Evening star., 1924-05-16

The flood which has overrun the
hanks of the Potomac during the last
few days was the natural result of
a combination of rain and high tide,
together with previous saturation OF
the soil, combining ideal conditions
for a serious inundation. 1t is est-
mated to have cost the District of
Columbia a million dollars and the
entire region at least s15,000,000.
Throughout the valley the rainfall
averaged five inches in four days. In
some regions it fell from s.44 to S.75
inches in twenty-four hours. AS
previous rains had saturated the
ground, the entire fall flowed i'm
mediately into the streams. Any
height of the Potomac above eight
feet is counted as food; in this case
the crest rose to fifteen feet at Wash
ington and at Harpers Ferry, and
nearly that height at Cumberland,
above Harpers Ferry, and at River
ton on the Shenandoah.
The United States weather bureau
experts are somewhat chagrined
that they had predicted a rise at
Washington to 10 feet inches, and
the water actually reached 10 feet
Z inches, and then the bank of the
canal broke and flood level imme-
diately rose to IL feet, and later to
Is feet
Previous food levels on record here
are as follows: 1877, 1876 feet; 1881
(due to an ice gorge, 1S.5 feet; 1889,
1875 feet; 1902. 90 feet, and 1918 fdue
to an ice gorge), 1873 feet.
x X !;
1t is noted that there is no spe-
cial cycle for the coming of foods;
the intervals are extremely irregular
| -four, eight, three, sixteen and six
years apart. Furthermore, this ir-
regularity and the long intervals fail
| to give texts for the sermons of en-
thusiastic champions of forest pro-
lection, who would point to floods as
| tangible proofs that only by forests
are rushing waters held back and
permitted to flow like Sweet Alton"
| in the song, conserving springs and
avoiding foods. No amount of for
estry would have prevented this
rushing flow when, with the ground
| already saturated. there suddenly
came within twenty-four hours a
new sheet of water 3.75 inches thick
| and miles in extent.
| d
which does meet such a downfall and
| control its rayages. 1t is in successful
| operation in the Miami Valley, Ohio,
! where it, in April, 1922, prevented
repetition of the disastrous and un-
precedented flood of 1913. In the flood
of eleven years ago the water rose to
| eighteen feet, coming so fast that it
swept through the streets of the city
| like a great ocean billow several feet
| in height, and within few hours
drove residents into third stories or
attics of two-story homes, or cut them
off from rescue for days when caught
| in isolated houses. In 1922, with
almost equal rainfall as in 1918, the
river rose only to 9.5 feet, and there
was so little trepidation that the tele-
phone exchange reported that 1T had
| had less than hundred Inquiries about
| the prospects, while in 1920, prior to
the Completion of the Miami con-
servancy works, when there appeared
danger Of a rise the panic-Stricken had
| literally drowned" the exchange with
thousands OF anxious Inquiries.
| x 4 x x
After the 1913 Dayton flood the
citizens organized and subscribed two
million dollars, $4,000 citizens sub
| scribing, with which to undertake pre-
| ventive measures. They employed an
experienced hydraulic engineer, who
| made a careful study of the entire
| food basin above Dayton, extending
we'll up into central Ohio. There was
| then no state law which empowered
cooperation in conservancy; but in
| 1914 such a law was enacted by the
Legislature, giving the right of eminent
domain wherever necessary in taking
over land fer conservancy reservoirs
A most thorough survey Was made
and the food discharge of 1913 and
! all other floods of record were .cal-