By Choson
During the March 23 and March
26, 1913, a great flood rushed 20 states in U.S.A, more than 38,000 homes,
thousands of schools, businesses, utilities, and city streets were destroyed or
damaged. More than 250,000 people lost their home and depended on government’s
aids. This natural disaster caused more than $25, 00,000 direct and indirect
economic losses. Indiana was one of the states which suffered this flood most
seriously. Approximately 6 inches (150 mm) of rain fell on Indianapolis over
the period of March 23 through March 26; the heavy rainfall made the White
River over its flood stage and destroyed the Washington Street Bridge. The
city’s transportation and water supply were disrupted for nearly four days in
flooded areas and as many as 7,000 Indianapolis families lost their homes. Not
only had the Indianapolis suffered a lot of losses, but also the towns in the
surround counties which located around the flooding river, such like
“Brookville”.
Brookville is a town in
Brookville Township, Franklin County, Indiana, United States. The 2010 Census
showed the population in Brookville was 2596, 1160 house holders and 673 family
residents in the town. The racial make up of the town was 97.5% white, 0.3%
African American, 0.3% Native American, 0.2% Asian, 0.8% from other races, and
0.9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.6% of the
population. [1] The
racial make up in Brookville does no have
obvious changes between 1913 and 2010, so we can use the 2010 data to
analyze the condition for Brookville in 1913. Brookville was on of the communities
which damaged most seriously due to Brookville’s unique geographic position.
Brookville located at the
confluence of the east and west folks of the Whitewater in Whitewater valley.
The Whitewater valley in Indiana actually is
a small basin, but with the steepest fall of any Indiana river. Because
Brookville located in a comparative low position, the flood spilled from the
Whitewater River will poured into the basin and cause serious disasters in
Brookville, not only in 1913 great flood, but also all the other floods in
Indiana in different eras. The 1913 flood in Brookville resulted in the
deaths of 15 people and made nearly 600
people homeless. From the census in 2010, we find the total population in Brookville in the
present day is only about 2600[2].
According the figure from the census investigation, the population rate from
1913 to 2010 always positive, that means the population in Brookville in 1913
should much lower than today’s population. Thus, more than one quarter people
died or victimized in 1913 flood in Brookville community. Among the dead were
several members of Fries family, this flood make Fries family lost three
generation members. What a catastrophic tragedy for a sinless normal family.
More than 100 dwellings and more than 1000 livestocks were wiped by the
ferocious flood[3].
Although Brookville community was not strange with flood, the serious level in
this time still astounded all the residents.
Due to the constantly heavy rain
started at March 21, most of rivers’ water
line in Indiana and Ohio rose above the previous high-water marks. The
Whitewater River at Brookville reached an estimated 10 feet higher than any
prior flood. However, most of people did
not really care about the abnormal river condition because the highest water
line steadily increase in previous years and nothing bad happened.
Unfortunately,when they began realizing the ponderance of this time’s
water-line rising, it was already too late. A Brookville resident expressed his
anxiety in his dairy : “ If the rain continue pouring into the river, we will
need to adjust the maximum water-line greatly in next year.”During the rapid
river rises of 1913, both folks were flooding rapidly on Tuesday , March 25.
According the official statistics, the 1913 flood destroyed hundreds of bridges
and railroad trestles and 12,000
telegraph and telephone poles.More than 38,000 homes, thousands of schools,
businesses, utilities, and city streets were destroyed or damaged. More than
250,000 people lost their home and depended on government’s aids. This natural
disaster caused more than $25, 00,000 direct and indirect economic losses.[4]
However, the exact death number was not easy to find.Official reports of flood deaths are inconsistent. The bodies
of some of the victims were never found and not all fatalities were reported to
agencies collecting flood statistics. Some disaster-related deaths from
injuries or illness were not listed in official counts if they occurred after
publication of official reports.The estimated deaths for flood victims in
Indiana is 100 to 200.
After the great 1913
flood raged through more than 20
states in United States and caused
diaster damages. The United States central government Began to plan how to help
he local governments to aud the injured and homeless people have the in time
cures and have safe shelters to live in. With the central government’s
appropriation, the local governments had more power to aid the helpless people all over the state. The Indiana governor appealed to Indiana
cities and other states for relied assistance and donations of money and
supplies. Ralson appointed a trustee
to receive relief funds and arrange for distribution of supplies. Not only the
government, many local companies and capitalists also tried to relieve the
homeless miserable people without any returns. The American Red Cross also
played a very significant role in relief efforts. Due to the size of Indiana
local American Red Cross organization is quite small, many Red Cross volunteers
from the other cities which did not have so emergency flood(Omaha, Nebraska,
and Lower Peach Tree, Alabama) came to Indiana to devote their own forces. Many
economic and business organizations contributed a large amount of fund to
American Red Cross for flood relief. The Chicago Association of Commerce[5] wired $100,000 to the Red
Cross on March 26. Rotary clubs
across the United States contributed more than $25,000 (half a million in
today's dollars) to a Rotary Relief Fund, which was established for flood
relief in Indiana and Ohio.[6] And the Rotary club from
the different communities( which include the Rotary club from the Brookville ) assisted
relief efforts within their communities by helping to provide medical support,
transportation, and shelter. Later on, the supports from the neighbor countries
arrived at Indiana gradually and most of
these assisted resources were from the Red Cross Organization in Canada.
As one of the communities which suffered the most serious damage, Brookville
had received a large amount of flood relief resources and funds. All the
homeless residents in Brookville can have a safe and comfortable shelters.
Although the Brookville
residents had enough assistances to go through the flood diaster, they still
faced a really tough problem-how to reconstruct their homes. From estimation,
the reconstruction work need more than 20 years to back to the original
conditions before the 1913 great flood.
Before the 1913 flood, all the
communities which near the river had quite thorough system and rules to control
the flood , such like built the high levee and recorded the variances of the
river’s water-line for each month. However, in the 1913 great flood, when they
saw how the variance of the river water line changed rapidly in only few days
and how the ferocious flood destroyed the the high levees so easily, they
started to realize these old fashion ways cannot defend them from the crazy
natural diasters any more. So what kinds
of changes should they make in order to not let the diaster consequences happen
any more, the local government and
specialists began to discuss about this emergency issue. First, they
should find other more scientific and developed flood control strategies. In
the old way, people just built the levees and monitored the risk level of the
river water-line. However, these usual solutions showed their fatal weakness in the 1913 flood. And build
the levees sightless may result the conditions of the river become worse and
worse because the levees will make the sludges in the river separate away
difficultly and that will make the flood cause more serious damage. The heavy
metal ingredients in the sludges can also corrode the levees, with time goes
by, the hardness oft the levees will become weaker and weaker and ultimately
broke in great flood in the future.
Therefore, it’s really necessary yo find a new way to replace the levees. After
the investigations and studies, the local government came up a new to to
control the flood- reservoirs. Reservoirs means dig a large man-made lake and
import part of the river water to the reservoirs. If the river’s water line
rise over the warning water level, people can share the river’s pressure with
reservoirs. This reservoir lakes can also supply the water to the local
residents, so reservoirs can be a one bullet two birds strategy. In Brookville, the reservoirs can have better
usages due to the Brookville locate in a basin. Image if you dig a reservoirs
in the lost position in whole basin community, even the flood pout into the
Brookville , most of the water will flow into the reservoirs in stead of
crushing the dwellings. At 1916. Colonel Richard
Lieber, an Indianapolis businessman and German immigrant led building a state
park contains a lake which consisted of
8 reservoirs. This lake still play its role until today and we call it
Brookville Lake.[7]
Not only the flood control
strategies need to make change, but also the politics and laws need to make
some adjustments. Because of the flood of 1913, government paid more attention
on the comprehensive flood prevention, managing flood-prone areas, and provide
more funds for flood control projects.
In order to control the flood and react quicker to emergency events, the
federal government decided to take more responsibilities from the local governments.The Flood Control Act of 1917 [8]was the first of several
pieces of legislation that eventually lead to the creation of the National Flood Insurance
Program of 1968, the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) in 1979,
and the Robert T. Stafford
Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act of 1988. Federal government funded the flood control projects to study
the flood control in Mississippi River in 1917. By 1925, it had been
expanded to all the major rivers in United States. Not only the
official organizations putted high diligences to the flood control project,
many citizens organizations also start some programs to push the flood control
studies. “The Dayton Relief Committee began shortly
after the flood of 1913 to raise $2 million to develop a comprehensive flood
protection system that would prevent another flood disaster of the same
magnitude.On March 17, 1914, the governor of Ohio signed the Ohio Conservancy
Act, which allowed for the establishment of conservancy districts with the
authority to implement flood control projects. Ohio's Upper Scioto Conservancy
District was the first to form in February 1915. The Miami Conservancy District[9] (MCD), which includes Dayton and surrounding communities,
was the second, formed in June 1915. The MCD began construction of their flood
control system in 1918. The project was completed in 1922 at a cost in excess
of $32 million and has kept Dayton from flooding as significantly as it did in
1913. The Ohio Conservancy Act became the model for other states, such as
Indiana, New Mexico, and Colorado.” Many small local companies also contributed
funds to the local government in Brookville to study about the flood. And the
local government also try to arrange more budget on the flood study and
control.
The great flood in 1913 did
a great damages in more than 20 states in America, hundred thousands of people
became the victims of this unpredictable natural disaster. However, the 1913
flood also make the United States government and citizens realize the
importance of the prediction, control and assistance of the natural disasters.
The new ACT’s issued and the new rules’ applied make United States become more
and more experienced with dealing the natural disasters. Image if the United
States did not experienced the 1913 flood and did not make any changes, the
fellowing natural disasters such like Hurricane Katrina and 2011 Mississippi
River floods might would cause more serious results. So I
would like to say the 1913 flood was a milestone for U.S.A on natural disaster
control and defending.
[1]
Figures cited from U.S Census Bureau
official website.
[2]
Figures cited from U.S Census Bureau
official website.
[3] Carmi Times (IL), April 1, 2013
News, p. 6 3pp
[4]
The Great Flood of 1913 , the history of MCD
[5]
Association consist of commercial
organizations in Chicago.
[6]
The flood of 1913 in the lower White River
region of Indiana,
[Bloomington, Ind.] : For sale by the University Book Store, [1914], p.105-223， some
figures cited from Wikipedia.
[7]
Information cited from Indiana Department
of Natural Resources.
[8]
The Flood
Control Act of 1917 ("Ransdell-Humphreys
Flood Control Act of 1917", Ch 144, 39 Stat. 948, enacted March 1, 1917) is an Act of Congressenacted in response to costly floods in the lower Mississippi Valley, the Northeast, and the Ohio Valley between 1907 and 1913.
[9]
An organization which formed directly by
1913 flood, provides protection to Miami Valley Area from flood and protects
water quality.
