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P. R. O. N. Tv brings you a special film report of New Year. In yuba city 1955 for northern California and a wet Christmas and a muddy new year for a few days before christmas a storm hit our coast, bringing with it a warm rain fell

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heavily in the Sierras. It ran off like quicksilver and values down valley. The twin cities of Marysville and yuba city bore the full brunt of the wall of water at the junction of the Feather and the yuba rivers. Aid was rushed immediately from all quarters and

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the helicopters got their first choppers from the Air Force, the Army, the Navy, the Coast Guard and from private companies descended on yuba city on errands of mercy. They lifted people from trees from rooftops, they dropped rubber rafts and supplies. They flew right around the clock.

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Marysville was expected to be flooded first, but it's Levee's held although it took emergency workers with sandbags to do it. The rampaging feather river burst the levees at shanghai bend on the west Bank just south of yuba city. This happened shortly after midnight christmas Eve Marysville

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had already been evacuated in the early afternoon with many of its people cling to what they thought was safety in human city. When the levee gave way, the water rushed through the break is through a nozzle and plunge northward along an old slow then into residential

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yuba city and out into farming and orchard lands In a matter of minutes a wall of water five ft high rolled across the frightened city crushing homes and business buildings like match would or moving them completely off their foundations. 280 homes in Yuba City were entirely

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demolished, 1500 suffered major structural damage. Another 4500 was slightly damaged and made unfit for occupancy. It was one of the worst flood disasters in the history of the United States. The people fled taking with them whatever they could sometimes useless things caught up at the last

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minute. But the flight to the higher ground to the west was reported. There was no panic, police control, the rapid evacuation smoothly and official, everyone pitched in to help when a man's house is on fire. You don't ask his religion, his color or his politics. You

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grab a bucket and this spirit abounded in the flooded areas. The red cross was there, The Salvation Army, the Boy Scouts, the National Guard, the Public health Service and many of the we sent a camera crew up to yuba City over the New Year's weekend to

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look and to talk to the people. Kr Owens, Director of public Affairs tom milady was on the spot. This is where it all started. This is the feather river and we're on the levee at yuba city, just south of yuba city you see in the background,

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the celebrated now celebrated shanghai bend of the You've a levee right down there in the background just to breast those tugs that you see now is where the levee gave way last friday night, early saturday morning the thugs are bringing up from down river, One of

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the first items of river traffic coming north, hydraulic dread, which will pump out silt and sand from the far shore of the feather river, pump it into the break in the levee down there and to help shore up some of the new levy work, which is

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in process right now will eliminate the Ben that you see in the levy. Now you see where a lot of the floodwaters have eroded the levee this side of the break, the noise in the background and competition with us. Many items of heavy equipment which are

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working around the clock 24 hours a day to repair this break in the levee and build a new levy for Yuba City. To prevent a recurrence of last week's tragedy, the Army Corps of Engineers beale Air Force Base the uh aviation engineers from Bill, private construction

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companies, the various levee districts up here in yuba yuba city Marysville, Sutter and yuba counties. Private construction gangs all are pitching in to mend the break in the levee and to prevent a recurrence of the tragedy that we've already seen struck these people just beyond and

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to our right you can see some of the now drive a devastated farmland just beyond the level some of these people live very much like Hollander's do crouched behind a large dike and in peril. Almost all the time when the water rises of being inundated. It

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happened this way Last week? Last Friday night, about midnight to 1:00. Heavy water. The high water was sluicing right down through here. Feather river very rapidly. It eroded the far bank in the bend there and burst through the dike, Digging a tremendously deep channel. It's estimated

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at 40 or 50 ft and then sluiced, gushing its way across the low lying farmland, sweeping away houses, devastating fields, orchards, overturning buildings. Mhm, crippling the utilities And Regrettably killing about 25 Yuba City and Center county president during daylight hours, Yuba city residents busy themselves with

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getting the modern the debris out of their homes for many of them it is a heartbreaking task. Yeah, mm hmm. Ah mm. This is one of the homes of Mrs Ernest Mayfield here in yuba city. I see Mrs Mayfield working mucking out as they say, getting

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rid of some of the silt and debris that has been the aftermath of the flood. Mrs Mayfield. Mr Mayfield, would you come down here for a moment please? We'd like to have a few words with you. This I understand is one of the two houses which

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you and your husband. Oh yeah, we have a soldier and his wife here and I can have them come out. Well we'll ask him to come out in just a moment but I'd like to ask you a few questions first. How long have you been here?

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Well we have lived here at this house For almost 13 years. Uh when when did you first get noticed that Yuba City was in danger and you might have to leave? Well we didn't have too much notice as they had been concerned about Mary still but

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and it had been so bad but I think we had possibly half hour's notice. Uh Where was your husband at this time? Well he had been he is with parker contractor which does levee construction and he was had been on that. However he had gotten a

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call that a call had came through that they needed help and he had gone there to see if he could help with the break. That that was the levee that finally gave way the levee that gave away and they couldn't use him. So he came home

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immediately to help get us out. That was friday night late I guess yesterday morning about 12 12 30. And we think that we left about one just ahead of the rest of the. And where did you go? Well we went to Sutter California. You have relatives

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there? Yes I have friends and relatives there and we were able to move in with my nephew who had a small house. There were two families of us moved in. We were very lucky. Yes we were did you did you take along your tenants? Yes we

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took our tents because they were living in our little house and they knew they really didn't know where to go or where to go to? Uh Well we've seen some of the excellent work that Bill Air Force Base aviation engineers have done to help dig out

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yuba city. And some of the wonderful work that they have done. It's a blessing that airplane or aviation engineers are in this vicinity because they had all of the manpower and equipment that was necessary to cope with the flood. It was just a blessing that that

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activity was here. I understand they did wonderful work and I'd like to wonder if the word origins are inside. There might be they are working at something. Come on here she is now. This is mrs very Dorn and her husband, Mr Paradorn who's a PFC with

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the aviation engineers here at Beale Air Force Base. What happened to you folks when you heard about this great flood of water coming in? Were you terrified? Well we're from Iowa and we've never seen much like it before. Water is pretty scarce in Iowa. We started

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packing up our things friday afternoon already. These things that we wanted to get out in case the flood came. And of course we were awfully worried. As I say, we've never been through anything like this and the river started rising. Why? We didn't know we wanted

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to get out trying to cut out. Uh you went along with Mrs Mayfield. Are there are cards. Are there any little for Dorn's Yes, we have two Children. Two Children are they out out of town safe now. Well, they have been that we've had a girl

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taken care of. In fact, it's Mrs Mayfield daughter in law that's been taking care of them and she called this morning and she thinks she's got the mumps holy smoke. Another Well, we have the Children out. So you brought the youngsters with you? Well, we'd certainly

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like to see them. We didn't want to get him in this mess if we didn't have. Yes, I don't blame you. Well, we'd like to see the younger adorns before we move on and talk to someone else. See the ordering youngsters around their way in. Hi,

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sweetie, how are you? And what's this young lady's name? Can you tell him your name? Say Susan. It's Susan. Well, you'll have to do that. My remote control And this young man is that's mike mike two of the youngest flood victims here in the yuba city

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area. Very cute kids. And what are your plans? The two of you now for, you know, we're going to try and find a another place to live for the time being and try to get this cleaned up everything straightened away. Well, that's the kind of spirit

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that we found all over europe. A city. Thanks very much for talking with drying out mud soaked rugs, batting and clothing are among the first things to do? Water is unsafe to drink And sanitary facilities are makeshift. Mhm Yeah, mm hmm. I think one of the

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most unusual things that happened when the flood crest came in, broke through the levee at shanghai bend. The water slows down this way picked up this house which belongs to this young man's father. I understand this is Don kurt incidentally moved it down about three houses

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deposited right on top of Dons automobile. Some of these um tragedies uhh have their grim humorous side. One of them being that Dons friends have accused him of trying to put his daddy's house on his car. Take it out of town with him. Don, would you

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come out here for a moment? These are the these are the curt bois and uh one of their in laws here Tom Mcdaniel. Would you tell us Don and bob, this is Don here, this is bob Tom Mcdaniel, This young man with the National Guard here

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is Bill Kurt Kurtz and Mcdaniel. We'll make you the spokesman Don. Would you tell us what happened how this unusual thing came to happen? Well, when they flood hit, we was working on the levee right directly behind our house that you and your, me and my

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brother and my father, the other boy was international guards already. And when they told us they broke, we run like the dickens to get to our cars, which is at the courthouse and came down and got the wife and babies and mother and father out of

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the house and took off and went to Colusa. And they say that 20 minutes after we left the house, that water was at our house after we left it. You didn't arrange it that way. But it was pretty close, I'm afraid not. Well now, now that

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the water has gone away and the big job is rehabilitating things, how do you kurt boys feel about it? What's the first big item for? You? Could have been worse. Could have been worse. I've been worse. Uhh after you've gotten the damage under control here, What

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are your plans? Well, we're going to plan to tear the house down and mood pieces back and rebuild it. Incidentally, this house that you see right behind you now, it was about one of the passersby was shouting to kurt boys. This house was down about three

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houses and it was lifted bodily right up off its foundation, brought out here by the flood deposited on top of dan's car. I understand that Bill here was very This is Bill, this young man down here. Excuse me, fellas, you were very active in some of

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the flood relief work here. And they told me that you've been cited for a medal. Could you give us some indication, deference to your modesty? What kind of work you did that gave rise to this citation? Well, I don't think I don't even more than anybody

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else did. And except for me. And a few months later we did get a man out of the water coming down down 10th street bridge. It was from the cat. Was he? He was in a cast you say from the waist down. Was he clinging onto

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something? And was he riding on something? Riding on the board, riding on a board? And did you you and your friends swim out into the flood water? You were in a boat and you got him out. Huh. Well it's a spirit like that. Things that people

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rise to an emergency. That is the most heartening fact about this whole yuba city disaster. I want to thank you boys for being with us today. Incidentally, I want to get a word from Thom Mcdaniel here tom. What do you do here in town? Oh mostly

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Tom is one of the, the students at the local yuba City high school. He tells me that he was sitting home one door down when this thing happened. He finally got out and got to safety wearable staying Now staying at my place in Oliver's. That's across

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the river just south of Marysville. Well, good luck to you fellas. Yes, in the glove all keep smiling. Exactly. Mhm. For most of the men of yuba city, the disastrous twofold damage to home and damage to business. Yuba city is a small town and many of

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its businesses is small. Often one man operation and here the tragedy becomes more personal, mm. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The proprietor of Malta's auto electric shop, one of Yuba City's small businesses is mr Ben Maltz. I see he's been cleaning up here. This is mr Ben

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Maltz. How are you sir? As well as can be expected. Uhh would you tell me please sir how long you have lived here in Yuba City? Uh opened this business in 50 January 1950. Do you live nearby? That is nearby? Your business next door right next

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door. And you live there with your wife, any Children living with you know sir, were you and your wife at home? That fatal evening last Friday around midnight I'm afraid we was uh and when you got word that the levy had broken or when you found

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out that the water was endangering your business in your home, what did you and mrs most do. Well the neighbors, uhh wife came over, her husband was out on the job somewhere and they I had no way to get out. And we when they had the

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car in the garage and enough room to take anything with us because it was too little girls herself And for 15 year old boy. And so we had to leave everything and hopes take them just as we come out the while the water hit and he

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drove up with his car and picked up his family, we went to the garage and back to our car out and the water was hired by that time. They'd run up the exhaust pipes and start smothering out her engine. But we didn't make it after blowing

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a muffler and the sheriff or somebody was out on the garden highway emotional for us to come. Uhh follow them. We followed them out to second street and headed for the beauty, headed for the high ground, headed for high ground. You didn't have time to close

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up your shop? No sir. We didn't have time to shut the doors and that's one of the reasons I suppose that so much water damage has occurred inside the shop. Well I suppose so. But it raised to it just exactly a five ft level and there's

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just enough to cover all the equipment. Would have enough to come in on coming in the windows anyway I suppose. Yes. Well, mr. Maltz now that the waters have gone back somewhat and you've been able to get some assessment of the damage. What are your plans

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now? You and this is most Well, all we can do is clean house and Hope to start all over again. May I ask you sir, if it's not too personal question, how old the man you are, 67 67. I think this is another example of tremendous

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courage. People of yuba city man who should be taking it easy. Sunset years of his life is ready to pull up his socks and start getting his business together again and uh this being New Year's Eve. Do you have any plans for this evening? Yes sir.

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Yes sir. We'll work to document your home. Go to bed. Very good, thank you very much. And good luck to you. Mr Venmo. Yeah. Mhm. We talked to several people in yuba city about how they were evacuated like a blood press finally came down upon them.

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A levee broke. We haven't talked to anyone in Marysville, a sister city across the yuba river which was actually the first city believed to be in danger. Most people here in Marysville evacuated the city and in a very orderly fashion around noon last friday. And here

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is mrs mary mayor um 10 29 Yuba Street in Marysville. And I'd like to ask her just what happened to her when she first got the notice to evacuate Marysville yuba city. This is mayor. When did you first hear that you had to evacuate 12:30 PM

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just after noon on Friday. And what did you do when you got that word? Well, I had already put blankets in the car. I finished dressing the kids warmly and took off for yuba city. Now when you got over to yuba city, what did you do

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that you feel that you were safe when you got to yuba city? Well it wasn't as much that I thought I was safe as we had relations over there and friends over there and we stopped at their house. We felt yes that we would be safe.

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And how long did you stay there with your friends place here? Well, until about 1:30 PM when the order was given to evacuate the city. Then you had to get out now then we had to get out in a hurry. I see the Children are all

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here. This is what we see now. This is nancy and Helen thomas over there. Hi thomas. Uh huh. The dog is flagging. How did the Children behave during this whole Well on the trip over and out of yuba city and Marysville, they were very, very good.

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They seem to know that they needed to be good. That I needed them to be good and they behaved very well. Funny. How about on the way back from Williams? It was I think you finally they were fine except they were getting very anxious to get

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home. They knew that our house was dry and we had nothing to worry about. As far as a place to stay and they were very anxious to get home to their daddy to. Did you find that Santy claus found your place? All right. Even though the

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flood came. Uh huh. Uh huh. Very good. Thank you very much. Mrs Mayor, thank you Children yuba City's Mayor glen go She gave tom Malaysia rundown on the city's conditions. Right, okay. Bill, I'll call you back. All right, thank you. Well tom ladies and gentlemen, I

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can give you a quick rundown on the current situation here in yuba City, as you undoubtedly know, the the extreme emergency phase has ended and we have entered the readability, the rehabilitation phase to reconstruct and reorganize and rehabilitate our community. The present status of the city

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is as follows. We have, it has been necessary to maintain a curfew from five PM in the evening to seven a.m. In the morning. And I would like to say that it is an amazing sight to see that the people of our community at seven o'clock

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in the morning just Uhh coming in and drove with their cars and at 5:00 PM, the, the sight of seeing them gathering all together and going out of town again, we have had their complete cooperation in in a and they're coming into town during the daytime

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to clean up and rehabilitate and leaving their homes again at night in closing. I would like to say that to me the the most important thing has been the courage of the of these people. It is just, it is just unbelievable and amazing the way our

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own people have been able to cope with this situation and come in and drag these things out of their homes and set something out on the lawn and stand there and smile and look at it and go back and get another piece furniture and believe me

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to me, I believe the courage is that our people have shown has been the outstanding ah the outstanding factor in this entire situation. Thank you very much. Mhm. What's a girl? Yeah. Mhm. The public health situation in yuba city is good. There's no hint of epidemic

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and this is largely due to water and sanitary precautions and to prompt typhoid inoculations for all of its citizens, large and small alike. Some of the small ones seem willing, some anxious, some downright hostile to the whole idea. You see that? Yeah. Because they're coming up

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here now. Come on, come on. Really. Yeah. Yeah. Come back here. Yeah. We have to have Yeah. Oh they've got to see you over keep Yeah. You don't want Yeah. No, they're going to be over with. Right, okay. Oh, okay. The immediate clearing of spoiled food

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and debris from burning and burial is another mosque for public health, private and public trucks and equipment have been pressed into service for this vital way way And on New Year's Day churches were open. Many were difficulty for those thankful ability. Mhm. Yeah.

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Three. The rain falls on the just and on the on joe. We cannot control event but we can so our attitude war even and the final result from our apparent misfortune depends upon our attitude this past week. I have seen disaster at his word. I have

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talked too many people and to some who have suffered severe and great loss and to one in particular I am thinking of this morning while speaking to them and sympathizing with them about their all said to me words like this don't simplify for me for I

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still have like okay, yeah, well the evening is beginning to lower here in yuba city as the light fades, curfew is upon the town and the city inhabitants of yuba city. The scenes that you see behind me scenes that

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look almost like one of the more dramatic scenes from Dante's Inferno. A very commonplace here in yuba city. Sounds of the cars that you hear in the background. People getting out of town before the five o'clock curfew where they're able only to come into town between

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seven in the morning and five. We hear some talk about town about town during the day that the Oroville Dam had been in. This might not have happened, but if they milk has been spilled any crying that's being done is not being done by the people

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of yuba city. I think that the most startling fact that we found here is blood damaged area. A truism perhaps it's corny when you put it into words. Yes, I guess it is really corny but it's nevertheless true that one of the most enduring resources of

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the United States to the unquenchable spirit of its people. What? Uh huh. Yeah, This is the chronicle television station KRON- TV channel four San Francisco