Ohio marks 1913 flood centennial | The Bellevue Gazette

By KANTELE FRANKO

Asso?ci?ated?Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) ? State offi?cials are using the 100th anniver?sary of a dev?as?tat?ing and deadly flood to encour?age Ohioans to pre?pare for poten?tial high water emer?gen?cies by review?ing their response plans and insur?ance coverage.

On the heels of the state and national Flood Safety Aware?ness Week, Sat?ur?day marks the cen?ten?nial of the 1913 storms that rolled through the Mid?west and hung over the Ohio Val?ley for sev?eral days, cre?at?ing the state?s worst weather disaster.

Sev?eral days of rain flooded all of Ohio?s rivers and streams and more than 35,000 homes and left at least 400 peo?ple dead in the state, or per?haps 600 by some esti?mates. It washed away or dam?aged docks, bridges, rail?roads and trains, wreak?ing havoc from Cincin?nati to Portsmouth to Cleve?land and hin?der?ing efforts to get aid to dam?aged areas. Lev?ees broke, drench?ing var?i?ous cities and leav?ing parts of Day?ton and Colum?bus with 10?feet of water or?more.

?There?s noth?ing to pre?vent a storm like this from occur?ring again,? said Sarah Jami?son, a hydrol?o?gist with National Weather Ser?vice. ?Mother Nature has her own way of deal?ing with things, so it?s our role to try to be pre?pared and react appro?pri?ately to?that.?

The sys?tem, which led to sig?nif?i?cant flood?ing in more than a dozen states, from Illi?nois through Con?necti?cut, stands out not just because of how much rain fell but also because it encom?passed such a large geo?graphic area, said Jami?son, who stud?ied the flood and found many Ohioans know lit?tle about?it.

?It?s really fas?ci?nat?ing to think, ?How did the col?lec?tive mind?set really not remem?ber this event?? It?s an answer I don?t have,? said Jami?son, part of the Ohio Sil?ver Jack?ets, a group of local, state and fed?eral rep?re?sen?ta?tives focused on flood control.

In hard-hit south?west Ohio, the dis?as?ter spurred a regional pur?suit of solu?tions to area flood prob?lems and even?tu?ally led to the Miami Con?ser?vancy Dis?trict, which focuses on flood pro?tec?tion, water qual?ity and pro?mot?ing recre?ation along water?ways in the Great Miami River Water?shed. The area?s flood pro?tec?tion sys?tem was designed to pro?tect against flood?ing even more severe than what hap?pened in?1913.

Angela Manuszak, the district?s spe?cial projects coor?di?na?tor, calls it a tale of resilience and sac?ri?fice for the ben?e?fit of the larger com?mu?nity and says many fam?i?lies in the area have passed down sto?ries about the flood. She has one, too ? a tid?bit about how her grand?fa?ther helped with the cleanup as part of the Ohio National Guard out of Toledo and later kept in his home a ?very uncom?fort?able Vic?to?rian chair? sup?pos?edly taken from the floodwaters.

The dis?trict, his?tor?i?cal orga?ni?za?tions, libraries and other groups are com?mem?o?rat?ing the cen?ten?nial with a vari?ety of events, some hope?ful, oth?ers more somber. In Day?ton, an exhibit about the flood is being unveiled Sat?ur?day at Car?il?lon His?tor?i?cal?Park.

Mem?bers of the Sil?ver Jack?ets acknowl?edge the con?di?tions that led to the 1913 flood are rare but say it?s impor?tant to remem?ber the pos?si?bil?ity of sim?i?lar rain?fall still exists, albeit in an envi?ron?ment with greatly improved mea?sures to pre?vent flood?ing, pro?tect prop?erty and warn residents.

Some of those improve?ments began with the pub?lic out?cry over the 1913 flood, which started a larger-scale con?ver?sa?tion about flood mit?i?ga?tion, Jami?son?said.

That con?ver?sa?tion con?tin?ues as state offi?cials use the anniver?sary to bring up that?topic.

?Whether 100?years ago or today, flood?ing can be dev?as?tat?ing on a per?sonal and mate?r?ial level,? Depart?ment of Insur?ance Direc?tor and Lt. Gov. Mary Tay?lor said in a state?ment urg?ing Ohioans to re-evaluate whether they might need flood insur?ance, which is not part of tra?di?tional homeowner?s or renter?s insurance.

The annual cost of res?i?den?tial flood insur?ance poli?cies, which are pur?chased through pri?vate insur?ers but admin?is?tered by the government?s National Flood Insur?ance Pro?gram, can range from less than $200 to $500 or more depend?ing on the extent of the cov?er?age, up to $250,000. Such insur?ance is avail?able in com?mu?ni?ties that par?tic?i?pate in the pro?gram and meet cer?tain guide?lines, such as agree?ing to adopt mea?sures that reduce flood?ing?risks.

About 42,000 Ohio house?holds have insur?ance through the fed?eral pro?gram, accord?ing to gov?ern?ment data, and about 1,500 claims total?ing $29.6 mil?lion were closed in Ohio in the fis?cal year that ended Sept. 30. The mapped flood plain areas in Ohio include about 280,000 struc?tures, and about 10 per?cent of those are cov?ered by flood insur?ance, accord?ing to the government.

Source: http://thebellevuegazette.com/local-news/ohio-marks-1913-flood-centennial/

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