Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-26
The Ohio Valley Floods.

!. l. ;,nossible to read the reports
,ho, como from the flood stricken sec
tions of Ohio and Indiana without ieei
ing the utter helplessness OF man III
the face Of the unrestrained elements.
At Omaha the other day, too, where wliu
caused swift and widespread destfuc-
tion there was no human power 10
STAY the devastation. At Dayton a.
Ps.SI and at other places in the noou-
swept states all man can do IS 10 wal.
until the waters have subslded anu
then aid the survivors. At this mo
ment it is futile to try to count the 'o'di
cost of these visitations OF "ind anu
water. Probably not for many days VIII
the death toll be known with any degree
of accuracy for the floods nave carfieu
people away long distances from their
homes and in the Decentralization that Iol-
lows such disaster there is no assurance
of complete accounting for everybody.
The Ohio and Indiana disasters. follow
ing so close upon the destructive slorhs
in Nebraska, give the country a proiouno
shock Ordinarily one of these visitations
would suffice to mark the year as one OIL
heavy loss, but the floods OF ONO ana
Indiana, taking their toll of life In thou-
sands. cause the Nebraska catastrophe
to pale into comparative insignificance.
Doubtless these two series of phenomena
are generally related in that they are
manifestations OF seriously disturbed
condition. The storms west or the MIS-
sissippi have been of the peculiar cyclone
character incidental to the fiat areas OF
that region. The Ohio and lnd1ana dls-
asters are in the nature of deluses fol-
lowing remarkably heavy rains continued
for many hours Owing to the denudation
of the country the soil cannot retain the
volumes Of water that fall
and the rivers quickly overflow their
banks. This is a direct result of defores-
tation. and in the comparatively crowded
sections of the two most recently stricken
states it is a perhaps inevitable incident
of development. Nevertheless. the expert
ences throughout Ohio and Indiana prove
that insufficient attention has been paid
to the matter of safety against unusual
rainfall. In some cases reservoirs have
burst under the suddenly increased pres
sure. In other instances the foundations
of dams have been undermined by the
securing floods. At Dayton the Miami
river has overlooked It's banks, bursting
levees and sending a suddenly released
city.
But even where there has been no ac-
tual breaking Of walls or dams inunda-
ton has followed the tremendous rain
fall of the past few days, accompanying
the series of>storms that have swept from
the southwest diagonally across the coun-
pry. In many places rivers have left
their courses and flooded wide areas at
considerable levels above the usual high
water mark. The truth is that the chan
nels for the drainage Of the country in
these thickly populated sections are in
adequate in emergencies, possibly because
they have been filed up with detritus
and neglected, inasmuch as they are no
longer "navfgable'' and therefore subject
to appropriations for dredging. With the
increase of population in a watershed
the streams become choked and their ca
pacity to discharge flood waters is ma
teriaIly lessened by reason of long con-
tinued insanitary modes of sewage dis
posal and other entertainments upon them
as part of the natural drainage system
of the country.