56 



out for about half a mile and water a foot deep poured over the whole 

 length of the Wabash-avenue grade, forming a waterfall about two feet 

 high upon the iuternrban track on the south side. A bayou which cuts 

 into the terrace on tbe northwestern edge of Terre Haute was flooded and 

 about sixty houses were covered or floated away. The flood still lacked 

 thirteen feet of reaching the lowest levels of the Terre Haute terrace, 

 but threatened or reached the basements of several public utility stations 

 along its river edge. The water-works pumping station did not suspend 

 operation, although the filtering plant was unusable. The station which 

 furnishes city light and power for car lines was protected by a temporary 

 levee and out of business but a few liours. The gas works shut down four- 

 teen hours. 



Terre Haute was without railroad eomniunication for about a week, 

 but mail and passengers were transferred two miles by boat. One of the 

 peculiar and interesting marks left by the flood was the spreading out of 

 the gravel from the broken Vandalia grade into a great fan. which buried 

 many liouses in West Terre Haute up to the second story in gravel. The 

 railroad and sti'eet grades acted as so many dams to compel the flood 

 water to pass through the normal channel 700 feet wide. If they had been 

 provided with adequate openings high water would have been several feet 

 lowev. the grades would have been left intact and West Terre Haute un- 

 covered by water or gravel. During inidsunnner low water the discovery 

 was made that the piers of the Wabash-avenue bridge had been seriously 

 undei-mined and they had to be strengthened with concrete. The dis- 

 charge of flood water under the bridges has been estimated at 300 times 

 as great as the normal, a contingency for which the bridge engineers liad 

 not provided. 



