Vancouver Sun

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY: 1913

Hundreds of people killed in flooding, fires that engulfed the American Midwest

- jmackie@vancouvers­un.com JOHN MACKIE

If you think the weather is crazy today, you should have been in the American Midwest between March 23 and 26, 1913. A series of storms dumped a biblical amount of rain, sleet and snow on several states, sometimes accompanie­d by tornadoes. All the precipitat­ion caused widespread flooding and death and destructio­n. The death toll was highest in Dayton, Ohio, where nearly a foot of rain fell between March 23 and 25. This swelled the Great Miami River, which burst over levees on March 25 to flood the downtown. The water crested at 20 feet on March 26 — high enough to submerge a twostorey building. To make matters worse, there was a huge gas explosion in the middle of the flood that started a fire that levelled a city block. “12,000 MAY HAVE PERISHED,” read the headline on the March 26 edition of The Vancouver World. “FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND ARE HOMELESS. EXPLOSION IN DAYTON ADDS TO HORROR. BLACK HAVOC REIGNS.” “Black havoc” did indeed reign. The World carried a short but terrifying dispatch that read: “There has been an explosion in the middle of Dayton and the town is on fire. The loss of life has been increased. People are burning up. We have no way to get to them or the fire, either, now.” The following day’s headlines were just as bleak. “FIRE AGAIN IN LEAGUE WITH TREACHEROU­S FLOOD,” said the World. “PILES OF HUMAN BODIES LINE RIVER BANKS. TEN THOUSAND MAY BE DEAD IN DAYTON.” The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that 80 per cent of Dayton was underwater by March 26. “The erstwhile Gem City is nothing less than a seething river three miles wide, a mile-and-ahalf on either side of Main Street, its principal thoroughfa­re,” the paper noted. “The Miami river forms a circle in the centre of Dayton and is bounded on the east side by a canal. All this territory is a scene of desolation and loss of life and property.” Rumours were rampant. The Enquirer said that 5,000 people were dead in Dayton, 400 of them in a school that had been swallowed up by the flood waters. Five hundred more people were feared lost at nearby Piqua, Ohio, which was reported to be “in flames.” Five hundred were feared drowned at Peru, Ind. Everyone was in a panic, literally. In the case of Columbus, Ohio, rumours spread that a dam had burst and that a 40-foot-high wall of water was about to hit the city. “The report reached the police, and the entire motor bicycle squad was dispatched along High Street to warn people to flee,” said the Enquirer. “Fully 50,000 people were in motion within 10 minutes, running wildly towards the eastern end of the city, preceded by hundreds of madly driven wagons and automobile­s filled with frightened men and women.” Back in Dayton, thieves tried to take advantage of the chaos. “Enraged bystanders beat a ghoul almost to death near the Hickory floor relief headquarte­rs early this morning,” the Enquirer reported on March 28. “Suspicious actions of the man caused a party of citizens to seize him. When searched, the hand of a woman, upon the fingers of which were a number of rings, was found in his pocket. “Being unable to strip the jewels from the fingers cold in death, the ghoul had hacked the hand off at the wrist to get away with his booty.” As it turned out, the loss of life was not nearly as severe as first reported. Today, it is believed about 360 people perished in Dayton and its environs. Another 300 people are believed to have died during the storms and floods that affected 13 states. But it was still the second-deadliest flood in U.S. history, after the 1889 Johnstown flood that killed 2,200 people.

 ?? PNG FILES ?? The front page of the March 26, 1913 Vancouver World, which reported on a deadly flood in the American Midwest.
PNG FILES The front page of the March 26, 1913 Vancouver World, which reported on a deadly flood in the American Midwest.

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