The destruction of the dam drained the Lake McDonald reservoir and left the city of Austin without electrical power for a number of months.

As soon as the sections were broken out ... the partially pent-up waters rushed through the gap, those held back by [the intact section] producing a strong current in the direction of the power house.

This current struck the wall of the power house almost on a level with the floor of the pump room (about 12 feet below the crest of the dam), crushed in all of the windows on the west side, flooded all of the lower stories, and caught and drowned five employees and three small boys.

Two of the employees miraculously escaped by climbing through a belt hole in the dynamo room.

These workmen were pumping water from the lower portions of the power house.