Jeannette, Penn., July 6 - As a result of the braking of the Oakford Park dam yesterday, twenty persons are known to be dead and sixteen missing. The property loss in the valley will reach $1,500,000 and the distress is so great that outside relief will have to be asked for. From a happy, prosperous, contented valley this section in a single day has been transformed into a great household of mourning. Pretty homes have been wrecked and great workshops forced into idleness. Hundreds of men will be out of employment for several weeks. All day long hundreds of hands pulled away the great piles of debris strewn along the path of the torrent in the search for the missing residents of the valley. From time to time the search would be rewarded. While the search continued, other men were calling the citizens of Jeannette together to provide means of relief for the suffering residents of the valley. Dozens of families had been driven from their homes and were practically thrown upon the charity of the town. In a few minutes, $1,200 was raised. It was found, however, that this sum would not be sufficient. Jeannette wanted to care for its own needs and could have done so had not the merchants and business men generally been heavy losers. It was found that $5,000 was needed from outside sources. In Jeannette today, business was practically at a standstill, many of the stores had been flooded and many of the workshops were in the path of the torrent. To the throng of idle citizens were added great crowds of strangers who came here from all over Western Pennsylvania to see what happened. The curious all went to the morgue and fought for an opportunity to view the victims. Those who really had reason to go to the house of the dead could hardly fight their way though the throng. Then, too, a number of thieves came to make profit out of the morbid crowd. There was a great crowd of people assembled all day at the pile of wreckage heaped against the railroad embankment east of town and scattered over the bottom land. It was here that the great numbers of unrecovered bodies were supposed to be buried. During the night, men with lanterns picked their way over the wreckage looking for bodies. When morning came, a large force of volunteers went to work and a systematic search began. The workmen turned over every bit of wreckage and peered beneath it. By evening the men said that they had made a thorough search and no bodies remained in the debris, however, that other bodies will be found later. The heaviest money loss is at Jeannette. It is estimated that it will reach nearly a million dollars. At Penn the property damage is about $195,000 and at Irwin it amounts to a little over $100,000. | 
