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Show Chapter 3 Water Development Needs, Opportunities, and Programs Flood Control Damaging floods have been a part of the history of the Ohio River Basin and its people. Great floods are known to have occurred in 1763, 1772 or 1773, and in 1861. The greatest floods of mod- ern record, occurring in 1913, 1936, and 1937, caused damages estimated at 180 million, 150 mil- lion, and 400 million dollars, respectively. The 1937 flood was the most disastrous ever experienced in the basin. More than 500,000 persons were driven from their homes and 65 persons lost their lives. Virtually all rail, telegraph, telephone, power, and highway facilities along the river were interrupted for periods lasting from a week to a month. Business and industry were paralyzed. In spite of the prevalence and great height of floods, extensive industrial development has proceeded in the valleys of the Ohio River and several of its major tributaries. Limited measures to protect against floods were taken early. Levees were built by private land- owners in tihe Wabash Basin to protect farm lands in the broad fertile flood plains as early as 1808. Later, local groups built levees and flood walls to partially protect Shawneetown, 111., Portsmouth, Ohio, Lawrenceburg, Ind., and other communities. Following the flood of 1913, the Miami Conserv- ancy District designed and built a system of retard- ing reservoirs and channel improvements in the Miami River Basin. In the 1938 Flood Control Act,1 Congress ap- proved a comprehensive flood control plan for the Ohio River Basin and authorized the appropriation of funds to initiate the accomplishment of the plan. The basic concept of the Corps of Engineers 1 Act of June 28, 1938, § 4, 52 Stat. 1215. plan for flood control is determined by the hydro- logic and physiographic characteristics and the state of development in various parts of the basin. It is not practicable to control flood waters by res- ervoirs alone or by protection of particular locali- ties alone. Accordingly, the plan includes an inte- grated system of reservoirs on tributaries and local protection works along the main stream as well as in tributary basins. The measures planned would provide a high de- gree of protection in most of the tributary valleys by means of reservoirs, supplemented in some cases by local works. Reservoirs alone will insure a high degree of protection in the upper basin area at Pittsburgh. Localized damage centers along the Ohio Valley below the mouth of the Beaver River will be protected by local works supplemented by the flood reductions brought about by the tributary reservoirs. Flood flows into the Mississippi River will be reduced by means of tributary reservoirs favorably situated for that purpose. Storage of flood waters for later regulated release for pollution abatement, navigation, power development, and water supply has been included in the reservoir plans where these functions have been considered practicable. The approved basin-wide plan includes 80 res- ervoirs located in tributary basins and 240 local flood-protection projects in tributary basins and along the main stem of the Ohio. The status of these projects is indicated below. Existing Improvements Reservoirs have been constructed by the Corps of Engineers at 24 locations in the Ohio River Basin. The aggregate storage capacity of these reservoirs is 6,473,000 acre-feet (table 5). 637 |
