Read Online Washed Away: How the Great Flood of 1913, America's Most Widespread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed It Forever by Geoff Williams - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Geoff Williams
Tags: United States, Fiction, General, History, State & Local, Modern, Nature, 19th century, Natural Disasters, Midwest (IA; IL; IN; KS; MI; MN; MO; ND; NE; OH; SD; WI)
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couldnâtcontinue much longer, and they could revisit the idea of leaving the orphanage in the morning.
Sometime in the evening, Cincinnati, Ohio
The Queen City hadnât seen much flooding, but there was plenty of wind: witness a 22-year-old male whose name, according to the papers, was Valenti Boeh, son of a cafe store owner. One can only wonder what went through his mind in the last moments of his life as he was blown off the street and into the raging waters of the Ohio and Erie Canal.
7:10 P . M ., Makanda, Illinois
Whether technically part of the storm system affecting the Midwest, Northeast, and parts of the South, or just some additional fun that nature wanted to throw into the mix, a storm with 75-mile-an-hour winds ripped through the village. Almost nonstop lightning kept the sky bright, and a funnel cloud emerged, possibly the seventh or thirteenth tornado, depending, again, on what sources one wants to go with. The wind targeted an Illinois Central freight train with forty-one cars, blowing twenty-one of them off the track and obliterating ten of them, such was the power of this tornado.
The contents of the train and much of the village spilled onto the track, fields, and roads but were soon washed away by three inches of rain.
Thirty-nine farmers saw either their house or barn blown to bits, ten people were injured, and three people were killed.
7:30 P . M ., Peru, Indiana
The flooding didnât seem all that serious to many people in this town of approximately sixteen thousand, located seventy miles north of Indianapolis and sixty miles southwest of Ft. Wayne. It was probably easy to dismiss something like the weather. The bustling community was on the move, with plenty to distract it. The city had five public schools, several society clubs, a much-admired library, and numerous manufacturing plants. Six rail lines, three electric and three steam, brought goods and passengers into the city. Peru supported three daily newspapers and two weeklies, and in recent years, the community had opened up a city park with electric lightsand a bandstand. The fire station had just been modernized in the last year, purchasing two trucks, with pumps that could spray five hundred gallons of water per minute. It was a growing, dynamic city that would soon be covered in muddy river water. The elevenman police force would be tested as never before.
But on the evening of March 24, Peru residents had no idea what was coming. Nobody could turn to a 24-hour news network to learn that some random people had drowned in communities several hours away and start putting the dots together that this was not an average seasonal flood. There were no radio stations to listen to, although radio technology was making inroads into some levels of society, with the Titanic memorably using their radio room almost a year earlier. Information was dribbling in to the local newspapers, which were preparing issues for the next morning. People could look out their window or get the occasional phone call or telegram to learn what was going on away from their own home.
The river ambushed Peru in a surprise attack, with the river storming the city all at once, versus gradually coming into the streets. Officials would conclude that part of the reason the river rushed out of its banks was a railroad bridge that had been built too low. Debris piled up, creating a dam that eventually burst, allowing an obscene amount of water to come into the city at full force.
The water attacked downtown Peru. Clarence Breen, the section foreman for the railroad leading into Peru, was one of the first to see it coming. He didnât stick around to regard it for long, of course, since he and his crew were too busy running for higher ground. Up until then, the 33-year-old and his men had been clearing the railroad of debris. The storm that had come through the day before, part of the tempest that hit Omaha, Nebraska, littered the tracks with ripped-off barn
Sometime in the evening, Cincinnati, Ohio
The Queen City hadnât seen much flooding, but there was plenty of wind: witness a 22-year-old male whose name, according to the papers, was Valenti Boeh, son of a cafe store owner. One can only wonder what went through his mind in the last moments of his life as he was blown off the street and into the raging waters of the Ohio and Erie Canal.
7:10 P . M ., Makanda, Illinois
Whether technically part of the storm system affecting the Midwest, Northeast, and parts of the South, or just some additional fun that nature wanted to throw into the mix, a storm with 75-mile-an-hour winds ripped through the village. Almost nonstop lightning kept the sky bright, and a funnel cloud emerged, possibly the seventh or thirteenth tornado, depending, again, on what sources one wants to go with. The wind targeted an Illinois Central freight train with forty-one cars, blowing twenty-one of them off the track and obliterating ten of them, such was the power of this tornado.
The contents of the train and much of the village spilled onto the track, fields, and roads but were soon washed away by three inches of rain.
Thirty-nine farmers saw either their house or barn blown to bits, ten people were injured, and three people were killed.
7:30 P . M ., Peru, Indiana
The flooding didnât seem all that serious to many people in this town of approximately sixteen thousand, located seventy miles north of Indianapolis and sixty miles southwest of Ft. Wayne. It was probably easy to dismiss something like the weather. The bustling community was on the move, with plenty to distract it. The city had five public schools, several society clubs, a much-admired library, and numerous manufacturing plants. Six rail lines, three electric and three steam, brought goods and passengers into the city. Peru supported three daily newspapers and two weeklies, and in recent years, the community had opened up a city park with electric lightsand a bandstand. The fire station had just been modernized in the last year, purchasing two trucks, with pumps that could spray five hundred gallons of water per minute. It was a growing, dynamic city that would soon be covered in muddy river water. The elevenman police force would be tested as never before.
But on the evening of March 24, Peru residents had no idea what was coming. Nobody could turn to a 24-hour news network to learn that some random people had drowned in communities several hours away and start putting the dots together that this was not an average seasonal flood. There were no radio stations to listen to, although radio technology was making inroads into some levels of society, with the Titanic memorably using their radio room almost a year earlier. Information was dribbling in to the local newspapers, which were preparing issues for the next morning. People could look out their window or get the occasional phone call or telegram to learn what was going on away from their own home.
The river ambushed Peru in a surprise attack, with the river storming the city all at once, versus gradually coming into the streets. Officials would conclude that part of the reason the river rushed out of its banks was a railroad bridge that had been built too low. Debris piled up, creating a dam that eventually burst, allowing an obscene amount of water to come into the city at full force.
The water attacked downtown Peru. Clarence Breen, the section foreman for the railroad leading into Peru, was one of the first to see it coming. He didnât stick around to regard it for long, of course, since he and his crew were too busy running for higher ground. Up until then, the 33-year-old and his men had been clearing the railroad of debris. The storm that had come through the day before, part of the tempest that hit Omaha, Nebraska, littered the tracks with ripped-off barn
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