Editing Santa Paula, California (section)

==== St. Francis Dam Disaster ====
{{Main|St. Francis Dam#Collapse and flood wave}}

The failure and near complete collapse of the [[St. Francis Dam]] took place in the middle of the night on March 12, 1928. The dam was holding a full reservoir of 12.4 billion gallons (47 billion liters) of water that surged down San Francisquito Canyon and emptied into the Santa Clara River. The town was first hit by the waters at approximately 3:00&nbsp;a.m. Though hundreds of homes and structures were destroyed, the loss of life would have been greater if it were not for two motorcycle police officers that noisily warned as many people as possible.<ref>(March 12, 2008) [http://www.vcstar.com/news/2008/mar/12/the-st-francis-dam-disaster-80th-anniversary-a/ "St. Francis Dam disaster: A tale of failure, tragedy and heroism"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140522055141/http://www.vcstar.com/news/2008/mar/12/the-st-francis-dam-disaster-80th-anniversary-a/ |date=May 22, 2014 }} ''[[Ventura County Star]]''</ref> A sculpture called "The Watchers" in downtown Santa Paula depicts this act of heroism.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://m.santapaulatimes.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/31744/The_Warning:_Famed_Santa_Paula_statue_warns_passersby_about_COVID-19!_______.html|title=The Warning: Famed Santa Paula statue warns passersby about COVID-19!|date=March 31, 2020|newspaper=Santa Paula Times|language=en-US|access-date=April 1, 2020|archive-date=January 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124090455/http://m.santapaulatimes.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/31744/The_Warning:_Famed_Santa_Paula_statue_warns_passersby_about_COVID-19!_______.html|url-status=live}}</ref>