| Parents: |
William R. Blades Margaret Mary Balder |
|
| Notes: | On February 26, 1932 water was running heavily on the roads in north central Washington, but they were all open except Blewett Pass. Rain fell steadily in Wenatchee |
| all morning. Severe flood conditions were forecast in Snohomish county, north of Seattle. The Sultan river, tributary of the Skykomish, rose six feet in eight hours the previous day and was steadily approaching flood stage.
The Snohomish and Stillaguamish rivers were also rising. Rains were continuing and the higher temperatures melted much snow on the lower levels of the Cascade foothills. The Washington State Highway
Patrol reported that the flood damage was the most serious in years. Despite the heavy rain of the previous two days, Seattle still lacked two inches of normal rainfall from January 1 to that date, due to a number of clear, dry days.
Unbeknownst to local residents at the time, logging debris began to clog a culvert installed by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railway during the construction of a bridge beneath a 175-foot berm over Boetzke Creek
designed to carry runoff from the mountainside through to Boxley Creek. The growing obstruction created an artificial dam that would burst under enormous water pressure from the torrential rain and snowmelt.
It was under these conditions that a torrent of icy water and debris-filled mud swept away part of the little community of Edgewick, crushing to death Josephine, along with her elder sister Rose Mary, mother Margaret, maternal grandmother Mary Balder, and three neighbors in a snowslide that engulfed their homes at Edgewick, King, Washington. The two little sisters and their mother were found dead among the logging debris hundreds of yards down Boxley Creek. The remains of their grandmother weren't recovered for a week. Josephine was only 7-1/2 months old. |
| Ancestry: | The Balder Line |
| The Johann "Hans" Kempa Line | |
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