Photo No. 19 from The Newhall Land and Farming Co.'s March 24, 1928 report
on the March 12-13 St. Francis Dam Disaster.
Farmer Joe Gotardi (aka Gottardi), center, searches for the bodies of his dead wife
and five dead children on the "Blue Cut" property he leased from Newhall Land,
west of the decimated Edison Construction Camp. According to the text,
"It was in this field that Joe Gotardi had his home which was
carried away and from which he and only one of his daughters were saved.
Apparently they escaped when the house touched ground near Pepper Avenue.
... Opposite the Blue Cut Promontory on the south bank of the river,
the water seems to have attained its greatest depth anywhere on the [Newhall] Ranch
and as near as we could judge it reached a height of something like 60 feet ..."
Original caption by Almer M. Newhall reads as follows:
No. 19 Joe Gotardi — looking for the bodies of wife and children.
From Plate VII.
