BYBEE-MALOTT : THE FLOOD OP 1913 



165 



In regards to levees and embankments very few were present 

 for consideration. The levees near the river were insignificant 

 and seemingly had no effect for bad or for good. Only one embank- 

 ment occurs that deserves consideration. Outside of the damage 

 done by bank cutting, nearly as much damage was done below the 

 B. & 0. Railroad grade near Washington as was done within the 

 entire river scope of the two counties. The grade is high, being 

 perhaps twenty feet on the average. There is no trestle-work 

 west of the river and very little east of it, thus compelling the enor- 

 mous amount of water to rush under the bridge. The central pier 

 was washed out and the steel bridge collapsed. Nearly a mile east 



Fig. 3oa. Frogeye, in Shoals, looking south. 



of the river there was a short trestle-work across a hole known as 

 the ^Blue Hole.' This trestle-work was carried out and part of a train 

 was carried down with it. Four lives were lost here. The bodies 

 of two of the victims were not found until two weeks later, when 

 they were found under several feet of sand. Below this 'Blue 

 Hole' sixty acres were covered with sand from a few inches to five 

 or six feet in depth. On the- west side of the river just below the 

 bridge two acres were cut from the bank where the water rushed 

 against it in coming through the opening under the bridge. Large 

 trees were w^ashed out and carried away. Six hundred acres were 

 denuded, and forty acres of wheat were washed away, and eighty 

 acres were covered more or less unevenly with white sand. 



