MUSEUM COLLECTION TELLS TALE OF DISASTER; DAM BURST OF 1928 SWEPT TRAGEDY, HEROIC RESPONSE DOWN SANTA CLARA RIVER VALLEY.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Vintage photographs and newspaper accounts document the vast devastation caused when the St. Francis Dam burst, but one item in a museum exhibit further enhances the sadness of that calamity 70 years ago.

A black crayon rubbing of a granite tombstone from Santa Paula Cemetery bears the inscription, in Spanish, of a family wiped out on that fateful night and the sentiments of the victims' loved ones.

``In Memoriam: In this tomb are buried the mortal remains of Mrs. Mary Perez, 48 years of age, and her children and grandson - Antonia Perez, 24 years of age; Jesus Perez, 22 years of age; and Andres Perez, 7 years of age - who died in the tragic flood of March 13, 1928,'' the gravestone reads. ``To their memory this monument is dedicated.''

The dam in San Francisquito Canyon, north of Saugus, failed at 11:57 p.m. March 12, and by dawn the floodwaters had reached the Pacific Ocean in Ventura. Along the way, the 12-billion-gallon torrent, traveling between 10 mph and 18 mph, killed an estimated 450 people and carried off everything in its path.

Dam Break: Heroes and Survivors, an exhibit at the Santa Paula Union Oil Museum, recounts - through artifacts, archival records, news clippings, audiotape stories from survivors, snapshots and panoramic photographs - the magnitude of death and destruction left in the disaster's wake.

The exhibit opened Feb. 8 and has been extended through May 3.

Curator John Nichols spent several months gathering items for the exhibit, borrowing from private collections and archives of local residents, museums and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which built and operated the dam. Nichols, a past president of the Santa Paula Historical Society, said the scope of the tragedy is hard to comprehend even after all these years.

``It's grisly and it's chilling,'' he said. ``The suddenness of this disaster makes it almost otherworldly. It was like an apparition that comes in the middle of the night. Some people are saved and some are swept away - almost like a nightmare, except it's real.''

True to its theme, the exhibit spotlights the noble deeds of ordinary townsfolk who helped save scores of lives by springing into action. Among them were the so-called ``Hello Girls,'' telephone operators who worked at an exchange in Santa Paula.

``The townspeople fled to the hills, leaving the dark town with no one to waken the sound sleepers, but the telephone girls stuck to their posts to carry the warning messages,'' one 1928 newspaper clipping reads.

A display tells of the exploits of Louise Gipe, the night operator on duty at the telephone exchange. She was alerted by officials in Los Angeles that the dam had broken and the flood was headed to Santa Paula. Gipe called everyone she knew who lived in low-lying areas, urging them to evacuate.

By 3:30 a.m., Gipe was joined by fellow operator Bertha Clark, who came to work even though her home had been destroyed. Shortly afterward, co-worker Margaret Osborn arrived, and ``the three operators worked by candlelight, giving warnings and answering questions,'' the display said.

Photos and clippings recall a March 19 funeral for 14 flood victims. Hundreds of local women made seven truckloads of flower wreaths for the service, which drew 2,500 mourners to Santa Paula Cemetery.

Elizabeth Munger Blanchard, 80, was among those who marked Thursday's 70th anniversary by visiting the museum. Coroner's officials at the time noted that the bodies of the flood victims were heavier than the people had weighed in life, because they had swallowed so much mud and debris, the Santa Paula resident noted.

``Somebody said the undertaker's main job was using a garden hose to clean the mud off the bodies,'' Blanchard said.

A 60-foot-long wall of the museum has been painted with a chronological time line that illustrates the flood's 54-mile march to the sea. After coursing south down San Francisquito Creek and emptying into the Santa Clara River, the deluge headed west, reaching the Ventura County line at 1:18 a.m.

By 2:20 a.m., the water was streaming through Fillmore, and by 3:05 a.m. it had hit Santa Paula. At 5:25 a.m., it could go no farther, flowing into the Pacific Ocean in Ventura.

``The ocean, from the mouth of the river, is brown with mud,'' one newspaper account said.

A woman who was 23 at the time remembered the terrifying but unstoppable approach of the flood. ``That water . . . sounded like a big, magnified ocean wave,'' said Nell Reed Anlauf in a quote from the exhibit.

THE FACTS

WHAT: Dam Break: Heroes and Survivors, an exhibit commemorating the 1928 collapse of the St. Francis Dam.

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday until May 3.

WHERE: The Santa Paula Union Oil Museum, 1001 Main St., Santa Paula.

COST: Admission is free, donations welcomed.

PHONE: [phone].

NOTE: To get to the museum: take the Santa Paula Freeway (Highway 126) to the 10th Street/Highway 150 exit. Street construction next to the museum has forced road closures, so follow detour signs east on Harvard Boulevard and north on Ojai Street. Parking is available to the rear of the museum.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

PHOTO (Color in Simi and Conejo Editions only) Museum curator John Nichols created a wall exhibit showing the devastation of the 1928 St. Francis Dam spill.

Tina Gerson/Daily News