The True Story of Our National Calamity of Flood, Fire and Tornado

L >> Logan Marshall >> The True Story of Our National Calamity of Flood, Fire and Tornado

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Of the sixty-one bodies recovered twenty-seven had been identified.

Estimates placed property loss at from $15,000,000 to $30,000,000. But
no one seemed to care about the monetary loss. The city was staggered by
the weight of human suffering.

Governor Cox received a telegram from D. T. McCabe, vice-president of
the Pennsylvania Lines, offering to transport free of charge all relief
supplies to points in the flooded area of the state if properly
consigned to the relief authorities. The Governor also received a
telegram from Governor Ralston, of Indiana, saying that ten carloads of
supplies had been started for Ohio points by Indiana relief
organizations.

Approximately one thousand persons, refugees from the Dayton flood,
arrived in Columbus on Saturday, most of them having made their way by
automobile and trains. As if pursued by tragedy, it fell to them that
their landing place in this city should be within the radius of the
recently-flooded hilltop district of the west side. The arrival of the
refugees was unexpected and no arrangements had been made to care for
them. Adjutant-General John C. Speaks was notified and said that the
state would do the best that could be done to provide them with food and
shelter. General Speaks said that the local relief committees were being
sorely taxed, but that he had been advised by the Columbus relief
committees that they would give all possible assistance in housing and
feeding the Dayton arrivals.

Scores of transfer wagons traversed the inundated streets carrying
relief to the hundreds marooned in the upper stories of houses. An
element adding to the difficulty of the situation was the refusal of
hundreds to leave their homes in the submerged district. This despite
the fact that they were compelled to live in damp upper stories, with
little heat or cooking facilities and in the face of threatened illness.

"We've saved our bedding and furniture, and that's all we have," said
one of these. "We are not going to take any chances of losing that."

City Health Officer Dr. Louis Kahn ordered an immediate cleaning up. The
health authorities also called attention to the necessity of boiling all
water for drinking purposes.

Miss Mabel Boardman, head of the Red Cross Society, reached Cincinnati
Saturday night. She came to confer with Governor Cox. The Governor again
asserted that the property damage caused by the floods in Ohio would
aggregate $300,000,000, and that this amount would be increased by the
high water in the Ohio River.

With the water fast receding in Columbus and the danger stage passed,
the food problem promised on Sunday to become the most serious for the
relief workers to solve.

Mayor Hunt, of Cincinnati, had been sending food to Dayton and other
places, but on Saturday as the flood descended upon his own city from
the upper reaches of the Ohio River, he put an embargo on further
exports of provisions. Though fifty-five carloads of provisions
consigned to the state were in Columbus last night, and supply trains
were headed for Ohio from Chicago, Washington, New York and other
places, Governor Cox was by no means reassured that the relief in sight
would be sufficient.

All of the people in the marooned district were reached and those
willing to leave their homes were brought over to the east side of the
city and cared for in hospitals, private homes or temporary places of
refuge. Boats and other contrivances were in constant use carrying
provisions and fuel to those who could not leave their homes. Eight more
bodies were recovered.

A majority of the rescued presented a pitiable sight, some hardly able
to stand on their feet and others, thinly clad and benumbed by the cold,
trembled as they were lifted into the boats. The hospitals were crowded
with people dangerously ill from days of exposure.

The morgues, hospitals and places of refuge were constantly besieged by
people looking for lost relatives. Those received related tales of
horror and heroism unparalleled except in great disasters like the
Titanic or Johnstown.

A year-old baby, wrapped in a blanket, was washed ashore in front of the
gates of the state institution for feeble-minded. Although chilled by
the water the child was soon revived. Pinned to its underclothing was a
piece of paper, upon which the name, "Walter Taylor," was written. The
boy was restored to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Taylor,
twenty-four hours later. The family had been penned in its home for two
days. As the water rose gradually the parents moved to the second floor
and then to the attic. Finally the father was forced to hold the child
for hours above his head. Climbing out to the roof as a last resort, the
baby was swept away and the parents had given it up for dead.

Governor H. D. Hatfield, of West Virginia, arrived in Columbus at seven
o'clock Sunday night on a special train from Charleston. The train
brought supplies, motor boats and skiffs. The motor boats and skiffs
were later taken through the different sections of the city to rescue
hundreds who were marooned. The local military company took charge of
the rescue work and pushed it forward as rapidly as conditions would
permit.

The sum of $50,000 was raised by voluntary contributions in Columbus for
a relief fund. In addition, the city council voted $75,000, and great
stores of provisions and clothing were contributed by local people and
outsiders. Thousands of the homeless people were cared for in homes of
those willing to share them, or in public halls. One thousand were fed
daily in the Masonic Temple.

In a statement full of feeling, issued Sunday evening, shortly before he
left the Executive office for home and the first full night's rest he
has had in more than a week, Governor Cox said:

"Refreshed by the tears of the American people, Ohio stands ready from
today to meet the crisis alone.

"Ohio has risen from the floods. Such a pitiless blow from Nature as we
sustained would have wiped out society and destroyed governments in
other days. We cannot speak our gratitude to President Wilson for
federal aid, to the Red Cross, to states, municipalities, trade
organizations and individuals that sent funds and supplies. They will
never know their contribution to humanity.

"The relief situation, so far as food and clothing are concerned, is in
hand. Thankful to her friends who succored her, Ohio faces tomorrow
serene and confident."

Governor Cox and members of the Legislature began on Monday an outline
of reconstructive legislation, to be followed in all of the flood
districts by the state. It was decided that the San Francisco relief
plan should be placed into effect for the Ohio flood sufferers. Under
this plan the relief was based upon property loss of the individual and
the income loss incurred. The amount of relief each person received was
prorated on such a basis.

Upon the recommendation of Governor Cox, the Legislature recessed until
next Monday, thereby giving state officials a week to formulate plans.
Resolutions warmly thanking the citizens of New York State and
Pennsylvania for their flood relief contributions were passed.

All that human effort could accomplish on Tuesday failed to penetrate
the part of the debris piled in the west side, where, it was believed,
many of the bodies of persons missing finally would be recovered. As
matters stood Tuesday night, however, eight more bodies had passed
through the morgues.

In addition to this number, was the body of James M. Kearney, a
merchant, who was drowned several months ago, and which, cast up by the
flood, was found lodged in a tree when the waters had receded. That many
other bodies would be recovered after the army of men employed in the
work had attacked the great pile of debris made at several points by
wrecked homes was generally conceded.

[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
View of River Street In Troy, New York, showing the Collar, Cuff and
Shirt Factory of Cluett, Peabody & Company, the largest of its kind in
the world, closed on account of the floods. Thousands of people were
thrown out of work on account of the overflowing of the Hudson]

[Illustration: Photograph by Underwood & Underwood.
Under the martial law established at Dayton, citizens were kept off the
streets at night as a precaution against looting]

LOSS BY DEATH AND OF PROPERTY

Four more bodies were recovered Wednesday from flood wreckage, making
the total of bodies found in this city stand at eighty-four. Of these
all except seven were identified.

Coroner Benkert, who made a wide-spread investigation among families,
some members of which were among the missing, said that he estimated
that at least one hundred and twenty-five bodies would be recovered. It
was expected that other bodies that had been washed down the river would
never be identified as Columbus victims.

The property damage in Columbus, like the death toll, was confined
principally to the west side, the business and manufacturing districts
having gone almost unscathed.

THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION

Governor Cox and the State Relief Commission on Tuesday left on a tour
of the state to visit cities and districts that were hit hardest by the
flood to determine what relief was necessary in each case. Before their
departure, however, conditions in Columbus were fast approaching normal,
and the residents with a cheerful, courageous spirit had commenced the
repair of their devastated city.

CHAPTER VIII

COLUMBUS: THE BEAUTIFUL CAPITAL OF OHIO

CAPITAL OF OHIO SINCE 1810--EARLY HISTORY--CITY OF BEAUTIFUL
STREETS AND RESIDENCES--SPLENDID PUBLIC COMMODITIES--TRADE AND
INDUSTRIES--CHARACTERISTICS OF ITS RESIDENTS.

Columbus, Ohio, the capital of the state and the county seat of Franklin
County, is located at the center of the state at the junction of the
Scioto and Olentangy Rivers, on a slightly elevated alluvial plain, and
is nearly equidistant from Cincinnati, southwest; Cleveland, northeast;
Toledo, northwest; and Marietta, southeast, the average distance from
these points being one hundred and fifteen miles. It has a population of
some 180,000.

Columbus was made the capital by the legislature in 1810, and became the
permanent capital in 1816, the original territorial and state capital
having been Chillicothe. The first state buildings were of brick, and
cost $85,000. The present massive buildings and additions are of dressed
native gray limestone, in the Doric style of architecture. They cover
nearly three acres of ground, and their total cost has been $2,500,000.

CITY OF BEAUTIFUL STREETS AND RESIDENCES

As early as 1812 Columbus was surveyed in rectangular squares; it was
incorporated as a village in 1816, and chartered as a city in 1834. In
general outline the city resembles a Maltese cross. It extends eight
miles north and south, and seven miles east and west on its arms of
expansion. Its longest streets, High and Broad, bisect the city north
and south, and east and west respectively. The uniform width of the
former is one hundred feet, and the breadth of the latter is one hundred
and twenty feet. Broad Street is planted with four rows of shade-trees
for its entire length east of Capitol Square, where it penetrates the
fashionable residence district. High Street is the leading business
thoroughfare. Capitol Square, a miniature park of ten acres, is situated
at the intersection of these streets, two squares east of the Scioto
River. The residence portions of the city contain many beautiful homes
and fine mansions. There are numerous apartment buildings; the houses of
the average people are substantial and comfortable. On the business
streets are many handsome, commodious blocks; many steel, brick and
stone office buildings, as well as commodious railway buildings and
stations. The streets are wide, well paved and lighted, and are kept in
good condition.

SPLENDID PUBLIC COMMODITIES

The police and fire departments are excellent; the water supply is pure
and ample, and the sewerage system good. The waterworks are owned by the
city. A large municipal electric-lighting plant was completed in 1908.
Natural gas is the principal fuel for domestic use. Bituminous coal, in
unlimited quantities, is found a few miles to the south.

The church buildings of Columbus include those of the following
religious denominations: Methodist Episcopal, United Presbyterian, Roman
Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Disciples, Friends, Christian Scientist,
Evangelical, Jewish, Independent German Protestant, German Evangelical
Protestant, African Methodist Episcopal, Seventh Day Adventists and
United Brethren. The newspapers and periodicals include English and
German dailies, secular weeklies, and trade, professional, religious,
fraternal and other publications. There are numerous public school
buildings, four being devoted to high-school purposes. Among
institutions for higher education are the Ohio State University, Capital
City University and the Evangelical Theological Seminary. Professional
schools include one dental and three medical colleges, and a law school;
and there are also private and religious educational institutions.
Columbus is the location of a state hospital for the insane; state
institutes for the education of deaf mutes, blind and imbecile youth;
the Ohio penitentiary; county, city and memorial buildings; five opera
houses; and a board of trade building. There are five public parks and a
United States military post, Fort Columbus. This post, known also as
Columbus Barracks, was originally an arsenal, and now has quarters for
eight companies of infantry.

From Columbus steam railroads radiate to all parts of the state,
intersecting all through lines running east, west, northwest, northeast
and south; and interurban lines connect with a model street-railway
system.

TRADE AND INDUSTRIES

Columbus is near the Ohio coal and iron fields, and has an extensive
trade in coal, but its largest industrial interests are in manufactures,
among which the more important are foundry and machine products, boots
and shoes, patent medicines, carriages and wagons, malt liquors,
oleomargarine, iron and steel, and steam railway cars. There are several
large quarries adjacent to the city.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ITS RESIDENTS

The citizens of Columbus possess the characteristic push and enterprise
of western people, and much of the culture and artistic taste of those
in the east. The population is drawn chiefly from the counties in the
state, and especially from those which are centrally located. The
largest foreign elements are German, Irish, Welsh, English and Italian,
and include scattered groups and individuals from almost every civilized
and semi-civilized country in the world.

CHAPTER IX

CINCINNATI: A NEW CENTER OF PERIL

A GREAT MANUFACTURING CITY--THE TUESDAY CLOUDBURST--ANXIOUS
WAITING--HOMES SUBMERGED--FACTORIES FORCED TO CLOSE--THE SITUATION
EVER GRAVER--EXPLOSIONS IN THE CITY--THE CRISIS--FLOOD DAMAGE.

Scarcely had Dayton, Columbus and Zanesville begun their real battle for
restoration when Cincinnati became a new peril center. Situated on the
Ohio River at the point where the Muskingum, Scioto, the two Miamis, and
the Licking were pouring their millions of gallons of flood water into
the river, the city was bound to suffer. It seemed as if the Buckeye
State would never be able to escape from the clutches of the great demon
of flood.

A GREAT MANUFACTURING CITY

Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County, in the extreme
southwest of the state, one of the great commercial and manufacturing
centers of the Union, tenth in nominal rank, and seventh or eighth in
fact. It is situated on the north bank of the Ohio River, almost exactly
half way from its origin at Pittsburgh to its mouth at Cairo, Illinois.

On the western side of the city from west to south runs Mill Creek, the
remains of a once glacial stream, whose gently sloping valley, half a
mile or more wide, forms an easy path into the heart of the city, and
was an indispensable factor in determining its position. Highways,
canals and railroads come through it, and the city's growth has pushed
much farther up this valley than in other directions. The railroad
stockyards are on its eastern slope. Cincinnati extends for about
fourteen miles along the river front, to a width of about five in an
irregular block north from it, but attains a width of six or seven miles
at the extreme point along the creek valley.

The bottom level below the bluffs along the riverside is the seat of the
river shipping business, and has as well the usual fringe of low
quarters; it is paved, and there is a broad public landing fronted by
floating docks, wharf-boats, etc. Above are the wholesale and then the
retail business streets, with great extent and variety of fine business
architecture, and gridironed with electric roads. The principal lines
converge at or near Fountain Square, and connect with a ring of
beautiful suburbs, within and without the city limits, unsurpassed in
America.

Among the sights of interest is the busy public landing or levee. The
Grand Central Depot, a terminal of several of the largest roads, is
centrally situated near the river. Among the most prominent buildings
are that of the United States Government Custom House, the City Hall,
the City Hospital, the Springer Music Hall, the Odd Fellows and Masonic
Temples, the Public Library, with 431,875 volumes, and the Museum of
Natural History. St. Peter's Cathedral, St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal
Cathedral, St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church, the First and Second
Presbyterian Churches, and the Jewish Synagogue are handsome edifices.
Fine hotels and theaters are numerous. The biennial musical festivals
are famous.

THE TUESDAY CLOUDBURST

The troubles of Cincinnati began on Tuesday, March 25th, when the city
experienced a cloudburst that started the gauge rising in the Ohio
River, temporarily flooded the streets of the city and carried away two
bridges over the White Water River, at Valley Junction a short distance
to the south.

PREPARING FOR THE WORST

By Thursday Cincinnati was facing one of the worst floods in her
history. It had rained steadily for twenty-four hours. The flood had
entered several business houses in the lower section during the night
and early morning found the entire "bottoms" a sea of moving vans,
working up to their capacity. At eight o'clock in the evening the gauge
showed 60, a rise of more than three feet since the same hour that
morning.

East and west of the city on the Ohio side of the river the lowlands
were inundated and much damage done. In the low sections of the city
many houses were flooded and the inhabitants of these sections fled to
higher ground.

Across the river at Newport and Covington, Kentucky suburbs of
Cincinnati, similar conditions prevailed and the police early warned
dwellers of the danger that threatened. Dayton and Ludlow, other
Kentucky suburbs, were also sufferers from the rising flood and many
houses were already completely under water.

[Illustration: TOPOGRAPHY OF STRICKEN SECTION OF TWO STATES
Practically every town and city shown in this illustration suffered from
the floods, most of them from loss of life and all of them from property
damage.]

A seventy-foot stage for Cincinnati was predicted. The Central Union
Station was abandoned and all trains leaving or entering the city were
detoured.

ANXIOUS WAITING

Slowly the treacherous waters rose while tired watchers waited
anxiously. Conditions were not acute but distressing. The people knew
that they must face conditions worse than the present. All the lowland
to the west and east of the city had been submerged and also along the
water front of the business section the commercial houses were gradually
disappearing under the yellow river. Hundreds of families along the
river front in Cincinnati had been forced to move by the encroaching
river and many merchants had removed their goods from cellars and
basements to higher ground.

Chief of Police Copeland, however, had the flood work well in hand. The
police were put on twelve-hour duty and worked in the flooded territory
in rowboats.

The city armory sheltered many persons and preparations were made to
distribute food at the city jail. Nearly every landing place along the
river front was piled high with furniture, bedding and other household
effects.

HOMES SUBMERGED

Along the Kentucky shore conditions rapidly became worse. At Covington
more than five hundred houses were submerged and their occupants given
shelter and protection in public buildings.

Plans were formulated to care for flood sufferers, and a meeting was
held at Covington at which arrangements were made to raise a sufficient
fund for the poor. At the same time arrangements also were made for
policing the flood zone and preventing looting.

The river-front section of Ludlow was deep under water and the residents
had moved. Bromley was entirely cut off from other neighboring towns.
Dayton, Kentucky, and other nearby small towns were in the same isolated
condition, and there was much suffering in consequence.

FACTORIES FORCED TO CLOSE

Many of the large manufacturing plants closed because operatives were
unable to reach their places of employment.

Newport, which, with Covington, is directly opposite Cincinnati, forming
the larger of the suburban sections, was in almost as bad a case as its
neighboring city. The flood of water had risen in all parts of the town.

One of the bridges across the Ohio had been closed, and the authorities
were preparing to close others to the public, thus cutting off the south
shore from communication with Cincinnati, and also closing practically
the only railway outlet the latter city had to the South and East.

No food shortage was anticipated, but warnings were issued by the mayor
of this and other nearby cities that merchants must not take advantage
of the situation to charge extortionate prices. All attempts of this
nature in Cincinnati were promptly curbed by the authorities.

THE SITUATION EVER GRAVER

With nearly 15,000 persons in the towns on the Kentucky side of the Ohio
River driven from their homes by the rising flood that was sweeping down
the Ohio Valley and with more than 3,500 homes altogether or partly
submerged, the flood situation in the vicinity of Cincinnati on Saturday
was assuming graver proportions hourly.

The water reached the second floor of a number of business houses along
Front Street and was half way up on the first floor of several blocks of
houses on Second Street. Several lines of the Cincinnati Traction
Company, operating in the lower district were abandoned. Reassuring word
from the packers, commission men and general produce merchants came
early in the day, when it was estimated by experts that Cincinnati had
enough food supplies to last at least ten days without inconveniencing
any one.

Railway service into and out of Cincinnati was virtually at a
standstill. The Louisville and Nashville trains were leaving the city
for the West on time, but arriving trains were much delayed.

So far only one life had been lost as a direct result of the high waters
here. Miss Anna Smith, the first victim, drowned in an attempt to reach
Newport in a skiff that capsized in midstream. Her three men companions
were rescued while swimming to shore.

KENTUCKY SUBURBS IN TROUBLE

Newport and Covington were virtually surrounded by water. Conditions
there were worse than elsewhere and nearly ten thousand people were
driven from their homes. Relief measures, however, were adequate.
Manufacturing plants in the lowlands ceased.

In these two cities the only fear was that health conditions would be
seriously affected because of the clogging of the sewage system and the
stagnation of back water. The water works and gas plants continued in
operation, but the electric light plants had been forced to cease.

In the Kentucky towns of Dayton, Ludlow, Bellevue and Bromley identical
conditions existed, but in their cases all communication with
Cincinnati, Newport and Covington was suspended. These towns remained in
isolation until the water had fallen sufficiently to permit the
operation of street cars on the south side of the river.

In these towns there were 2,000 persons cared for by relief committees.
More than 500 homes disappeared under the flood waters. Property damage
assumed alarming proportions, especially as this was the second time
within three months that the Ohio Valley had suffered from high water.

By Sunday the outlook for Cincinnati was brighter. No trains had gone
out of the city except south to Kentucky by way of Covington, and rail
and telegraph communications were still badly demoralized, but fair,
warm weather which had continued since Thursday had greatly helped the
complex situation. It was predicted that the river would reach its
greatest height at Cincinnati on Monday.

EXPLOSIONS IN THE CITY

Spreading over a vast expanse of territory in Cincinnati, as well as an
almost equal amount in the various towns that lie along the river on the
Kentucky shore, the Ohio continued to rise.

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