Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1921-06-23
FIXING THE
BLAME FOR
THE FLOODS

! lie tragic experience OF Pueblo
Colorado, trapped and devastated by
floods, once more calls the attention
of the nation to the needlessness of
such calamity, with all its suffering
and loss. 1t is only by ignoring facts
that the holocaust can be attributed to
an unkind Providence In reality it
should be attributed to the greed, care
lassness and shortsightedness of man.
Floods such as the one in Colorado
or that which swept Ohio, Indiana, and
adjacent districts a few years ago can
be controlled or avoided. The toll of
hundreds or thousands of lives which
they take and of the many millions of
dollars worth of property which they
destroy is due not to divine wrath but
to human error As such it is capable
of correction
1t is natural for cities to build them
selves up around water courses. AS
they develop and land becomes more
and more valuable, they encroach more
and more upon the streams. Factor
Eias and homes crowd in closer and clos
er. Railroads and highways bridge
the main channel, bot instead of bring
g the wider reaches of the flood chan
mel save money by building embank-
ments across it. IA cloudburst, ter
rental rains, or an extraordinary thaw
fills and overfows the ordinary chan
mel and finds itself damned by the
Ien1bankments and by bridge and build
ing abutments. Finally breaking thru
s1ch barriers, it sweeps along with ter
rible destruction. Artificial reservoirs
and lakes break their barriers and add
to the force of raging waters. Death
and destruction sweep thru the valleys
and the towns built along the path of
the flood
Floods connot be stopped, but the
opportunity for ruin in their path can
be eliminated. Europe has learned the
lesson. In scores of valleys there one
is bridged, but to reach that bridge
one drops down into the flood channel,
four or five times as wide and probably
dry for eleven months out of the year,
but unobstructed. The spring thaws
and freshets come and go and the wa
ter is carried away as nature intended,
with no appreciable damage.
We can guard against floods in the
same way if we will refrain from build
ing factories, homes, embankments,
and abutments in the possible path of
z flood. At the same time dams and
reservoirs should be so constructed
with ample margins of safety.
incidentally the floods again ennpha
size the necessity for forestation and
reforestation in this country. Forests
rot only delay the spring thaws, and so
extend the spring freshets over a long
er period, but tend to hold back the
rush of waters when it does start.
Even more important, they tend to
euualize rainfall, to he great advant
age of the crops.
1t is the lack of forests which causes
the great floods and droughts of China
It is the planting of trees which has
reduced to minimum the dry years"
which were once the curse of Kansas.
They are an essential feature of flood
control, and of incalculable value be-
sides. If mankind will be wise and
look little into the future, instead of
always trying to grab off a real estate
bargain or factory site on river
bank in the immediate present, such
tragedies as that of Pueblo need not
Chicago Tribune.
The above editorial taken from the
Chicago Tribune, in its issue of June
T, 1921, is full of splendid thought and
good common sense and should be en-
forced. We have local conditions here
in our city that some day will force US
to pay like penalty unless they are
corrected soon. If we ever have an
other flood like what we suffered IN
1880, this city will suffer untold dam
ages therefrom 1t is well to guard
against these conditions before it is
too late.