At 11:57 Monday night, March 12, 1928, the St. Francis Dam gave way, resulting in one of the worst civil engineering catastrophes in U.S. history.  

Three hours and 12 minutes after the breach, the flood reached Santa Paula. 

By 4:30 Tuesday morning, with telephone and telegraph lines down, officials had turned to a 17-year-old boy, his Morse-code key, and his rudimentary homemade amateur radio station, call sign 6BYQ. 

The devastation downstream had been unimaginable. A towering wall of water roared down San Francisquito Canyon, destroying nearly everything in its path. As the flood turned west into the Santa Clara River Valley, it continued toward Piru, Fillmore and Santa Paula, ultimately taking more than 430 lives. 

11:57 p.m. — The dam collapses. 

12:45 a.m. — The flood exits San Francisquito Canyon and enters the Santa Clara River Valley. 

2:25 a.m. — The flood reaches the Fillmore Bridge. 

3:10 a.m. — The flood reaches Santa Paula. 

Around 4:30 a.m. — Seventeen-year-old Charles Primmer, amateur radio station 6BYQ, is at his homemade radio trying to get Santa Paula’s emergency traffic out. 

Before the destruction reached Fillmore and Santa Paula, emergency telephone warnings had gone out. Charles’ father,........

© Santa Clarita Valley Signal