The Massive LA Disaster You've Never Heard Of

Water, water everywhere.

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Mortician: Caitlin Doughty
Additional Research: Remy Servis

This video was greatly informed by the book "Floodpath: The Deadliest Man-Made Disaster of 20th-Century America and the Making of Modern Los Angeles" by Jon Wilkman. Thank you Mr. Wilkman for your exhaustive research and insightful storytelling.

***MUSIC***

***SELECTED SOURCES***

Floodpath: The Deadliest Man-Made Disaster of 20th-Century America and the Making of Modern Los Angeles
Wilkman, Jon. Bloomsbury Press, 2016. New York.

"Destruction of a Dam (1928) St. Francis Dam"

"The 1928 St. Francis Dam Failure and Its Impact on American Civil Engineering"

"The Flood: St. Francis Dam Disaster, William Mulholland, and the Casualties of L.A. Imperialism"

San Francisquito Canyon and the St. Francis Dam

"St. Francis Dam" -- American Scientist

"On Occasions Like This, I Envy the Dead: The St. Francis Dam Disaster"

"Memorialization and Memory of Southern California's St. Francis Dam Disaster of 1928 (master's thesis)"

[melimsah]

I feel like this story needs to be taught in engineering classes, if it's not already. I remember my older brother saying someone at his school put up posters saying something like "If you cheat or cliff notes through your classes here, people die." And it's true.

[wildwilly]

My S.O.’s grandfather was a survivor of this disaster. Oliver Crocker. He was deaf in one ear for the remainder of his life after being thrown about underwater from the flood. He spoke a lot about the horror of it all. He lost many friends in this catastrophe and the images stayed with him for the remainder of his life. We inherited his photo albums, memoirs, and newspaper clippings regarding the Francisco Dam disaster after his death in 1990. An amazing man. We miss you, Ollie!

[keepcalmyouexist]

The reason I've heard of this is because as students of applied maths and physics, we all bitched that our mechs professor was obsessing over hydrostatics and safety coefficients. After he had us google pictures of the diagrams and the disaster, we all stf up. Because that's exactly the reason massive projects should be overengineered.

[bianca]

Johnstown, PA, 1889. The story of another flood of unimaginable proportions that could be done real justice by the compassionate, detailed, respectful storytelling of Ask a Mortician. Your work is truly incredible and shedding light these on subjects with kindness and genuine intelligence is much needed

[MissusAnon]

Dude, that guy that lost his wife and five of his children, I'm glad that at least his oldest survived and they had each other. I did some research and they both lived long lives.

[ariannagarcia]

This story is known among some immigrant communities in Los Angeles. I know my dad has told be about it repeatedly

[garyowen]

As a retired engineer, these are the things of my nightmares. My boss has a chunk of, now epoxy coated, failed col in his office. (Not our doing, or design, just found during a contracted inspection.)
“Upon inspection, I observed a deformed column, I immediately had the superintendent notify the authorities, and instructed the facility administrator to begin evacuation. I remained on-site until completed”. He’s my hero.
We had lunch after Surfside, things will certainly change. Unfortunately not everyone is as commanding of remedial action as they are.

[hiddencreekfarm]

I lived in LA from 1947-1983, graduated from UCLA with a history minor, and NEVER heard of the disaster. I recognized the name Mullholland from the road named after him and now I can't imagine why that famous road is named after a failed self-taught engineer!!

[definitiveenergy]

A dear friend of mine is the only person still living that was in the disaster. He still lives in Franklin, CA and he's a citrus farmer to this day, 96 years old.

[archer]

“I live in LA and I don’t even care about that.”

The way things are going, people living in Southern California had better start caring. And soon.
Water rights are going to become a big deal again .

[marylynn]

Native Iowan here! Thank you for donating to victims of the derecho. So many friends whose lives were literally torn apart... and because of many other (equally important) things in the news- many people don't even know of the destruction. Thank you for using your platform for so much good!! <3

[lesliecarr]

I've seen other documentaries about the Saint Francis Dam, but as far as I know, this is the most informative and comprehensive of them all, and Catlin Doughty has such a darling personality.

[FlorSilvestre]

Remember everyone: Regulations are written in blood.

[rocknreeny]

This is one of the saddest chapters in California history. When I studied California history in college, my professor referred to this incident as "the rape of the Owen's valley." It truly was a violent act, and totally unnecessary. Good video, Caitlin. Well done.

[TheRoguedisciple]

I'm surprised I've never heard of this. I grew up around LA and am a history buff. Thank you for this.

[joshuab]

My grandpa was like 8 years old. He told me he was swept away and only lived by holding onto a highway sign. When I was a boy he pointed it out to me. I wish I could remember the exact spot.

[nancyhartman]

Watching this was kind of surreal because My grandmother and mom lived through this. They lived in santa Paula and just made it out on time. My mom told me the stories my whole life. My grandmother must have gotten a warning because she told my mom to put her clothes on the bed. My mom was picking outfits and laying them on the bed cause she didnt know what was happening she was 12 or 13 year old kid. So mom says grandma comes in lifts all the clothes and throws them on the bed and then ties the four corners of the bedspread together takes it and mom out to the street. There were lots of unsung heroes that day and one of them was driving a truck around picking people up and getting them to safety. In my mom's case the man driving the truck was the first African American she had ever seen. It was a red letter day for mom. It affected her the rest of her life. She was a tremendously strong woman and didn't show any emotions but there were little clues that it still affected her. The big one being we had to have all the hangers in our closet facing in to make it easier to get them out, just in case of an emergency. When they went back to their house it was gone. My mom found one of her dolls in the mud and my grandmother found her sewing machine. Neither The family moved to Santa Paula from Arkansas when my mom was a baby and a lot of the other relatives eventually moved there too. There was only one of their houses still standing when it was over and the rest of the family had to move in there. There were tents in the backyard and the house was packed with people. It was the same all over town. At that time my grandmother was working at the Sunkist lemon packing house as a supervisor. With the crop damage and loss of workforce and housing shortage she said it was just chaos there for months. Sorry I'm writing so much. I havn't thought about this in years. We have quite a tragic family background and the flood isn't even close to the top of our tragedy scale. Thanks again for the video

[juliebrehove]

The fact that all this happened in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep makes this all the more terrifying to me. Those poor people were doomed.

[abigaildehn]

Imagine if Caitlin actually had a Netflix show and what she would be able to do with a bigger budget

[IveR]

One important thing I learned in my youth from my grandfather was "When you live near or are going to where there is a body of water, especially a river always check the weather upstream of the river your visiting. When your there if you hear rumbling or vibrations underneath your feet run to a high place asap, aka uphill away from the nearest water source as those are the first signs before you might get hit by rushing waters". His story came from experience as one day he was upstream & heard rumbling, felt vibrations & than saw bird fly like crazy. He said he ran like the devil was at his feet down river scream for everyone to run to higher land as his whole family & friends were having a picnic down river. He saved a bunch of people that day. Now I pay attention to the weather & for noises when im near a water source.