Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-03-12
Ehrrtttg Gl1at

Water Supply Commission on floods
and their effect upon industry, busi-
ness and daily life in Pennsylvania.
the flood control works in Wildwood
Park are the only system of the kind
in the whole State. This statement,
which sounds rather remarkable in
view OF the wide discussion of the
subject of flood control in various
parts or the State and the urging of
the state Commission that munich
pantles and communities take up the
matter, is contained in Voluminous
report on Hood dangers discovered
Dy the engineers of the commission
in making the water inventory, The
statement is made that, TOO much
stress cannot be laid upon the neces-
sity OF planning and building flood
control works in anticipation of the
recurrence of great floods rather than
deterring such action until communi-
ties have suffered irreparable losses
and are financially unable to con-
struct remedial works. Flood con-
troll works were built above Harris
burg in 1908 on Paxton creek at a
cost OF $4,000 to prevent inundation
OF the city from that source, which
is the only system of its kind in the
State"
This statement is quite a compli-
ment to Harrisburg and is an object
lesson to the rest of the State because
II there ever was any city which suf-
Tered periodical floods from a stream
II was Harrisburg and the erratic
waterway starting out in Lower Pax
ton township. A good many people
recall how the city used to wake up
AFTER every hard rain to find the
creek caNortinE over on Cameron
street and the inhabitants of Sibic-
town taking to the hills. Harrisburg
lost good many dollars before it
awoke to the fact that the flood wa
ters could be controlled and when it
was done it was all so simple that we
all wondered why it had not been
done before. The flood control and
the Paxton creek interceptor were
several times pronounced failures and
wastes of money but just after the
| HOOD control was finished there was n
tremendous thunderstorm with
rainfall that ordinarily meant q tor
rent pouring through Cameron street.
But nothing happened down town,
| although Wildwood park resembled a
lake 1t was not for u week that the
lake was down to the normal condi-
tion. After that there was not much
said about the flood control and Pax
ton creek is now a rather respectable
waterway and it is only when the
Susquehanna gets out of its banks and
the water backs up that the Paxton
creek gets troublesome. But Just i'm
agfne what things would have been
! like If the city fathers and the pub
llc spirited men who took up the call
for public improvements had not con-
structed that flood control. The pre-
dlctions that the creek valley would
be an important manufacturing part
of the city have been abundantly
borne out and the plants of the Har-
rlsburg Pipe and Pipe Bending Com
pany and others testify to the value
of the flood control
!
Another interesting thing about the
report is that ii gives some figures on
floods in the State which show that
our forefatherS were Just as badly
damaged by them as we have been
but that the wonder is that we did
not do something to prevent them
long ago. The SuSquehanna has been
one of the worst offenders and there
are records of rampages on which it
got to the great destruction of prop
erty as early as 1884 with others in
1907, 1910, 1850, 1865, 1889, 1902 and
1904, that of 1889 being the worst
The famous pumpkin flood" of 1856,
which occurred the year after Harris
burg was laid out and got its name
because it was in the fall when the
pumpkins were ripe and thousands of
them were carried down stream,
seems to have been all along the Sus-
lquehanna, as the Wilkes Barre rec
ords show great damage at that time
and so do those at Sunbury. Singu-
larly enough Pittsburgh had a food
given the same name and for the
same reason. 1t occurred in 1910 and
flooded an area as great as that of
the flood of 1907. Pittsburgh records
have been kept for 159 years and
show no less than 1S5 floods with
eighteen feet of water or more. There
lgI Il.
in sixty years. So there are some
places worse off than Harrisburg.
A warm Saturday afternoon can
bring out the jitneys at a rate that
nothing else unless it be a circus can
do. There were jitneys by the dozens
running all over the city on Saturday
afternoon and they would be one
after another on Market street hour
after hour. Probably more appeared
than at any time since the holiday
shopping and it was notable that
some of them had signs that you
could see a block away The jitney
appears to hibernate in Harrisburg
At holiday time there are plenty of
such cars, If the weather is good, but
their appearance the rest of the Win
ter seems to be more or less regulated
by the weather. There are some cars
which have been running regularly all
routes, bat the number which come
out when the going is good seems to
be greater.
couple of farmers who attended
the Nerbeke street market on Satur-
day declared that they were not GO
ing to bring as much produce to mar
ket as they have been doing because
they have to cart it home again. One
man complained that he had been
bringing butter for years but that
people would not pay the prices asked
all over the market and were turning
to oleo more and more. Another
said that he had taken home four
dozen eggs because of the objections
of housewives to prices.
William " Van Inghen, the Phila-
delphia artist who is being consid-
cred for decoration of the Capitol
corridor, was here a few days ago. He
painted the lunettes in the south
wing.