[Newspaper]
Publication: The Long Beach Daily Telegram
Long Beach, CA, United States
vol. 23, no. 21, p. 9, col. 6-7
NORMAL CONDITIONS
IN FLOOD DISTRICTS
Waters Fall Rapidly Aided By Current
and Seepage-Glass Plant
Suffers Heavily
Storm waters in all parts of the city were reported to be rapidly subsiding today. Though the flats in the north part of the city resemble in some sections small lakes, the water is gradually seeping into the ground, in many parts of the industrial district a good quantity of the flood water has already disappeared.
Commissioner F. M. Cates today made a call on 18 Mexicans who were rescued an evening or so ago by Detective Earl Winters and other members of the police force from a two-story house at State street and San Francisco. These Mexicans are now stopping at a house at 1608 Cedar avenue. Commissioner Cates was notified that the Mexicans were in need of food and an investigation disclosed that the only food they had had was a bag of flour, from which was made tortillas. These tortillas were the only sustenance the unfortunate Mexicans had been able to procure. Commissioner Cates took the necessary steps to provide for the appeasement of their hunger.
Commissioner C. J. Hargis this afternoon stated that the pile driver was now at work on West Anaheim road. Piles will be driven into the ground to sustain the 60-foot bridge extension that is to be built at the second bridge on West Anaheim road.
Silt Deposit Small.
Municipal Dockmaster Glenn A. Wallace Wednesday afternon [sic] afternoon took soundings in the harbor to ascertain how much silt had been deposited by the storm waters. Much to his surprise he found that the storm waters had carried but a small amount of silt into the harbor. Near the California Ship-building company’s dock approximately five feet of silt had been deposited by the muddy waters flowing into the harbor from the flats.
The harbor in front of the municipal dock was practically free from silt. Dockmaster Wallace will make a report to the commissioners tomorrow regarding the soundings he made on Wednesday afternoon.
City officials believe that a large quantity of the silt washed away from the flats by the flood waters was carried westward and into the Wilmington and San Pedro harbor. It was at first feared that the dam constructed by the Dominguez estate would have a tendency to swerve the storm waters with their silt and mud into the local harbor. The breaking of the dam undoubtedly proved of benefit to the Long Beach harbor, but is said to have resulted disadvantageously to the Los Angeles body of water.
Officials Hard Workers.
Commissioner J. R. Williams and Fire Chief Eugene Shrewsbury are today recovering from the strenuous efforts they, made yesterday afternoon in preventing the infliction of damage on West Anaheim road by the flood waters. The commissioner and the fire chief constructed a raft or pontoon near the bridge at Gaspar. They launched it into the raging flood waters, controlling the raft with difficulty until they got under the bridge. Over two tons of refuse, such as piling that had been washed away from the trestles, had collected under the bridge and was damming the flood waters, which threatened every minute to destroy the bridge and the boulevard in that vicinity. For two hours and a half the city officials, aided by a city employee, continued their efforts in dislodging the piling and other refuse, and when they ceased their successful labors every muscle in their bodies was as sore as could be.
Commissioner Williams and Fire Chief Shrewsbury saved about 40 feet of the Anaheim boulevard near the Gaspar bridge. About 6 feet of this road was washed away by the storm waters.
Inspector William Wormley and other city officials who also participated in the damage-prevention work on Anaheim road finally became alarmed at the protracted absence of the public safety commissioner and the fire chief and instituted a search for them, thinking possibly that they might have met with a mishap in their labors. They were greatly relieved when the commissioner and fire chief made their appearance, completely fagged out from their strenuous labors.
Damage at Glass Works.
Fifteen thousand dollars is the estimated damage done to the buildings and premises of the California Glass Insulator Works by the recent floods which swept over the industrial district of Long Beach during the past few days, while traffic over the Long Beach-Wilmington boulevard has been completely suspended pending reparation of several washouts on the road.
At the glass works a stretch of ground fifty feet wide and running the length of the street frontage of the premises was washed out to a depth of ten feet or more. The filling of this ground alone would come to an expense of $14,000 or more, it was stated this morning.
The office of the glass works has been washed away and carried a distance of more than a hundred feet from its original site. A foot and a half of mud and silt was washed on the floors of the machine shop, while the corrosion of the implements will also add to the damage.
Work on the flume now being built just in front of the premises of the works is being rushed, while the county has placed a large force of men at work in repairing the washouts along the boulevard and repairing the wrecked bridges between Long Beach and Wilmington.
It was announced this morning that traffic over the P. E. railroad between Long Beach and San Pedro will probably be resumed late tonight or tomorrow morning.