The True Story of Our National Calamity of Flood, Fire and Tornado Part 17

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, ca.n.a.ls 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 s.h.i.+pping 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 princ.i.p.al lines converge at or near Fountain Square, and connect with a ring of beautiful suburbs, within and without the city limits, unsurpa.s.sed 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TOPOGRAPHY OF STRICKEN SECTION OF TWO STATES Practically every town and city shown in this ill.u.s.tration 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 bas.e.m.e.nts 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 sh.o.r.e 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 sh.o.r.e 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 antic.i.p.ated, 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 Sat.u.r.day was a.s.suming 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. Rea.s.suring 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 sh.o.r.e.

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 a.s.sumed alarming proportions, especially as this was the second time within three months that the Ohio Valley had suffered from high water.