The floodwaters stopped just inches from the family home, said Rice, who is looking forward to riding a Fillmore & Western Railway train to Santa Paula with other survivors on Sunday.The heroic efforts of the motorcycle officers saved hundreds of lives before their wild ride that night was stopped at 3:05 a.m. when the 30-ft. high wall of water swept through Santa Paula on its way to the ocean. “The Warning” depicts that specific moment in time.While the wild motorcycle ride was occurring, switchboard operator Gipe and the rest of the “Hello Girls” bravely stayed at their post knowing only that the wall of water was over 100 feet high when it left the dam.They had no way of knowing how high the floodwaters would be by the time they reached Santa Paula: they only knew that their neighbors must be warned.“All was confusion in Santa Paula as whistles blew, sirens screamed and horns honked,” said John Nichols of the Sespe Group, author of “The St. Francis Dam Disaster.”Fire Chief Sam Primmer also rode “madly around town on his motorcycle calling to sleeping residents to abandon their homes and head for higher ground. Many looked at the cloudless sky, thought it was a prank and went back to sleep. They did not live to regret it,” noted Nichols.Primmer’s 17-year-old son, Charles, broadcast all day on his ham radio set to lighten the telephone switchboard load. The American Red Cross broadcast appeals for help over Primmer’s set.Nick Baxter of Santa Paula, a disabled WWI veteran, made the first rescue before daybreak when he plunged into the chilly water at Harvard and Barkla streets and rescued Soledad Luna, an 11-year-old girl lodged in a walnut tree. “His record for that first day of the disaster was three lives and three bodies,” said Nichols, who will be the featured speaker at the March 16th event.These are just a few of the many acts of heroism that the monument honors.Donations to the project can be made to the Santa Paula Community Fund (memo to SFD Project) and mailed to SFD Memorial c/o Santa Clara Valley Bank, 901 E. Main St., Santa Paula, CA 93060.
‘The Warning’ monument to be unveiled at St. Francis Dam Disaster commemoration
March 14, 2003
Santa Paula News
The spirit of heroism will be lauded this Sunday when “The Warning,” the forged steel sculpture by Eric Richards created to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the St. Francis Dam Disaster, will be unveiled on Sunday.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesThe spirit of heroism will be lauded this Sunday when “The Warning,” the forged steel sculpture by Eric Richards created to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the St. Francis Dam Disaster, will be unveiled on Sunday.The sculpture is the first monument of the St. Francis Dam Memorial Project spearheaded by the Santa Paula Historical Society.“The Warning” will be unveiled and a memorial tree dedicated on March 16th at 2 p.m. The ceremony will start with a program at the Depot Gazebo on Santa Barbara Street and then be moved across 10th Street where the forged steel statute will be unveiled. A reception will follow at the Depot.Many survivors of the disaster will be in attendance at this historic event.“The Warning” depicts two police officers riding a Harley Davidson and Indian motorcycle in the act of warning the sleeping citizens to higher ground as the devastating floodwaters swept through parts of Santa Paula in the early morning hours of March 13, 1928. The St. Francis Dam collapsed just minutes before midnight on March 12th, releasing a torrent of water that swept away everything in its path from Saugus to the Pacific.Many stories of heroism and courage have been told and retold over the past 75 years since an urgent message of imminent disaster reached night telephone operator Louise Gipe in Santa Paula and was quickly relayed to police officers Thornton Edwards and Stanley Baker, city officials and then homes in the lower portions of town.Among the many heroic acts that evening were those of Edwards and Baker who rode through the night to warn the sleeping citizens in the low-lying areas that a torrent of water was about to inundate their homes.Joe Bravo was 10 years old and remembers Edwards waking the family and telling them to flee to higher ground: although the Bravo home escaped the flood waters, his aunt and two cousins were lost in the disaster. There was no trace ever found of Bravo’s relatives or their home.“Our orchards were lakes,” said Janice Rice. “I was 9 years old and remember it well; my brother, who was 3, cried out and Dad went to see what he wanted. . .when he pulled the string on the light he saw a wave coming across the bottom of the field and then the electricity went off.”Rice said the floodwaters had “an awful stink. . .”