A description of the Great Flood of 1913 was provided in the C. C. C. & St. L. (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis) Railway Annual Report for that year. It was published in the following publication and a couple of quoted excerpts follow.
Railway Age Gazette, Volume 56 (New York, NY: Simmons-Boardman Publishing Company, 1914), page 968.
The operation of the property for the first two months of the year indicated a substantial gain over the 1912 results, but the disastrous floods in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois in March caused a suspension of operation of much of the railroad for about thirty days, doing damage to the property of this company that will entail an outlay of about $3,000,000 in the restoration of roadway, bridges, buildings, etc.
Rain began to fall over the Ohio Valley Sunday, March 23, and continued until March 27. The rainfall was general over the entire valley, but much heavier in the states of Ohio and Indiana, where it varied according to location. At Marietta, Ohio, the rainfall was only 2.7 inches, while at Bellefontaine, Ohio, it was 11.2 inches, the average rainfall in Ohio and Indiana being something like 7.8 inches.
It was the unprecedented rainfall for the forty-eight hours ending Tuesday morning, March 25, that caused the extreme high water in the Great Miami, Scioto, Wabash, White, Blue, White Water and Sandusky Rivers. The Great Miami exceeded all previous records at various points by from 7.7 feet to 13.6 feet, the White Water by from 11 to 14 feet, while practically every stream in the two states was reported higher than any previous record.
This was followed in a few days by the rising of the Ohio to within a few inches of its highest record, cutting off all traffic for ten days at Cincinnati, damaging the tracks at Lawrenceburg and overflowing that place. A line drawn around the outermost points where bridges were gone or the line cut embraced 1,230 miles of road of this company. The greater part of the damage to this company's property occurred within a radius of 125 miles of Cincinnati, Ohio. A total of 38 bridges were either totally or partially destroyed, necessitating rebuilding including 3 across the Miami River, 2 across the Mad River, 4 across the White Water River and 2 across the White River. About 50 miles of track and embankment were washed out, varying from 1 to 25 feet in depth, and the combination freight and passenger depots at Brookville, Indiana; New Trenton, Indiana and Cedar Grove, Indiana were washed away. Interlocking plants at Dayton, Ohio; Columbus Ohio, and Indianapolis, Indiana, were considerably damaged.
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Although it will be evident that it is difficult to estimate the effect of the disaster upon the operation, both within and without the zone of the flood (which effect continued to a greater or less extent throughout the remainder of the year), the resulting increase in transportation expenses is estimated at $400,000, bringing the total of loss and damage to this company's property and business attributable to the flood well above $5,000,000.
In Indianapolis, the U. S. Weather Bureau includes the following in its records of the event for Logansport. "March 21, 1913 .54 inches; March 22, 1913 00 inches; March 23, 1913 .45 inches; March 24, 1913 2.30 inches; March 25, 1913 1.97 inches; March 26, 1913 rain gauge washed away by flood and no further record available."
This postcard image is from my Flickr album of 1913 flood postcards. That album contains 76 Indiana postcards plus several close-ups of some of those postcards. This image shows the C. & O. and Pennsylvania railroad bridges that were destroyed by the flood at Muncie, Indiana. This link will take you to that album.
https://flic.kr/s/aHsjsHvjzb
Posted 10/09/2016 5:23 pm
