.

And then I think with all of the recent flooding that's been happening, all over, especially in regards to national parks and the framework of the show, like, of course, Yellowstone had a huge... Yeah, you can't forget about Yellowstone and all the stuff that went on there. I mean, full roads were washed away and building. and that was wild. It was all over the news recently. Yellowstone and then, even since then, I mean, Joshua Tree, Death Valley, they have experienced

a lot of flooding as well. I mean, Zion is always huge for that as well. But so obviously flooding is in the news right now. I know non-national park related to, I think, is it Kentucky? Yeah, Kentucky had some really devastating flooding where a lot of people. died and they're doing a lot of fundraisers for people who lost their families and there's it was really devastating it actually happened i was driving through kentucky i think two days after it happened and i wasn't really paying attention to my phone because it was on my road trip and i was just

really distracted and didn't have my phone on me and i found out a couple days after i left kunducky of the floods that had happened there and the part that i went to hadn't flooded so i just didn't notice it, but then I read about it. So I was actually kind of there when it was going on. It's terrifying. I mean, so maybe let's link a couple resources for people in Kentucky, if anybody wants to help out with the aid. Yeah, we'll add it to our show notes. We'll add some resources for you guys. And I know that we have some listeners in Kentucky. So we're also sending our love to all of you out there. And we hope that you're all safe. Yeah, so let's do that. So back to the, the, I'm trying to make this, wrap this whole like inspiration story up.

But essentially, I had seen this video a while ago. The flooding and the news kind of brought me back to that. And I found out that the site of this disaster is a pretty recent as of 2019, a national monument. So here we go. Oh, wow. Okay. So it is linked to the National Works Service. Yes.

Yes. Yeah, so now here we go. That's why we're heading here today. Okay, well, I don't even think I've heard of a flooding disaster in L.A., so I'm already excited to learn, educate me. I want to know. Well, not only is it a deadly flood. This is one of the deadliest floods you probably have never heard about because the St. France's dam disaster is the second greatest loss of life in California state history and the nation's deadliest. The deadliest engineering disaster of the 20th century. What? When did it happen? What year?

1928. Okay. So I wasn't alive. So that makes it a little bit. No. Maybe more acceptable that I haven't heard of it. But still, if it's one of the worst disasters ever, I'm very intrigued now. Yeah.

And just for reference, the deadliest disaster, greatest loss of life in California state history, was the earthquake and then subsequent fires of 1906 in San Francisco, which I hope you have heard of because I definitely. I have heard of that. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I have heard of that one. Okay. So let's get to the story. And we are going to begin on a Monday. It was March 12th, 1928, and it began no differently than any other Monday for Tony Harschenfinger. He left his two-bedroom home he shared with his girlfriend Leona and six-year-old son Coder for work. The bungalow was in the shadow. of the St. Francis Dam, where he was employed as a damkeeper, and he walked the quarter mile to work to conduct his usual inspection of this structure. The dam was very impressive. It was 700 feet long,

208 feet high, and held back 12.4 billion gallons of water in a reservoir that was nearly 200 feet deep and three miles long, which made this the largest man-made lake in Southern California. The face of the dam had five round drainage outlets which could be opened or closed to release water from the reservoir, but today there were dark streaks left in the wake of water running down the dam from the top. Although not concerning in its own right, it showed that the wind was splashing water over the top of the dam and sent it cascading down the face. This spillage meant that the reservoir was only inches below its maximum capacity. Continuing his inspection, Tony noticed something far more alarming. Against the western abutment of the dam, which is where the dam presses against the canyon wall, he noticed more water, but this time it was running muddy.

To be clear, cracks and leaks have been documented in this dam before, but not all of them were deemed concerning. The St. Francis Dam was made of concrete, and cracks formed due to the shrinkage of concrete due to different temperature variations. Some of these cracks develop internally and some are external. And the St. Francis Dam had seen some of its own in the past. Again, like I said, they can be normal. And they were all investigated and deemed not structurally significant

and they were to be expected within tolerance for the dam. But this leak that Tony noticed was different because the water was not running clear. This was worrisome because it indicated the found of the dam may be eroding. This combined with the new cracks found the previous week and the knowledge of the reservoir being at maximum capacity, Tony was worried about all of this and he immediately contacted his supervisors.

A couple hours later, William Mahaland arrived with his team to investigate. And do you, does that name sound familiar at all to you, Mahaland? It's like a really... I know rodeo drive. Oh, do you? Yeah, I've heard of... Not like my personal experience or anything, but I've heard of it and I've driven on it. I haven't shopped there.

I've looked at it from afar in binoculars. Like, oh. Yeah, I've watched all the rich people walk in the stores and I was Jennifer Gardner walking the streets. What? What is that? What is that? Pretty woman. That is not Jennifer Gardner.

Are you okay? What's her name? Maybe that's not Jennifer Garner It's not Jennifer Garner It's Julia What's her name? Julia Oh yeah you're right

They look so similar though They look so similar We got to move on from this This is embarrassing Girl Winter is so last season And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders.

That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear up on that envelope. It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. So Mahaland Drive is not Rodeo Drive, but it is equally as famous.

And it's named after William Maholand. William Mahaland came from humble roots and was born and educated in Ireland. He worked several jobs and was a member of the British Merchant Navy before settling in America. After briefly trying his hand at prospecting for gold in Arizona, he landed a job in the 1880s laying pipeline in L.A. He quickly climbed the ladder at the Los Angeles City Water Company, all the while becoming a self-taught engineer. And by 1928, he was named the Chief Superintuitive. So he's like the self-made man. He's like taught himself engineering and he's really climbed the ranks of the water company. He's he's a big deal. So Mahaland and his deputy Harvey Van Norman investigated the issue

that Tony brought to their attention. And after looking at it, they deemed that this leak was actually a mixture of clear and muddy water that got mixed together from the construction of a new access road nearby. So they're basically saying this is a leak and yes, it's concerning, but it's not an emergency. So they recognized it. It was a problem. But they thought it was an issue that could be addressed at a later time. It wasn't like everything needs to stop and we need to look at this right now. That's interesting because the other guy was clearly very concerned about it. Yes, the keeper. Right. The keeper is like, this is an emergency and it sounds like the other people are like, But it's his boss. It's the chief superintendent, the guy who built and constructed the whole dam.

So how are you going to challenge that? So Maholand and Von Norman did actually do a complete inspection of the rest of the entire dam. And they did give it a green light. So they didn't just like take a look at this one little leak and left. They did look at everything as a whole. And they deemed everything normal or at least sound for now. all was well, but all was not well at all. And just 12 hours later, they'd realize just how wrong they were. But before we get to that, let's talk a little bit about why the dam was there in the first place and how it got there. Because in and of itself, this is a wild story, which for brevity's sake, I'm only going to touch upon. But if you're interested, there's a few

resources that we'll talk about later if you want to dive into it because it is actually it's pretty insane so by the early 20th century the demand for water in l.A. was mounting as was its population. It's really hard to imagine the L.A. we know now as it was in its beginning stages, but the early days were vastly different than what it's become. The L.A. area was settled first by the Tongva and Chumash indigenous tribes and served as their home for thousands of years. Eventually, the Spanish Empire and later the Mexican Republic gained control of it before the Mexican-American War took place. After several battles, America eventually gained control of the L.A. area in 1847. For a couple decades, the area was rough, really dangerous place, and it only had a couple thousand residents.

and at that point in time, the nearby L.A. River sustained the population that it had of a, you know, a couple thousand people. But all of that changed rapidly at the turn of the century. There was a discovery of oil and then the continued development of L.A. and then the arrival of the Transcontinental Railroad changed a lot for the city. In 1910, Hollywood merged into L.A. and by 1921, more than 80% of the world's industry for movies. like the movie industry was concentrated in this area. So it went from like a couple thousand people. It's kind of like a rough and tumble area to everyone is descending on this area. This is Hollywood. This is the place to be if you want to make it.

Yeah. Glitz and glamour and the whole nine yards. And it was all over the world too because if you think about it, like American movies were kind of the first real films too. So it's not like there were all these locations. all over the world to make movies, it's L.A. was the spot and the only spot. Yeah, in the early days,

that was the place to be if you wanted to get into the industry. So destination seekers, those looking for work, and people looking to settle down in the area, completely flooded L.A. The population was booming, but the growth of the city had a big limiting factor, and that was water. Not only for drinking, but for different agricultural uses.

The area had a set. semi-arid climate with a lot of inconsistent rainfall. The L.A. River soon was on its way to completely drying up, which presented a host of different issues and a need for new solutions. But these solutions came at a massive price. What later became known as California's little civil war began. Again, this goes so deep. I mean, someone could create an entire, like, podcast dedicated to the water wars of California because and it is really fascinating but again an abridged version basically it's like someone could create that not me definitely not me but if someone is inspired right now we'd love to hear more like yes like I was telling Cassie I'm like

yeah I'll be done by tonight we can we can definitely record tonight and Cassie was texting me, she's like, hello? I'm like, I'm sorry. I'm just, I'm going off the deep end with this. So yeah, I condensed it for everyone who's not, like, fascinated by this water dispute situation. But essentially, Mahaland teamed up with a guy named Frederick Eaton. They had originally worked together in the Los Angeles Water Company, but Eaton was later elected as mayor of L.A. So they kind of like joined forces. You know, Eaton was the mayor of L.A. and Mulholland was the superintendent of the city's water company.

So this gave them big power. And depending on who you ask, they probably abused this power a little bit. So they were searching for a water source for L.A. The L.A. River was out. They needed a new solution. And they found it. 224 miles to the north in a place called Owens Valley, just north of Kings Canyon National Park.

Owens River flowed into this valley and provided drinking water and irrigation to the hundreds of ranchers in this area. The large amount of runoff from the Sierra Nevada's in the valley was exactly what Mulholland and Eaton needed, so they took it, essentially. Through a variety of shi-underhanded, shady moves, they essentially went into the valley under-falsed false pretences, basically, under guise that, you know, they were two ranchers, and they bought up tons of land and water rights for way less than they were worth. So while Eaton was buying up all this land, and he was doing some like political maneuverings, being mayor and having a lot of sway. And lying. And being dishonest. He also essentially blocked the Bureau of Reclamation, which is the federal agency, in charge of water resource management from building water infrastructure for the residents of Owens Valley.

So essentially, this cut them off from their own water supply, the people up in Owens Valley. How can you legally do that? There was a lot. I wouldn't say there's a lot because there was a significant lack of regulations in place. And again, he was in a place of great power. He knew all the different political loopholes and things like that at the time to get this done. So he's just going to cut off water to an entire group of people? Mm-hmm. So while Eaton was doing all this, Mahaland was doing some like good old public misleading.

So on one hand, he was telling the residents of Owens Valley that L.A. was coming in and like getting some of their water rights, but they were only going to use the unused flows. Like they were just using some of their water. Like, don't worry. We were just using part of it. And then simultaneously, he was telling the people of L.A. That he was basically vastly understating the amount of water that they had available in L.A.

So he's kind of like inciting some panic to the city of L.A. Like, look, we really need this. Like, this is really important. Our water levels are super low. That's why we have to go to Owens Valley. So people are like, yeah, well, duh. So they thought they were in a drought. I mean, and they were.

were, they were going to run out of water. Like, based on their population growth, the rate in which it was used, the inconsistent rainfall, they were going to run out of water. So it was kind of true that they did need it. But he just kind of, he inflated it a little bit. And he was trying to stir up some, basically he was trying to get backing from the public of L.A. He wanted to create some sort of panic so people would be on his side, no matter the means he was going to to get this water. So maybe when, you know, People if and when people in L.A. found out just how they were getting their water, if they happened to be upset about like, hey, this is kind of messed up, he'd be like, okay, well, this is the option. So do you want water or not? Type of thing. People would be like, okay, well, yeah, I need

water. So by 1907, the aqueduct, which is a system of different ditches and tunnels and pipes that would carry the water from Owens Valley down to L.A. was under construction. and by 1913, water was flowing from the valley down into the San Fernando Valley. But it didn't take long for the residents of Owens Valley to catch up on these shady dealings. And they were realizing that their water and subsequently their livelihoods were essentially being stolen. This is a huge farming and ranching community. They can't make money. They can't survive without crops and livestock and water.

Well, everyone needs water. Right. And water. How do you just be like, sorry, we're going to take all of your water. Good luck. So they were not happy at all. And as time went on, more and more water was being diverted from the valley. Because at first, remember, he was like, oh, we're just taking a little. And it wasn't like the aqueducts opened and they drained everything at once. This was kind of like a slow but steady process that eventually ramped up a little bit. but essentially the people of Owens Valley caught on and they were pissed.

Their farms and their towns were withering. And what ended up happening was this little California Civil War. So farmers and landowners banded together and full on sabotaged this entire project. Intense and violent acts began including blowing up parts of the aqueduct with dynamite. They would stage protests. They cut off the water supply entirely by opening the valves and just letting it literally spill out into the desert. Like, if we can't have it, you're not going to have it. It's like no one's going to have water. We're just going to let it go. Yeah. So they're blowing up

things with dynamite. They're doing protests. They're doing, like, it's a huge, everybody's involved. It's not just a couple, a handful of people, like the entire Owens Valley communities banded together to sabotage this entire thing. And it wasn't just all this like under the, you know, under darkness, the cover of darkness, they blew up a, you know, it wasn't all that it was, but they also tried to do things like the legal way. They filed lawsuits and different legal battles literally went on for years. Yet more reservoirs and more dams were just built in response, including the biggest and most ambitious project that Mahalind had taken on yet. And that was the St. Francis Dam. Just as a side note, I had to mention this because,

I'd be remiss if I did not. But there is a bit of like irony and a lot of layers here, as there always is in pretty much every story we've ever done. So the settlers of Owens Valley were so upset over this water situation. The water was being stolen from them, diverted away from them. These same people that are upset about this had literally just stolen and displaced the northern Paiute people of that area 50 years before. I was just going to ask when that happened because it seems kind of ironic that they're getting their space, their land, their water stolen,

quote unquote stolen from them when we know historically speaking that all land in the United States has been stolen. I had to put this in because the, so again, I kind of got into it a little bit and it's also very interesting. But the piute people were generally primarily nomadic, so they moved from place to place. But in Owens Valley, there was a group of northern piute that had settled there because it was just such a prime location. There was tons of water supply.

It was rich in natural resources, and it was just a perfect place to make a home. And there's actually evidence of them building their own irrigation networks dating back a thousand years. They have been settled there. forever. And now the people of Owens Valley, currently in present day, the 1920s, are pissed because essentially the same thing is happening. Like, this is ours. We live there. We live here. We've lived here forever. And it's like, it's been a handful of years. And at least people aren't killing you and abducting your children and forcing you into a completely different culture.

But that's a discussion for another time. Either way, getting all. your water taken is bad. Yeah. But it is, I see totally what you're saying. Like it's pretty ironic that they're so upset that they're having part of their land and resources stolen from them when that's exactly what they did to other people. So after roughly two years of construction of the St. Francis Dam, because before I got diverted there, the dam was being constructed. So two years later, on May 4th, 1926, it was complete. It was built in the San Fras. Francisco Cany, about 47 miles northeast from downtown L.A. The area that the dam sat in had residents there that were mainly farmers, dam workers,

and workers at the two hydroelectric plants, as this dam also provided electricity to residents of the city. So like I said earlier, the dam was massive. It held over 12 billion gallons of water behind it, and the reservoir provided about two years worth of water for the city. Like that's about how much it could hold at a time. And it was also pretty expensive to build about $1.3 million in 1920s money. But actually it came in under budget due to some skimping and cutting corners during the construction process, which those decisions would later cause some massive problems.

And we'll discuss them in a bit. But we're going to go back now to March 12th. So Tony that morning had alerted Mahalph. Holland, they gave him the green light, the day went on, without incident. That evening, approximately 10 minutes before midnight, Ace Hopewell, who was a carpenter at Powerhouse number one, rode past the dam on his motorcycle. As he drove by, he noticed two different lights at the base of the dam. They were likely a damkeeper, and according to records, they were most likely Tony and his son, Coder, doing the nightly inspection. Ace rode on.

continued past powerhouse number two and further upstream. He pulled over about a mile and a half up the road, and he just lit up a cigarette, was leaning against his motorcycle, and he started hearing a rumbling. He later described it as rocks rolling on the hill, and he looked around to see where the source was coming from. And he didn't see an issue. He heard the sound fade, and he dismissed it. He attributed the sound to a landslide, which is common in the area. But it turns out, Ace Hopewell was the last person to see the St. Francis Dam intact and to have survived. At the same time as Ace was on his motorcycle, Ray Sylvie was working the night shift at Powerhouse No. 1 and was on the phone with his friend Lou Burns, who was working in Powerhouse No. 2, located directly below the dam. So Powerhouse 1 is

above the dam. It's the dam and then Powerhouse 2. And they're talking to each other. Yep, they're just talking to each other. At 1157 p.m. There was a blip on the powerhouse powerboard at Powerhouse number one. And by 1202, everything was completely black. It was in those moments that the St. Francis Dam catastrophically failed. The concrete dam blew apart with such force, giant segments of the dam were hurtled like cannonballs half a mile down the canyon and a 140 foot high wall of water slammed its way through the canyon. So we're going to follow the flood path a little bit. So the first area to be hit was the community at Powerhouse 2 because like I mentioned, workers and their families lived here. It was a true little community. It was constructed right near the

Dam. Sixty-seven employees and their families lived here in cottages. There were family homes, dorms for single men who didn't have families, there were social centers, schoolhouses for the kids, the kitchen and dining hall at church. 126 out of the 129 people who lived in this community were killed instantly. Castick was next and it was hit at around 1 a.m. At this point, the waves were still 75 feet high. So this is an hour after it first burst. Water is so scary. It gets worse. So this town was all but completely flattened. There was a father and son, the McIntir's, that thought a storm was actually approaching when they first were staying there. They felt mist on their face. And then they heard rumbling, and they looked over and they saw lights flashing.

And by the time they realized what was happening, there were buildings being lifted and washed towards them. And it was just too late to run anywhere. They grabbed onto a utility pole, but the son saw his father get ripped away by a 60-foot high wave of water. Back in the 20s, this town had cafes, cabins, gas stations. It was a really popular town on a popular travel route, and it was completely obliterated. And today, it's known for its Six Flags amusement Park.

There's a Six Flags where all this happened? Yes. That is morbid if I've ever, like, go on this roller coaster, a bunch of people died here a hundred years ago. Yeah, well, it's welcome. Welcome. But how would you know? You wouldn't know. No, you would never know that.

I mean, I'm sure there's people who are at the six flags right now. They're just walking around and I have no idea. So Pairu was a small town directly in the flood path next. The water hit the train tracks here so hard that they were ripped out of the ground and twisted like a DNA helix. Some were ripped out and swept away so forcefully they were placed back over completely different areas of roadways miles away. This is one of the several towns along the destruction path that now has small memorial plaques and cemeteries dedicated to the flood victims. As an example, its cemetery holds the Gattari family consisting of Joe, Francis, and their six children. Francis, the wife, and five of their children were swept away almost immediately.

Joe's five-year-old daughter, Lenore, was never found, and there is an image of Joe, Washington. the ruins of Pai Roo searching for his family. And he was later buried in the cemetery alongside them in the 1960s when he passed away. That is so sad. I'm telling you, this is just... He lost his entire family. Except for one child. One second.

Oh, my God. As the flood made its way down the valley, word was spreading, thanks largely in part to the Hello Girls. These were telephone operators, all women, and they were on duty that night and stayed at their posts or returned to their post from home after hearing of the impending disaster. One newspaper later wrote a piece about them saying, quote, there is only one thing that travels faster than a flood. That is warning by telephone. Many of these girls on duty during the night at their switchboards had no way of knowing but that the water would rise so high as to sweep

away their buildings where they were located and drown them at their posts of duty end quote so it took a lot of bravery for these women to do everything they could to alert as many people as possible and they died all of them no they were just saying they were just saying that they had no idea if they would die or not oh okay but because it was because they were close enough where it was possible i thought you were saying like they all went in and they were just on the phone warning everyone and then they all got swept No, no, no, no. But it was a possibility. They're just commending. I was like, oh my God, this is so awful. I hate this. Santa Paula was the largest community on this flood path with about 7,000 residents. The area was known for its citrus orchards, and at one point, it actually had the largest acreage of citrus groves in the entire world. The citrus groves used a lot of foreign labor comprised primarily by Mexican workers.

This was the 1920s, and this town, amongst many others, was extremely racially divided. Many of the groves provided workers with housing on site or near the packing plants, but this housing was rustic at the very best. There was no indoor plumbing, no telephones, no electricity. So at this point, the flood has been raging for about three hours now, and Word did reach some of the residents of Santa Paula, thanks to the hell. girls, and some of these people were able to reach higher ground in time, but for many, with no means of receiving that warning, they never saw it coming. The housing was also in an area of the town that

had no natural barriers, which meant that the water hit with no impediment at all. The town was all but obliterated when the waters hit at 305 a.m. Oh, so everyone was sleeping in their bed that didn't know. Yeah, and it was a lot of immigrant workers that didn't have access to communication devices and no one warned them. This is just awful. The floodwaters spilled out into the Pacific Ocean between Oxnard and Ventura at 5.30 a.m. It had traveled 54 miles over 5.5 hours and was miles long. It carried human and animal bodies, infrastructure, and automobiles.

In total, an estimated 400 to 600 people died in the flood. but true numbers will never be known as many of the deceased were undocumented workers. It's crazy to me how powerful water is. Just you describing that, it traveled for 54 miles, and it's not like, it sounds like it didn't slow down and was something that slowly crept up. It sounds like for this 54 miles, there were just massive waves, incredible strength of water that was just pummeling these structures and just ripping everything away. Yeah. And a lot of it not only was just the sheer amount of water, I mean, over 12 billion gallons of water.

But it was also like the way that the aqueducts and the dam was constructed, it was gravity-based. So this isn't a flat area. There's gravity associated with this. So there's like a downward angle. I mean, it's not significant. It's not a canyon that's just straight up and down, but it is a canyon. It's essentially a funnel, and it has a downward angle, and it's all leading out into the ocean. So it's just this huge path of destruction for miles and miles. And of course, it did slow down a little bit from when it first burst, but not enough at all. Also, many of the bodies were never recovered, such as Tony's, and many were likely swept out to see, never obviously to be seen again. One person's remains were found on a far distant beach, and he had been picked up by the flood

initially 65 miles away. So people's remains can be anywhere. And others were found as far away as San Diego. So this is just a lot of power. I feel so stupid being like, this is powerful, but it is I mean, to drive from L.A. to San Diego, it's over three hours, especially with traffic, so to think that water can carry you that far with that much force, it's just, it's, when you say, like, there's two billion gallons of water, it's hard to picture. 12, 12, or 12, 12, 12 billion. Oh, my God. So it's hard to picture that much water, but when you put it into perspective of this water carried from around the L.A. area all the way to San Diego. It's like, wow, this is really a, I mean, of course it's a disaster, but it's just the magnitude of it.

It's staggering. It's put into perspective. It really is staggering. So as the waters receded, eventually, like they all dumped out, the whole reservoir emptied, rescue and recovery workers descended on the valley immediately. And it was apparent that many of the victims did in fact drown, but actually the majority of them were killed by some form of blunt force trauma because they're getting completely annihilated by houses and cars and telephone poles and literally anything that's in the flood path. I almost wonder if maybe the water too, you know, just the strength of the water hitting you. it's like if you jump from too high of an area onto water and you hit the water, just the force is enough to knock you out or really injure you. And I'm just picturing like even if they're not being hit by debris, just that initial contact,

especially if you're not in a home and you're outside when this happens or whatever, like that sounds like maybe that could even be enough. Yeah, who knows? And remember Ray Burns from earlier on in the story when he was on the phone, he was working in Powerhouse 2. His remains were recovered, his torso first, and then several months later, his legs located miles away. He was ripped in half. Yeah. Wait, what about his head?

I don't know. You said his torso and his legs. Yeah. Where is his arms? I don't know if his arms and his leg and his head were attached to his torso. I don't know. This is really gruesome. I was trying to give details without going into that many details, but I guess we went there.

Sorry, I have questions. Oh, my God. This is just like, it's very, very sad. And this is also months later. So, you know. So the debris and chaos were so severe. It was really difficult to make out much on the flood path. So workers actually ended up looking up at the sky as a guide.

They were looking for vultures to indicate the presence of different corpses. One man's body was found by just his fingers. They saw fingers sticking up out of the silt in the mud. And he ended up being uncovered and he was fully intact, but he was standing straight up and down, just completely covered in silt. So Boy Scouts were an integrity. part of the recovery mission, they were actually given these white flags on these really long poles, and they were sent out, and they traveled through the silt and the debris, and they were searching

and scanning for survivors, but more often than not, they would discover remains. So they would... They sent children out for this? Were they out of search and rescue people? They thought that children were the... This was the 20s, and they were like... I guess were child labor laws in place at this point? I would imagine so, but I don't, yeah, I can't comment on it. It's just, it's wild to think about now. I just can't imagine sending children out for a rescue mission that you already know is horrific. Right.

So they were like, okay, here are these poles with these flags. If you discover remains, just plant this flag here. and it marked for other teams that had like mules and like carts and things, they would just look for the flags and go and recover the bodies and remove them. But the Boy Scouts were marking them. And there were actually pires which were constructed along the sides of the flood path that would actually, they would just load up debris and different animal carcasses and just burn them right there on site. It took too much effort and resources to extract all these things and remove them. So a lot of the time they just burned it right there. Makeshift hospitals and morgues started popping up everywhere along the valley.

And I mean everywhere. Dance halls, feed stores, and general stores were all converted to hospitals or morgues to house the dead or the dying. And as I mentioned, this was a really racially segregated. town at the time, and that included the hospitals. So there's a story of a 13-year-old girl. Her name was Thelma McCauley. She was in her home when the flood hit, and she felt her house lift up, like while she was in it with her family. And she ended up escaping out of the back door, but was immediately swept away by the water. Nine miles later, she ended up getting caught. up in a tree and blacked out. She woke up in the hospital. That was the next thing she remembered.

She was waking up in the hospital, or makeshift hospital, I should say. It could be, you know, somebody's wherever she was. She was receiving medical attention to some degree. And she woke up and she was so covered in silt and muck that the hospital staff originally mistook her for a little Mexican girl. And she started speaking to them because she came to and they were kind of taken aback and they wiped some of the mud and debris off of her face and obviously revealed that she was Caucasian. And immediately they're like, oh, we're bringing you somewhere else. And they transported her to a better facility. There's just this massive disaster. Hundreds of people have died and their first medical concern is your ethnicity and your race. Yeah. That's just so, and you're a child.

It's not even like you're, not to say that adults don't deserve care or anything, but there's just a different level of medical attention. I feel like that goes to children because they are the young, they're the innocent, they're the ones that you're always trying to protect and save. And to be a child and be like, oh, well, they're not Caucasian, so we can kind of, it's fine. Not prioritize them. She just went through, she just went through this horrible disaster, was carried nine miles, she's knocked out, she's covered in mud, she's like, and they didn't even bother to wash her either.

She wakes up in the hospital and they haven't even bothered to wash the dirt and mud off of her. Just telling you what I read. I know, I know. It's just like, it's so infuriating. It's just, well, just a little more on that note to really get you fired up. Oh, no. So the U.S. Red Cross stepped in to provide aid, but so too did the La Cruza Zul Mexicana, the Mexican Red Cross. Run primarily by Mexican women and the Mexican consulate, they helped translate for Mexican and Spanish-speaking flood survivors.

So they were providing aid for a majority of people that were probably not getting the standard of care, clearly, as we just saw, that others were. So they stepped in and helped, but officials wouldn't interview the Spanish-speaking or Mexican survivors because they deemed them unfit. Unfit for what? Because they were not white. They're like, well, like, we don't want to hear about. So they didn't just experience this? Yeah, they're like, we don't want to hear from. you we want to hear from Thelma or whoever the hell. So this led to a serious gap in the St. Francis

Damned disaster's history. Like who knows how many untold stories there are from survivors, their families, different victims that, I mean, there are so many unidentified or unaccounted for deaths. And who knows how many of those gaps could have been filled if we just listened to the other. Anyone who wasn't white? It's just so frustrating. Especially in California. Like you're so close to Mexico too.

There's such a huge population of people. It's just... And L.A. was found it after, obviously, the indigenous tribes where we know how that goes. During the Spanish-American War and all that, like, this part of California was very recently acquired by the United States. Like this, L.A. was founded by the Mexican people, essentially, as we know it now. So it's kind of like to just totally cut out and not listen to the vast majority of who was affected by this incredible disaster is just, it's insane. It's just wild to me that something so horrible can happen for a natural disaster.

And then you're trying to figure out what happened and you have all these people who witnessed it. And you're like, oh, no. And I feel like maybe part of it was because maybe there was a language barrier that no one was willing to speak with translators to like get through. Because it was like, I picture it being an inconvenience, you know, like you're not going to, you don't speak Spanish. So you're not going to talk to someone. and, you know, I just feel like it was probably. There's translators there. That's what I feel like. I feel like people are like, oh, no, like we can't talk to them. We don't even speak the same language. And it's like more of like a lazy like excuse fueled by hate.

But the other thing is they didn't even need an excuse because it was just the way it was then. It was so it was just racially segregated. I mean, there was a huge chapter of the KKK in this area. It's so it's just yeah and I don't want to we can get off I feel like I can go off on this forever because there's still like a lot of racially fueled things in medical care today so to say like I can't believe this happened like I can't but then you go into some practices that are still going on today that are just it's just so scary and it's so sad there's still you know echoes of the issue however many years later oh yeah I like Like, I won't get super into this, but not to get like super into this. But me, I've had kidney disease my whole life. I've had two kidney transplants. When you do your blood work, it shows all of your blood work. And at the very bottom, it says your GFR, which is essentially your kidney function.

And it says if your GFR is this number and you're African American, you're actually. not as sick, which is really complicated because I could have the same levels as someone who's African American and be eligible for a kidney transplant, but they have to get sicker before they're eligible. And it's this huge problem in medical. That's just like one example that I've like physically seen myself. And it's just like it always really bothered me. And I remember looking it up.

And it was based on this horrible science of saying that African American people are like stronger. They have tougher skin. They have tougher blood. Like whatever it is, which has no scientific basis at all. It's still happening today. How is that still taken as it's 2022? Like if this study was done in whatever fucking year that was, clearly there has to be. It's a fight that's still happening today.

I'm so taken aback by this. I had no idea. God. And now I have to tell the rest of the story about the damn disaster. I don't want to do that. I'm caught up on this now. I mean, they're both really bad. I know. It's like, oh, right, let's dive into this now. It's like, oh, yeah. I was telling a completely different story. Sorry to, like, throw you up. It was just like, when you're talking about the racial stuff and medical care, I'm like, this is so prevalent even today, a hundred years later. Wow. Yeah. Okay. well, thank you for interjecting because it's something I certainly didn't know about, and nor what I have ever guessed was even an issue. Like if someone said that was a problem and told me to guess the year, I would probably place it somewhere around the early 1900s. Yeah, you're like, oh yeah, that happened a long time ago when people were a lot more fucked up than they are today. And it's like, well, actually.

So there was one survivor who lived to tell his tale and actually had it recorded by reporters and people who were interested in listening. Of course, he was white. But he had his story taken down and he had said he was in a car when the flood waters reached him. He crawled out of the window as the car was bouncing along the water and he got out onto the hood and was holding on as hard as he could but was just easily. ripped away by the water, and he recalled being tossed around like a complete rag doll. The waves were thick with mud and debris. And when he was asked how he survived, he responded, quote, it must have been 10,000 miracles. I knew I was going to die, but I wasn't a bit afraid. I was consumed with curiosity, what it's going to look like, because I'm going to the next world.

For many, they did go to the next world. The city of L.A. did their best to ensure all of the recovered bodies were given a proper burial, and any unclaimed bodies were actually buried in mass graves located in the towns of Ventura and Santa Paula. The city also paid out $14 million to the victim's families. Maholand arrived at what remained of the St. Francis Dam at 2.30 a.m. on March 13th, and he and investigators immediately began trying to piece together what caused this catastrophic failure. The city initially tried to point fingers at the Owens Valley residents,

suggesting that they blew up the dam or caused some sort of malfunction that led to its demise, but that was quickly dismissed. Forensic investigators actually surveyed the aftermath and used the huge chunks of concrete that were blown away from the dam and kind of scattered across the valley to piece back together, kind of like a jigsaw puzzle of how it came apart and what could have led to the way in which it fell apart to get a better picture of what just what the hell happened. So that combined with previous reports of the cracks and the different structural issues painted a much different picture than somebody from Owens Valley blew up the dam. There is still differing theories

on the failure, so nothing has been 100% landed upon and agreed upon. But there was a committee that was appointed by the LA City Council, and they placed the failure at defective foundations and said that the dam was well designed, but it was poorly executed. There was still a lot of debate about which abutment, so which place on the dam, which side of the dam, essentially where the dam met the valley in the canyon walls which one of those failed first, like they don't even know to this day which one failed first.

But Jay David Rogers, who's a geological engineer, believed that a landslide caused the failure by shifting the foundation, which caused the dam to lean forward. And this could have caused the cracks that were first noted in the weeks prior to the failure.

So maybe it wasn't just concrete settling, like that normal cracks that can be found in damststri. structures. Like something happened, like a landslide happened and caused it. Right. And it definitely could explain the muddy water that Tony had reported the very morning of the disaster, not just, oh, this is a combination from some construction that's mixing with a regular normal leak. Like, this shift in the foundation would cause this muddy water leak that Tony saw and was really concerned about. There was also a phenomenon that wasn't completely understood at the time of the

construction, but the dam definitely didn't take into account properly. And that's called hydrostatic uplift. So it's basically when the water seeps underneath the dam and causes a slight uplift on the dam, which decreases its weight because it's kind of, it's not floating, obviously, but it's more buoyant. and therefore its effectiveness at holding back 12.4 billion gallons of water is compromised. So it's been theorized that this may have also contributed or lent a hand in the disaster in conjunction with the unstable land in the canyon and the landslide. So they're thinking that it's probably a combination of factors that kind of just created the perfect storm. And I briefly mentioned cutting corners originally.

So the original build plans changed halfway through construction. They decided to add an additional 10 feet to the top of the dam, but they never widened the base. The base stabilizes the entire structure, and it was never widened. And also the dam had a curved shape and had these large, five-foot-long steps kind of carved into the face of the dam to help with the curvature. and what did not help, though, was the lack of what's called contraction joints, which are used to help

regulate the location of cracking due to changes in the structure. So basically, as the concrete changes and fluctuates with different temperature changes and things like that, these joints help stabilize the entire structure, but they didn't utilize those. So that led the entire structure being pretty inflexible and therefore also lent to its instability. A lot of oversight, a lot of whether it was intentional or not or whatever the hell, it clearly was not done properly. And Mahalind received a lot of shit for this. I mean, death threats, there were even signs posted throughout the entire valley saying like kill Mahalind, hang Maholand. People were like because of this guy, my whole family's dead.

And although Mahalind took complete responsibility for the failure, his career was utterly ruined and he retired later that year. No criminal charges were ever filed against him or any of the crew or anybody involved in the construction of the dam because this inquest and this investigation found that there was no criminal intent. What about negligence, though? I mean, there's not criminal intent behind negligence a lot of time, but you still... Well, something that I didn't get into at all really or deeply is, and if you're interested,

you can look into a couple of different things I'll have mentioned at the very end. But there was a lot of, like I said, shady dealings, shifty things going on. And part of that wasn't just stealing water from Owens Valley. it was kind of going through loopholes and getting around different regulations. And because they were building in kind of like this private municipal subset of like it wasn't regulated by there was no oversight. There was no regulations. They kind of just did whatever they wanted.

And yeah, like it wasn't just like somebody was like, I'm going to build a dam. Like they did have experience. that they just didn't do it. There was no federal oversight that they had to comply with. So there was not a lot of strict safety regulations or building codes or things like that at the time that they had to answer to. And that's kind of how they came in under budget, under their deadline. They kind of just like really got this together probably because they didn't have to

check all the boxes and report to people. and all of that. So I will say the disaster was obviously horrific, but because of all this and all of the, you know, getting around different safety measures and not adequately, you know, widening the base when they changed plans and things like that, it did eventually lead to stricter regulations,

including the California Dam Safety Act. So there was a little bit of... Something came out of it. Yeah. Something did come out of it. So among other things. I mean, there's other things too, and I just, I can't get into it. But, like, there's so many aspects to this story.

Yeah, I'm really trying to just, like, give you a taste of each little, each little thing. But so at this point, the St. Francis Dam is gone, except for one massive central piece of the dam. and it was nicknamed the tombstone. It became a morbid tourist attraction, and people came from all over the country to see the remains of the disaster and to collect different pieces of the dam to take home as like little souvenirs and things.

And this tombstone, I mean, it's giant. If you look up like St. Francis Dam tombstone, it's like this giant central piece of the dam that's just still standing straight up and down. And it still has... It's still there today. No. This is back.

This is 19. 29, 2829. Okay. So it still had those like big steps and everything like it was this huge piece of the dam and people were going there, climbing all over it, taking pictures of it,

doing all, you know, it was just this big tourist attraction. Oh yeah, I just looked up a photo of it and it's yeah, it's huge. It's huge. And one day one of these people going to explore it essentially.

He was 18 years old. He was climbing up on it and he fell. And he didn't die right away. He was transported to the hospital, but he did eventually pass away in the hospital due to that fall. So the city of LA was like that we can't have this anymore. Like it's already claimed hundreds and hundreds of lives and now people are still losing their life. So they basically blew it up with dynamite and it's completely obliterated. So it's no longer there. The last confirmed victim, of the flood was found in the 1950s, and the last suspected victim of the flood was found in 1994. Remains of people that are thought to have died in this flood are still being found in the area.

Well, up until 1994, but who knows? Wow. I mean, I was alive in 1994, so that's just, wow. Well, and if you think about it, just like how deep the layers of silt were and just, like, just like, you know, it's just, it's not hard to imagine that there is so much still buried in the valley and who knows, you know, what's going to. And the fact that it goes on for miles, you don't have a small. Fifty-four miles. Yeah. So the San Francisco, that's hard to say, the San Francisco Canyon today is very different from what was left in the immediate aftermath of the flood.

there are coyotes, cougars, black bears, cottontail rabbits, rattlesnakes, lizards, like, just some, those are just some of the fauna species that are living amongst the flora like sagebrush, cottonwood, and sycamores. You can actually hike to the site of the ruins of the St. Francis Dam, which as of right now is not very well marked, like you can't like just look it up on all trails and go. The road that led to the area was closed several years ago due to storm damage, but the old San Francisco Canyan Road is accessible to pedestrians and bicyclists. The trek is about 1.6 miles each way, and there have been memorial and informational boards placed throughout the area. Scattered throughout the canyon are still giant chunks of the concrete dam, and you can easily

visualize the path of destruction that billions of gallons of water, traveled in 1928. The St. Francis Dam National Memorial Foundation, which is a nonprofit, was established the same year as the National Monument, which like I mentioned earlier, was in 2019. And right now the Memorial Foundation is currently raising funds to build and maintain a visitor center and to construct a memorial wall that will have all of the known victim's names inscribed in it. And if you want to learn more about the dam, all the water wars, all the underhanded and shady behavior. There is a book called Flood Path, and there's also a book called Cadillac Desert,

and those are my recommendations for books regarding the subjects. And there's also, I didn't watch it just a forewarning. So I'm not going to recommend it because I don't know if it's good, but there is, but it exists. And there is a, it's fictional, but it's loosely based. on the California water disputes, and it stars Jack Nicholson. It's from the 1970s. Oh, interesting. Yeah, it's called Chinatown, if anybody is interested in that. If you want to learn a little bit about it, but also don't want to be inundated with, like, however long this just was, an hour and a half or whatever of facts and things like that,

if you just want to hear kind of about it and also be wrapped up in a fictional. more light-hearted story. There's that. If you want to watch that, and that's it. That's the St. Francis Dam disaster of 1928. Wow. Well, I'm glad you did this because I had never heard of it before, which is wild because it's such a horrific and huge incident.

But I feel like I learned a lot of history today, which is some of my favorite episodes that we do is learning about this crazy history that has happened. I'm excited that you pick this story. And it's also just very, I mean, water wars in California and in other places, especially in the Western United States, like, it's, I mean, water is everything, obviously. And it's an issue that we're going to see a lot of disputes over forever, I think. So to learn.

Especially with the West drying up, too. So to learn a little bit about kind of what has been done in the past and maybe what we could be looking at in the future, it's just, it's good to know this stuff. And, you know, you look at L.A. And it's like to think of it as this little, like, dusty, small kind of like town that no one really cared about to all of a sudden what it is now. Which is not a small town. You never look at it and be like, hmm, okay, well, geographically, where is this, how is this happening? Because there's no water here. Where is it coming from? You never think about it. And to be fair, I actually don't know where the water comes from right now. Where is the water coming from?

I don't know. I didn't have the mental capacity to look into that. I'm just telling you. It's like I just realized that I might want to know this. I actually don't know. But it's coming from somewhere and hopefully it's not being stolen from other people. And Owens Valley today actually, in the aftermath of this entire thing, it was a completely, it completely dried up. It was a complete wasteland. And so many of the community just went bankrupt,

had to move away. Like, they completely had their community ruined. I can imagine. I mean, if you can't have water, then you can't live there. but yeah that's really that's sad so that's all i know about dams and water for now and i feel like i learned a lot today about um engineering and i hope you did too i didn't shove everything i learned onto you because you'd be like all right daniel's school of engineering please join Well, yeah, that's it. And I hope that everyone maybe now, it's a trivia. It's like a bar trivia thing now.

It's like, what is the second greatest loss of life in California state history? You'll know. Now you're going to know. You'll know. Well, all right. All right. Well, on that note, we'll let you all go. We're like, okay, please shut the fuck up.

Like, I'm pegging you to fucking stop. Okay, we'll see you next time. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Thank you for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale you'd like to share, send us an email at NPAD Stories at gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Become an outsider by joining our Patreon where you'll gain access to monthly bonus stories and exclusive. content. And remember, when you support our partners, you're supporting our show. To access our special discount codes along with source information from today's episode, check out the show notes. For information on the show, to shop our merch store, sign up for our newsletter and more,

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