The TELEGRAM That SAVED 1,000 LIVES in 60 SECONDS (1915 Emergency)

Описание: March 1 1915 Wellington Washington. Telegram 60 seconds. Three words "Slide coming. Evacuate." 1,000 lives depended. Telegrapher violated orders sent anyway. Supervisor tried stop following policy. Telegram created largest evacuation Pacific Northwest saved nearly everyone avalanche buried town 43 minutes later. Telegrapher fired. Monument erected 30 years later. Supervisor lived knowing technically correct morally catastrophic.

WHAT HAPPENED
Wellington 3,000 feet Cascade Mountains
Great Northern Railway 1,000 people
Winter 1914-1915 exceptional snow 400 inches
February 23 avalanches blocked two trains stopped
Seattle Express Spokane Local 150 passengers crew stranded six days

CRISIS
March 1 warm rain 3,000 feet
Snowpack absorbed water heavier
Weak layer formed could slide
Foremen reported slope unstable
Station master meeting 2 PM

DECISION
Superintendent Donald Jackson opposed evacuation
Policy protect property don't panic
Previous slides never hit Wellington forest protection
Telegraph operator James Bascom 23 lived Wellington wife infant daughter
Watched rain slope sliding continuously

WARNING
3:17 PM foreman arrived
"Going go. Whole face. Seen Alaska. Take everything."
Procedure required supervisor approval
Unauthorized evacuation dismissal blacklisting
Bascom family support jobs not easy 1915
Violating superintendent career suicide

TELEGRAM
3:43 PM Bascom told wife pack
3:45 PM sent Seattle "Slide coming. Evacuate."
Violated protocol not authorized
Seattle dispatcher assuming authorized issued evacuation
3:47 PM return "Evacuation authorized. Clear town."

CONFRONTATION
3:52 PM Jackson confronted Bascom fired ordered stop
Bascom refused Jackson moved countermand
Foreman stepped "Let him send it."
"Worked mountains twenty years. Slope slide. Stop evacuation killing everyone. Not watching."
Jackson authority foreman expertise
Evacuation proceeded not officially sanctioned

EVACUATION
1,000 people rain snow 43 minutes chaos
Workers crews families downslope
Some refused others panicked
Trains couldn't moved no authorization

AVALANCHE
4:28 PM released several million tons
80 mph breaking forest
Buried Wellington 40 feet snow
Pushed trains 150 feet buried

TOLL
96 dead hadn't evacuated couldn't reach
Jackson stayed trains protect property
Workers stayed operate
Families didn't believe couldn't get out
Passengers stayed belongings

SURVIVORS
904 survived evacuated
Evacuation 38 minutes
Margin 5 minutes
Avalanche 43 minutes after telegram 38 after evacuation
Jackson stopped would been 1,000 not 96

AFTERMATH
Bascom fired March 2 insubordination unauthorized
Blacklisted railroad general store Seattle
Never spoke except wished sent earlier
Investigation Jackson proper procedure avalanche unforeseeable
No fault policy unauthorized not condoned
Railroad couldn't operate workers violated orders

MONUMENT
1945 thirty years survivors monument
96 names "Saved by three words"
Bascom name below
Attended left ceremony died 1952

QUESTIONS
Should Bascom sent obviously yes saved 900
But before avalanche violated orders one foreman against superintendent
Hadn't come Bascom worker chaos cost thousands
Should Jackson allowed obviously yes
But Jackson responsibility operations property panic decades procedures
Evacuating every dangerous impossible railroading
Previous hadn't hit forest protection
Conservative operational decision

Wellington 1915 deadliest avalanche US history
Great Northern abandoned rerouted longer tunnel
Renamed Tye too associated disaster
60 seconds three words 43 minutes impact
96 dead 904 saved
Fired insubordination prevented massacre
Dead following procedures would killed everyone
Neither wrong standards judged
Both right wrong standard mattered survived

LOCATION: Wellington Washington Cascade Tunnel Tye River

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