214 APRIL,1910 :RS AND FLOODS. EIVERS AND FLOODS, APBIL, 1916. Red River of the North broke up and went out during the early art of the month. By ALFREDJ. HENRY,Professor in Charge River and Flood Division. The fol owino is abstracted from a report on this flood (Dated: Weather Bureau, lune 1,1918.1 Q b Observer a. R. Hovde, Devils Lake, N. Dak., in FLOOD IN THE MI8SISSIPP1, ST. PAUL TO HANNIBAL. ciaroe of the warning service on the Red River of the Nor&:T The snow cover in northern Minnesota and northern During t.he closing clays of March. 1916, t,he river began t,orise rapidly Wisconsin began to melt during the closing days of March. in it.s upper reaches csout,hern portion), due to t.lie inelting of a moder- The breaking up of the ice in conjunction with the run-off at.ely deep snow layer. At tliis time and duriiig t.hc fore part of April, from snow, which seems to havecontinued during the first the main stream in its lower course f nort.1ic.m podon of t.he valley) was few da -s of April, caused a moderate flood wave to pass still icebound ancl the adjacent cIist,rict.scovered 1vii.h snow to a depth of 1 or '3. feet. down th e Mississip i during the first part of the month. The ice broke up and went out on high st,ages suhstant,iallyas fore- Thecrest stages oP this initial flood occurred about as cast on an average of three days in advance. In point of magnitude follows: St. Paul, 6th; La Crosse, 10th; Dizbuclue, 14th; the flood wave at Moorhead. Minn.. was thq createst since 1903, the Daven ort, 18th; Hannibal, 33d. A slight swell crested river cresting 4.2 feet. above tlie floocl stzgc. rlie valley surface, being Him ~lya great.. hroad plain, was not daniaged by t,he flood waters. at St. Eouis on the 324 but the main flood wave appar- Altioogh the spring wheat, seeding had not started, its delay by the entl flattened out between Hannibal and St. Louis. wrplus flood wat.ern may result in decreased acreage on t.he farms along d sooner had this flood crest passed than a period of the river. The rhief injury was to loiv-ly1ng property in l'argo. Grand ractically 84 hours' continuous rain set in over the niitl- Forks. and Moorhead. The t,otal c1ania:e iu t.he valley was approxi- %e aix-1 upper ortions of the main stream-see path of mately $50.000. Low No. XIT, 8hart I11 (xLIv-~S). The rain was not I?TwZson R.ivcr.-Flood stages were reached at Albany uniformly heavy throu hout the entire period, but the and Troy, N. T., tis shown in Ttible 5. The breaking up fall in Minnesota and 4isconsin on the 30tmh-21stcaused of the ice in the stream was not attended by senous flood stages in the rivers of those States, and these floods, resul t.s. coming at a time when the trunk streain was already at a C'mn.ectinct Riz;o..-Flood stages were reached in the high at e, precipitated a second flood in tlie Mississi pi Connect.icut,twice during t.he niont.li,first, on the 2d and34 between"Ej, a Crosse and Hannibal. The movement of tY 11s and, second, on t,lie 24tmh-25t*h.The first flood was due flood downstream was about as follows: St. Paul, April to the breaking up of the ice in conjunction wit,h the 28; La Crosse, April 29; Dubuque, May 4; Davenport, run-off froni snow. The continued melt-ingof snow caused May 7; Hannibal, May 16; St. Louis, May 20. It should t.he river to remain at a high stage, and moderate rains on be remarked that at St. Louis t,he flood stage was not the 23d-23cl caused the uiver to reach flood stqe the reached. While the history of this second flood beloii second time. The damages were noniinal. Statistical in the record for May, it is convenient to consider botT 1 data are given in Table 7. floods at the same tinie. Trin.it?yRiver of Te.ra,s.-Heavy rains on t,he 1st and The principal daniage caused by the flood waters was 3d over the u xr Trinit. watcrshed-see path of Low in the overflow of agricultural lands, the flooding of rel- No. I, Chart !?I-causec a sharp flood at Ddlns and lars and factories close to the sheam, and tlie destruction point,s above and a long-drawnQ out flood in tlie lower of some hay that had not been removed from tlie bottom reaches, where the st.ream did not, return wit.hin ita banks lands. The overflow of a large acreage of agricultural until the middle of May (Table 3 1. lands was accomplished mainly throu h overtopping and Brcrzos R.iver of Teras.-This river WM in flood locd giving way of levees at various oints a ong the river, espe.- at ~acoa.nd a short distance below from t,lie 1st to tlie d cially in the nei liborhood of binona,F Minn:, ancl on t;he The dama e wm niainly to crops on the land that was Illinois side of t7l e Mississi i at various points between overfloweB and to bank cutkin in places (Table 3). Rock Island and Quincy, I!Z It is et too soon to fully Rrd Riwr 8 Louisici.nu.-T kle rainstorm tsliat caused measure the seriousness of the overI ow, since there is a floods in the rjnity and Bmzos Riveis was also effective ' possibility of at least some of tsheoverflowed land being in producing a moderate flood in the Red and Sulphur planted to crops diirino t.he resent sea.son. A rough esti- Rivers during the early days of the nionth. The dama$e mate of the anzount 07 lanfoverflowed is 70,000 acres. wtls confined mostalyto t,lie lowlands of the Red River in The property loss due to these floods was minimized to Arkansm, where some aeculturnl land was overflowed. a great estent by the warnings of their approach, which Rivers of Arkcr:nsas.-The same storm as above men- were distributed well in advance. t'ioned was also the came of moderate floods in the rivers Statistical data of tlie floods in the u per Mississippi of Arkansas. Other floods occurred as shown in Table 1, and tributaries appear in Table 1. .R le lower river, due to rainstorms over the State. be seen from the hydrograph for Vicksburg, Rivers of North Carolinu.-Moderate rains on the 7th , Ea?, rose continuously until the 26th, t,hen began to and Sth produced n brief flood in t.he Cape Fear and, fall. It is important to note that althou h the river in Neuse Rivers. No damage. the stretch between Dubuque, Iowa, and 8annibal, Mo., Rhms of Colorndo.--Owiw t,o t.he rent snow cover, was in flood continuous1 for almost half the month, the particularf over the higher akitudes oH the western slope flood stage at St. Louis, iL o., was not reached. That fact of the Rocgy Mountains, some fear of a destructive flood wasprobably due to the overflow at various points in in the lower Colorado had been espressed. Owing to Illinois, and the channel capacity of the stream between alternating periods of warm md cold weather, the run-off Hannibal and St. Louis. from snow was not extraordinanly heavy or sustained and Red River the North.4wing to causes set forth in the month closed without tohe occurrence of damaging oonnection with the first Mississippi flood, the ice in the floods. Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/27/21 05:49 PM UTC AIJRIL, 1916. MONTHLY WESTHER REVIEW. 215 Properly loas by .floods. TABLE?.-Floods in the Ohio Riaer and tributaries during April, 1916. Trinity River of Texas. ................................. $293,383 Brazos River of Texas. ................................. 124.750 Ohio and Erlissisippi (Cairo district)..................... I,750 Lower Mississippi Valley (New Orleans dktrict! January to April inclueive: Hdildings .......................................... nata. Roads and bridges. ................................ Prospective crops (33.600 acres). ..................... Fret. Frct. Crops, not housed.. ................................ ......... hhrirtta. Ohio.. .......... 33.0 a?. 5 1 Live stock and other muvahle property. ............. ....... ..... ...... 35.4 1 Suspension of businesa, including wages of eniployeeu.. ......... ..... 1 an......... C8;lattsl,urg. Iiy.. ........ ................I 49.3 1 Losa sustained by railroads in Mi.lia&ippi 'Calle:; during 1U.. ....... l'nrtsmouth. Uiiio.. ...... 1 2 52.2 1 FebrGary and March, 1916. not previoiusly reported.. .... ]:lo.. ....... Xlaysvillr. Rv.. .......... 1 1 51.3 1 Red River (Shreveport district,): lm.. ....... I'iniinnati. GIiio.. ........ 1 3 53.5 1 Do.. ....... lknlmiik I Don 3i). i>l.io. ................ .10.0 1 Levees ............................................. Do.. ....... Mmli?on. Jnd ............. ................ 44.5 2 Prospective crops (10.OoO acres). ..................... 1'0.. ....... 1.ouirville. Kv.. .......... ................ 27.3 3 Movable property. ................................. no.. ....... (kwrpi.rt. Cv.. ......... .:II.II 1 6 43.3 .I Du.. ....... E~~ns\-ille,Inal.. ......... 3:. ii 1 in 39.9 5 Suspension of business. ............................. rm.. ....... Hen*l:.rhon. Kv.. ......... :XII 6 Saginaw River (March and early April I: h......... ?donnt \'emmi, Ilici.. ..... :<:.:I 2' it;Ill 37.939.4 G. 2 Tangible propert,y.. ................................. DO......... PIP~\\II~PIO\\TI. 111.. ....... xi. n 11 39.4 I Jlo.. ....... C'oiro. 111. ................. i5.n 44.6 9 Cropsnot,housed.................................... .\llPcl.rny.. .... OI?:in. N. T............... 12.0 1 Live stock, farm buildings.. ......................... Ih.. ....... Wmw, J'L. ............. 12.11 2 13.1 1 Suspension of businees. ............................. I~J........