Evening star., 1924-05-16
IN TODAY'S SPOTLIGHT
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS

culated, together with the, maximun
rainfalIs 1t was planned that tnt
works must take care of nood -
per cent greater than that or lsis.
Valleys were taken over WIN capatiS pa,a+
to store the maximum fall OF wate'
Earth dams of the most approved
type were built across these valleys
with concrete outlets founoeo OF
rock, so that only a certain amount Q!
! flow would be possible; all the res
| being impounded, to be discharged a.
will and gradually over long PERIOD
| of time. -oeo a.
water stood behind these dams IN
nlaces forty feet deep, the total
| being equivalent to $4,000 acre.
| one foot deep, but the tota'
/ CAPACITY for storage was equal |"
twenty three times what was then
needed. In the report OF the cnie-
| engineer, after the 1920 flood. tht
| work of these dams was deScrlpeu IL
| the following paragraph:
| EVERYTHING worked out at the
dams exactly as was expected. me
things which made the most lmpres
sion on the general public were
| First, the visual evidence OF actual
storage back of the dams; second, the
| immense amount of storage capacity
| still available in the basins: third
the marked effect of the hydrauiS
Jump, or stilling pool. reducing III"
| high yelocities at the conduit out I
lets, and fourth, the comparatlFeiE
low stage of the rivers through the
cities
The works were mostly paid for
with bonds to the amount of about
s34 900, 600, which are being taken up
by taxation on the property saie
guarded; the taxes running until
The land which is covered by water
in fioodtime is still used for farming.
though all buildings are removed
above danger of high water
:: = X *
According to official records of the
United States weather bureau, ths
greatest river rises in the United
States of foodwaters have been as
follows: The Tombigbee, in 1900, 20
feet; the Cape Fear, Fayetteville, in
1908, 6S7 feet; Black Warrior Tusca-
ioosa, in 1916. 66.3 feet; Ohio, at Gin
cinnati, in 1884, II feet; Roanoke, at
Weldon, in 1877, sos feet. The fire :,
quent foods of the Mississippi are
not formidable because of height for
the greatest rise recorded was that
of 1914, at st. Louis, SO feet. They
are devastating because they spread
for many miles east and west and
the whole country, from horizon to
horizon, becomes mad ocean of
water. Since 1874 the Mississippi has
never come within 3.4 feet of that
high-water mark. Many millions have
been spent in harnessing the Father
of Waters and the problem is not yet
solved.
In world history, the most terrible
of foods was that in Japan in sS4
AID, when 100000 people were Is
ported as lost. In 1876 a food
in India drowned 100000 persons
through the sweep of great storm
wave from the sea-. Similar waves
from the ocean swept away 100000
at Friesland in 1928, and again. in
Holland, 100000 in 1446; in China,
| 10000 in 1916. A flood of the Seine
at Paris, in 1911, destroyed property
| estimated at s26o.0oo,o0o.
= = \ x
Scientists are by no means agreed
| to do with floods as has been taught
by forest conservationists. All agree
| that the weather conditions have not
changed in the last century and
weather does not vary over few
decades, changing only in very long
lapses of years-centuries. The mem
| cries of 1.-The oldest inhabitants9 of
| any locality as to how much more
| snow or rain fell in their early years
are pronounced as utterly unscfentific
| and unreliable.
Copyright fse4- v Paui v. Csr1tnsa