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The Dam Disaster
The former dam in San Francisquito Canyon, part of the L.A. City aqueduct system, collapsed just before midnight Monday, March 12, 1928. Nearly 13 billion gallons of water rushed over sleepy residents from Saugus to the sea. An estimated 411 people perished in the flood. It was California’s second-deadliest disaster after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Here’s an excerpt from dam historian Alan Pollack’s “St. Francis Dam Disaster: An Extended Timeline” from the SCV History website:
“March 13, 1928, 12:03 a.m: Five minutes after the St. Francis Dam’s collapse, the now-120-foot-high (37 m) flood wave, having traveled 1-1/2 miles (2.4 km) at an average speed of 18 mph (29 km/h), destroys the heavy concrete Powerhouse No. 2 leaving only two turbines and claims the lives of 64 of the 67 workmen and their family members who lived nearby.