The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-09-21
The Flood Problem
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN

adequate protection, and that the only
solution of the problem is to protect
these cities by adequate engineering
works for flood prevention.
| 1t seems clear that forest conserva-
tionists have contributed a great deal
to the popular misunderstanding Their
sincerity is not to be challenged. Meth
er is the importance of conserving the
| forests we have and of planting others
to be questioned. But the condition of
the forests does not have the decisive
effect on floods which the public has
been led to believe. This seems to be
established by all the scientific studies
that have been made of the matter.
Fairly complete food records for the
Mississippi River at ST. Louis have
been studied from 1880 to 1910, with
some earlier records. During all that
period the whole Mississippi Basin was
being deforested Yet the greatest
| floods occurred in 1874 and 1885, and a
diagram shows that great floods have
occurred at regular intervals since the
beginning of the observations, with no
general increase or decrease in either
size or frequency. The same thing has
1
and Connecticut Rivers. A study of
| floods on the Merimac River has
| shown that deforestation of % per
cent had no effect on them. Studies
of floods on the Seine and the Danube
in Europe for much longer periods cor
roborate these conclusions.
The Real Cause of Floods.
| The real cause of our flood disasters
| is that civilization has drawn the
cities and homes down into the path
of the floods, and that we have not
given them protection. Railroads have
followed the bottoms of valleys be-
cause the easiest grade is there, and
the cities have been built down by the
| railroads instead of up on the hills,
where more primitive men generally
built their homes and cities.
Our valley cities, are sure to be de.
stroyed at regular intervals until all
| of them have been properly protected
against floods. This is the fact which
must be driven home. Floods are one
form of history which may be conf
IDENTIFY relied upon to prove it. Any
dweller in an unprotected city or town
in one of our great valleys can study
a chart of the floods that have &C.
Cured in the past and predict with
: accuracy when he will next need a
rowboat or life preserver At least,
he may predict how often he will need
| it in a given period of years. Scient-
lists have even made formulas for pre-
dieting floods. 1t may be calculated
! that floods of the greatest size on a
given river will occur, over a consider
able stretch of time, once in every %
years on an average. Those of the
next magnitude will occur half as
often on an average, and so on down.
In the diagrams which have been pre-
pared, it is remarkable how regularly
the highwater marks occur.
| There is no space in this article for
an adequate discussion of the methods
of food prevention. There are two
chief methods-dikes or leaves and
retaining basins. We have one of the
greatest examples of the former in the
jetties of the lower Mississippi. These
have shown the limitations of such
works. They afford local protection,
| but often serve to back the waters up
| in other places, causing floods where
otherwise there would be none.
An excellent example of retaining
basins is seen in those on the head
of the Mississippi River. which were
built primarily as aids to navigation,
but have had most important use in
preventing floods. There are no re-
tanning basins in this country primar-
| lily for food control, but numerous
basins created for irrigation purposes,
or to produce water power, have
shown the great possibilities of this
method of control. In Europe retain
| ing basins have been used for food
control for a long time.
The best engineering opinion seems
/ to be that what the United States
needs is a great unified system of food
control, especially for the Mississippi
drainage. Most persons do not realize
what large part of the United States
this embraces. Waters rising to the
surface as far west as Montana and
| New Mexico and as far east as Penn
| sylvania and West Virginia ultimately
reach the Mississippi 1t is in this
great system of rivers that most of
our floods occur. The Pueblo flood
was a Mississippi Basin food.
Obviously flood control in this great
area must be handled as one problem.
The methods adopted in each locality
| must be suited to its individual needs,