MEMORABLE FLOODS!

Memorable Floods

As we continue our America 250 series along the Waterville timeline, we look back at the early  20th century when many exciting changes were happening in our community. Waterville also experienced two of the worst floods in our history in the first fifteen years; the floods of 1904 and 1913.

The Flood of 1904

The 1904 flood was an ice event. November and December were extremely cold. Thick ice formed on the lake and on the river, especially on the slack-water pool behind the Grand Rapids dam.

Then, during second week in January, a big January thaw arrived. Snow melted rapidly, filling the river with large amounts of water. When the ice began to break up, it had nowhere to go because the lake was still frozen solid. Huge ice dams piled up, causing the river to back up over its banks. Eventually, the flood water was deep enough to push the ice down river until it jammed up again. All the river towns from Grand Rapids to Toledo suffered significant water and ice damage in this flood. You can see the 1904 high-water mark on Grand Rapids sign.

Here in Waterville, our Main Street (River Road) was covered with water, and basements and first floors on both sides of the road were flooded. Ice piled up in backyards, but the worst damage occurred when the ice took out two spans of our 1880 Wagon Bridge. It took many months to repair this bridge.

In the meantime, some enterprising folks rigged a suspended cable car contraption to cross the river. One memorable story in our archives involves a Waterville High School student from the Wood County side of the river who almost missed his graduation. In May, while riding the cable car, the suspension broke, dropping him into the shallow water and breaking his leg. He had to ride the cable car again to his graduation ceremony - where he graduated on crutches. (Visit our archives to learn more about this story.)

The Flood of 1913

The 1913 flood was different than the 1904 flood, it was a rain event. The storm began days before with severe weather and tornados in the West. As the storm moved east, a near biblical rain flooded fourteen states, with Ohio and Indiana getting the worst of it.

The rain began on Easter Sunday, March 23, 1913, and continued for four days, giving us four months’ worth of rain. All the Ohio rivers were out of their banks. While there was no loss of life in our area, southern Ohio and especially Dayton suffered hundreds of fatalities and millions in property damage. Here in Waterville the river covered River Road and reached partway up the hill on the west bound streets. Residents used canoes and rowboats to travel up and down the streets to check on neighbors and view the damage. To make matters worse, the canal also overflowed, sending torrents of water down the hill, leaving lower town residents between two overflowing bodies of water. The school and many houses suffered considerable damage from this flood. At least we had no trouble with our bridge this time.

BY: JOHN ROSE