150 



Flood of March, 1913. 



The appointment of this commission was the direct result of the flood 

 of March. 1913. in which 467 lives were lost and over $160,000,000.00 of 

 property destroyed in the United States. The memory of this catastrophe 

 is still fresh in the minds of the people of Indiana., in which State thirty- 

 nine lives were lost, and over $18,000,000 of property destroyed. 



The total loss in the flood of March, 1913, can never be known. The 

 interruption of transportation and of business, the destruction to farm 

 lands by cutting of banks of rivers and covering of bottom lands with 

 gravel, the loss of productive capacity of manufacturing plants, and the 

 sickness following exposure, are not susceptible of exact computation. 



Professor Beede of Indiana University reports a total damage of ap- 

 proximately one-half million dollars in seven counties in the lower White 

 River basin, in which also nearly eight thousand acres of agricultural 

 land were denuded of soil and some sixteen thousand acres of river bot- 

 toms were covered with soil and silt. He estimates the loss to agricultural 

 land in this region as nearly $250,000.00. 



The loss reported by county auditors to county roads and bridges 

 alone, was over $3,000,000.00. Other tangible losses that have been deter- 

 mined are shown in Table 1. It is probable that the loss during the flood 

 of March. 1913, in Indiana, may be estimated at over $25,000,000.00. 



Indeed the catastrophe was so general over the Ohio Valley that it 

 excited the sympathy and support of the entire nation. The Governor 



of the State of Indiana received $ in subscriptions for the relief 



of flood sufferers in this State. 



Part of Damages Sustained ix the Flood of Maech, 1913. 



1. County highways and bridges $2,825,240 00 



2. Railroads— steam 5,299,810 00 



3. Electric railways 788,000 00 



4. Buildings and personal property 8.104,250 00 



5 Telephone and telegraph 17,510 00 



6. Crops 735.700 00 



7. Livestock 149,380 00 



8. Farm lands 264,700 CO 



9. Suspension of business 5S2,000 00 



Total $18,766,590 00 



