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Greenville
Public
Library
History
of 1913
Flood at Library
In
the aftermath
of Hurricane Sandy everyone is painfully aware of the terrible
destruction
caused by flood waters. Just
before the
storm hit the eastern seaboard on October 29th the Greenville Public
Library
was offered an extremely interesting book on the Great Flood of 1913
which
struck Dayton and the Miami Valley.
It’s called And Through the Black Night
of Terror, The 1913 Flood In the
Northern Miami Valley by Scott Trostle.
Most
people
remember seeing pictures of Dayton from late March, 1913 - Main Street
flooded,
water up to the second stories of buildings, the rubble and debris that
was
left. It’s also
well known that the
recovery efforts were led by John Patterson of NCR and that the Miami
Conservancy District was formed to protect the region from future
floods.
But
little has
been known of the effects of the 1913 Flood in the northern Miami
Valley
including the counties of Miami, Shelby, Darke, Champaign, and Logan.
Now
Scott’s meticulously researched book fills that gap in history with a
day-by-day narrative and many never-before-seen pictures and maps.
Roads,
homes,
businesses, factories, power stations, and railways were under water;
264
bridges collapsed; fresh water was not available nor any
communications. 72
people drowned and 1000’s of livestock. “It was the worst-ever disaster
to
visit the northern Miami Valley.”
As in
Dayton there were many stories of rescue and heroism. The clean-up and
restoration
took at least ten years.
Scott
Trostle is
an area historian who’s written 44 books.
More about the book can be found at
www.http://1913floodbook.com or come
to the Library to check out this great addition to our local history
collection.
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