Lower Otay and Sweetwater

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Lower Otay and Sweetwater​
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United States

The Lower Otay and Sweetwater dams were located in southern San Diego County , near the southern suburb of Chula Vista in the port and marine city of San Diego in California , USA. The dams broke in January 1916 after prolonged heavy rainfall. The figures for the number of fatalities at Lower Otay on January 27th vary between 12 and 50. At the same flood, the Sweetwater Dam partially broke (probably on January 25th); with probably 21 fatalities.

The Lower Otay Dam

The barrier structure of the first Lower Otay Dam was probably a gravity dam ; according to other reports it could also have been a rock embankment . The dam was built near Otay in 1897 as the third of ten dams in the San Diego area and was 46.6 m (154 feet) or 40 m high, 173 m long and probably had a structure volume of 107,000 m³. The reservoir held 13 (or 15) billion gallons (49 million cubic meters). The dam had no flood relief .

The Sweetwater Dam

The Sweetwater Dam ( location ) was a weight arched wall . It was completed in 1888 northeast of Otay and was 24 m (80 feet) high. It contained 6 billion gallons (23 million cubic meters). In 1897 it was increased to 27 m and in 1910 again to 33 m.

prehistory

In the five years before the break, there was hardly any rain and there was a lack of water. So the San Diego City Council accepted an offer from a rainmaker, Charles Hatfield , who promised to generate rain for a fee of $ 10,000 and to fill another nearby dam, the Morena Reservoir. He built a 6 m high tower near the Laguna Mountains and lit a fire there by chemical reactions, whereupon a heavy rain of several days actually began. It rained initially from January 10th to 18th or 20th. After a break of a few days there was another storm. The Morena Reservoir, which had never been more than a third full before, had, as promised, filled to five inches (12.5 cm) below the overflow edge with water. In those 26 days, 44 inches (1100 mm) of precipitation is said to have fallen.

The catastrophe

the broken Sweetwater Dam

However, the rain was so heavy that two other dams overflowed. The water in the Lower Otay Dam at times rose seven feet (2.1 m) in an hour. The dam broke and flooded the Otay Valley with 49 million m³ of water. The dam was almost completely washed away. The 40 to 50 foot (12 to 15 m) high tidal wave came 7 miles (11 km) to South San Diego Bay. The place Otay was destroyed, as well as other houses, farms, roads, bridges and railroad lines. After two and a half hours the reservoir ran out. The number of deaths is differently indicated as 12, 14, 20, 26, 30 or 50, the damage amount with 6 million US dollars. There were warnings before the break, including from riders who informed the residents of the impending break.

The water level in the Sweetwater Dam rose 40 inches (1 m) above the top of the wall and the load broke a 27 m wide section of the northern abutment (probably on January 25, 1916). This created a flood in the Sweetwater Valley that killed 21 people, most of them Chinese. According to other sources, the victims were Japanese Americans. Railway tracks were also torn away.

Aftermath

Two years later, a new dam, a gravity dam, was built on the site of the Lower Otay Dam. This was "Savage Dam" (Savage Dam) called.

Charles Hatfield did not receive his fee. On the one hand, the rain was believed to be force majeure, on the other hand it was held responsible for the damage that occurred. He led a trial against the city until 1938 and eventually lost it.

See also

literature

  • Clark Spense: "The Rainmakers"

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Herbert Lockwood: San Diego's Hysterical History: Fallout from the Skeleton's Closet . Coda Pub., Raton NM 2003, ISBN 0-910390-67-3 , The rainmaker, pp. 101-103 . ( Digitized at Google Books)
  2. ^ Buddhism in San Diego

Web links

Georeferencing Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap