Powerhouse Number Two

The turbine-driven power generation plant of DWP faced an unstoppable foe as you approach the corner and bend in the canyon where the pipes swept water downhill to create electricity in the 1920s.

Five minutes after the collapse and three minutes after midnight, after having traveled 1-1/2 miles at an average speed of 18 mph, the now-120-foot-high flood wave destroys the heavy concrete Powerhouse No. 2 — leaving only the two turbines formerly at the base of the long riveted pipes that brought the turning power at a controlled and efficient rate via water release from the reservoir. When the floodwaters sweep through with a force hard to imagine, they snatch the souls of 64 of the 67 workmen and their family members who lived in the narrow surrounding canyon. 

The 120 foot wall of water ripped the riveted piping off the canyon wall and dwarfed the 6 story tall building, washing it away completely, leaving only two the turbines that generated the electricity behind, one of them glowing brightly red after the force of the floodwaters had gone through.

The canyon is particularly narrow in this area and switches back and forth with steep faces on either side.  The powerhouse consisted of two very large pipes running down a severe slope to the riverbed below through which water from the elevated reservoir would pass and rapidly spin two large turbines and generate electricity in doing so.  By regulating the flow of water, the rate of electricity generation could be controlled and optimized using gravity and some early twentieth century heavy machinery and ingenuity. 

Lyman Curtis, who helped top build roads during and after the dam's construction, and his wife Lillian notice a strange mist in the air and concluded the dam has collapsed and they have only minutes to escape. Lillian, her son Danny and the family dog head for high ground while husband Lyman went back into their house to gather daughters Marjorie and Mazie. Only Lillian and Danny survive as father and daughters are caught by the flood.. 

Ray Rising, a utility man from the powerhouse, also is awakened and faces a 10-story-high wall of water. Swept into the floodwaters, he manages to climb onto a floating rooftop, which transports him to safety. He is the only other survivor at this power plant.  In his words when interviewed after the tragedy

“We were all asleep in our wood-framed home in the small canyon just above the power house. I hear a roaring like a cyclone. The water was so high we couldn't get out the front door. The house disintegrated. In the darkness I became tangled with an oak tree, fought clear and swam to the surface. I was wrapped with electrical wires and held by the only power pole in the canyon. I grabbed the roof of another house, jumping off when it floated to the hillside. I was stripped of clothing but scrambled up the razorback of a hillside.”