Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1913-10-24
THE OHIO VALLEY FLOOD
United States Geological Survey Is
sues Report Of Field lnvestiga-
tion-Damage Placed at Over
200 Million Dollars-Pre-
vention of Future
Damage

The causes which led to the great
flood in the Ohio Valley last spring,
! the losses therefrom, and the pre-
vention of damage by future floods
are discussed in the timely report
just issued by the United States Geo
| logical Survey as the result of
fected and study of the records of
precipitation, run-off, and stream
| flow. While the flood Of 1913 was the
most destructive flood that has ever
visited the Ohio Valley, it is point
ed out that floods of the Ohio are
now the rule rather than the eXcep-
ton and that the problem of pre-
venting flood damage is vital one,
pressing for solution. In no year
since 1873 has the Ohio river failed
to overflow it's banks at some point
along it's course and flood large
areas, and in some years the flood
ing has been repeated five times.
The actual material loss on account
Of the recent flood is more than
5000, 100000, without considering in
direct losses or the loss of life.
A distinction is made between the
prevention of floods and the proven
ton of damage by floods in order to
bring out forcibly the obvious idea
| that excessive rainfall and the accu-
mutation of excessively large volumes
| of surface water in river basins can
not be prevented, but that the thing
| to strive for is to prevent the great
damage done by flood water all along
| the rivers course. The two means
of preventing damage by floods that
are most discussed and that are stat
ed to be unquestionably the best and
most reliable are levees and storage
reservoirs, although forests are also
prominently mentioned. The GeOlog-
ical Survey points out, however, that
to guard against the most destructive
| floods all available preventive meas
one alone can possibly be adequate.
| In analyZing the figures showing the
| volume of the floods of various years
at Cincinnati it is interesting to
| note that to have kept the highest
| flood on record at that city below
| the danger line it would have been
| 10 ahOVn
cinnati 226,000 million cubic feet Of
water, representing the dangerous
crest or top of the floOd-the accu-
| mulated excess during the 19 days
that the height of the river was
above the danger line. The capacity
of the AZ reservoir sites above Pitts
| burgh, investigated in 1912 by the
Pittsburgh Flood Commission, is So
500 million cubic feet, and prelimin-
airy investigations during 1908 by
the Geological Survey in the Kama
wha river drainage area discovered
II reservoir sites with all additional
storage capacity of about 100000 mil
|
other available reservoir sites on the
tributaries of the Ohio above Gin
cinnati. Even greater storage ca
pacity, however, will probably be re-
quired to control fully the floods on
the Ohio, for all the floods do not
originate on the same tributaries,
! q fhnrnfnrn irC
must be provided to control floods
on two or more combinations of trib-
utaries.
The report emphasizes the made
quacy of the data available concern
ing the Ohio river system and urges
the necessity for an immediate broad
ening of the past and present meager
studies of the conduct of the many
great tributaries of the Ohio, which
shall cOnclusively answer the much
discussed question whether the floods
of the Ohio can be absolutely con-
trOlled by reservoirs and levees.
Whatever may be the merits of the
respective schemes for flood control,
there can be no doubt Of the abso-
lutte necessity for comprehensive
plan of action, nor can the value of
| the prevention of damage by floods
be er-estimated. To be effective
any system of control must treat the
Ohio and it's tributaries as a unit,
with due regard to the effect of such
control of the Ohio on the Mississippi
below Cairo To make such a com
prehensive system of control practic-
able, efficient, and successful, CEN
trail organization for the control of
rivers is needed Such a central or
ganization would necessarily have to
be Federal, but it could not be
successful without road-minded,
| hearty, and unselfish cooperation on
the part of the States, counties, mu-
inequalities, and private interests
| th y.0uphOut tho Ohio vaJ1pv