Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-05-24
HOW FLOODS ARE FOUGHT.
WEsTFRNERs COMBINE EFFORTS
AGAINST A COMMON ENEMY.
Banks Built of Earth in 5ogs-Many
Devices Resorted to Tor the Purpose
OF Divertins the Rush of Water
Weaving Big Mattress.

Weaving Big Mattress.
Inc great floods which have proved
80 disastrous in Michigan, Indiana, II
lonis and other parts of the West
are largely due to the formation of
the country. Any one who has trav-
eled through the middle West knows
that for miles and miles the railroad
lines are built over prairie and other
land which does not contain a piece
of stone the size of hens egg. The
southern part of Indiana and Illinois,
rs well as Michigan, also contain
large areas of lowland swamps or
marshes in the United States. Con
sequently the beds of many of he
rivers are composed Of. loose material,
which is easily washed out, and the
natural banks offer but little resist
ance to the flood currents. This is
shown by the fact that in mang places
the sides of the channels are carried
away, making great gaps through
which the water flows, inundating
farm land and forming inland lakes.
Therefore, high water in the West
ern river means far more to the peo-
pie in the vicinity than in New Eng
land, for example, where so many of
the streams flow over the beds which
have been followed out of the rock
in some instances, and where the
sides of the channels are so strongly
protected by nature that no artificial
work is needed Only those who
have seen the effect of flood in the
West realize the ravages which it can
cause and for this reason the resi-
dents in the vicinity of a water course
which is liable to break its bank, or
ganize themselves into sort of COM
mittee of the whole to look out for
breaks and to make repairs. When
the water has reached height where
it is considered dangerous, the alarm
is given and every man able to handle
shovel hastens to the weak spot If
the stream is a large one, fiat boats
are often used to aid in protecting the
banks. If stone of any kind can be
procured, they are loaded with this
material, hauled to the scene of opera
tions, where the volunteer workmen
remove the material and crudely
fashion it into breast works, as they
might be called along the top of the
bank. Sometimes the stone is placed
in masses of brush wood cut from the
nearest trees, in order to hold it to-
gether more firmly but as already
stated, the middle West is a country
where stone cannot always be obtain
ed, so the custom which is followed
by the levee protectors in the South.
of using sand bags, is in vogue to a
considerable extent Anything in the
shape of bag which will hold sand
flour sacks, cement bags, ETC., are fill |
ed from the nearest sand pit, although
sometimes even this cannot be pro-
cured and ordinary dirt is substituted.
This sort of protection, however, will |
resist the force of the food current |
about as effectually as the sand bag
forts have protected garrisons from
the musketry of the enemy. They |
can be filled so easily that few men
can load a boat with them in COM
paratiyely short time and built in walls |
three or four feet high they have |
often prevented a very serious break |
in an embankment.
The ordinary shovel is also a very
effective weapon in flood fighting in
the West, and the residents of the low
lands are experts in throwing up walls
of earth when their fields and gar.
dens are in danger of being over
flowed Many q disaster of this kind |
has been only averted by hundreds |
of men working not only all day but
all night, relieving each other in
shifts, raising the natural wall con-
fning the stream as rapidly as the
waters have increased in height. In
cases of emergency convicts are also
pressed into service, working side by
side with the free men.
The Western rivers have a trick of
eating underneath the bank and
sometimes have broken from their
bounds in this way before the watch
ers realized that any serious damage
was being done Here timber work
comes in very handy if it can be built
strongly enough to keep from being
washed away. If the stream is not
too deep, planlSing can be driven into
the bottom and packed up with sand
bags, brushwood and any other GILL
ing" which is convenient, while ii is
also REINFORCED by beams extending
from the earth bank their shore ends
being firmly imbedded in the bank.
These crude Golfer dams, as they !
might be called, are often used to
keep back the water while the en-
bankment itself IS being raised and
The pile driver is also
a great aid in fighting the floods in
this part of the country and as on the
a number Of floating pile
drivers are kept on the larger streams.
When there is danger of break they
are taken to the spot and a row of
tree trunks or branches, or possibly
rails from the nearest fence, if no
other timber is available, are driven
into the bottom of the water course
in an oblique direction from the shore
if not parallel with it. This serves to
divert the force while it does not di-
rectly restrain the flood water, and
in many instances has prevented
disaster.
The use of artificial entertainments,
or levees. is becoming more and more
extensive in the West. owing to the
nature of the streams,
and some of those which have been
built in Southern Indiana are among
the longest in the United States with
the exception Of the works which con-
fine the Mississippi. While most of
the Western levees consist merely of
aartFworl1. some OF them are very sol
idly constructed One OF the most ef-