, 1862-01-25
The Flood at Cincinnati.

Theflood in the Ohio river reached its height
at Cincinnati on Thursday, and ut noon OF
that day began to reeede at the rate OF four Or
FIVE inches an hour. It attained the height Of
the food Of 1859, submerging the entire land
ing from Vine to Lawrence streets. The Ohio
and Mississippi railroad track, (which Is also
used for the Chicago train Efa Lafayette,) Was
submerged beyond the city, and passengers
had to be carried by boat to Anrora, Ind.
There is considerable loss By the flooding Of
warehouses, and still greater distress TO poor
families who were driven out Of their houses
by the hundreds at Cincinnati, Newport and
Covineton, In connection with this flood tile
Cincinnati Gazette gives some pertinent allu-
s;oDs to former great floods on the Ohio, is
follows
One of the most remarkable Of these IS that
which deluged our troops last summer on the
KaDaHba and extended through the upper part
of the Ohio Valley. This was most extraor-
Dary example Of the effects Of sudden rain.
The rise commenced on Thursday afternoon,
the Goth Of September, and at 4. " OF Sun
day, the goth, the Kanawha at Charleston had
risen st!Jlye;ght fret: On Friday evening and
Saturday it rose forty FIVE feet in twelve hours.
Probably there is no instance on record Of so
| sndden rise in any river Of this country
| This rise extended over the leading streams Of
| the upper Ohio, and its effects were severely
! felt as low Is the Seioto. On Sunday and
Monday the Goth and s0th, the upper
| Ohio carried down great quantities Of logs,
| fences, boards and bridges. In the Scioto Val
ley, large quantities Of corn were carried OIL
This flood, great as it was, made but little i'm
preston, our readers will 1eeollect, III the Mi
| ami country and below.
Great floods On the Ohio ycry rarely occur.
Some observations during the last hundred
years seem to show that cxtraordinary Hoods
{thosc which rise above IS feet above low
water mark at Cincinnati} may be expected, at
| about an average period Of eighteen years.
| Not more than two or three such floods have
occurred in the last half century The river was
very high Coming on to Front street, in Feb
ruaTy, 1925 The greatest Hood Of which
| We have any account is THAT Of February ,1sS..,
when the Ohio rose to 81 feet at Pittsburg Is
| feet at Wheeling; IS feet at Cincinnati, and
81 feet at Louisville. This flood commenced
rising On the 10th Of February, and continued
Ito the :1st, when it was at its height destroy
4 ing an immense amount Of property. At
Louisville, nearly all the frame buildings near
the river were foated off, OF destroyed. The
loss and suffering By the flood was very great
The numbers above stated show that At the
height Of the river on the 21st Of February, the
srtyTace Of the Ohio was precisely that Of q
great scape, 800 miles in BREADTH one edge Of
which was at Pittsburgh, the erestin the neigh
borhood Of the Miamis, and the lower edge
near the mouth.
| The ,e7oeity Of the current Of the Ohio is
point on which there arc great mistakes made.
This is owing to the fact that the velocity is
widely different between the SURFACE and tue
tA1rad or centre Of the current volume. The
actual progress Of the flood is deter
mined By that Of the central thread; i;
and we know That Of the Hood of 1882,
by. the height Of the flood at various
points. Then the food Of 1882 Was at its
height at Pittsburgh on the 10th Of February,
at Wheeling on the 11th (cscuinS)-S5
miles; at Marietta on the 18th (noon)
}-176 miles, and at Cincinnati on the 18th
lmjdnisht)E $50 miles. Then it appears
By its crest, Travelled from Pittsburgh to
Cincinnati, 400 in seven and half days-at the
rate Of sixty miles per day. or two and n half
miles an hour. This would be denied posi-
lively by any one who stood on the bank and
looked at its driftwood passing by. The de-
NAL would be just in regard to that test; for
the central surface Of the Ohio river, at its
flood, actually passes along at the rlte Of about
sir miles an hour.