Events to mark 1913 flood centennial

GARY BUDZAK

Staff Writer

The cen­ten­nial of the 1913 flood will be com­mem­o­rated with two free events on Mon­day, March 25.

At 10 a.m., a cast-metal his­tor­i­cal plaque will be unveiled near the west bank of the Olen­tangy River beside the pedes­trian path between William and Win­ter streets. City offi­cials, mem­bers of the Delaware County His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety and St. Mary School stu­dents will be on hand for the dedication.

“The Great Flood of 1913: Could It Hap­pen Again?” will be pre­sented at 7 p.m. in Willis Inter­me­di­ate School, 74 W. William St. Delaware Lake Resource Man­ager Ben O’Dell will dis­cuss flood con­trol and how water lev­els at Delaware Dam are handled.

His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety Pres­i­dent Brent Car­son will show pic­tures of the flood and share infor­ma­tion from news­pa­pers of the time.

In addi­tion, he will show video clips of flood sur­vivors’ mem­o­ries that were recorded around the 75th anniver­sary of the dis­as­ter, but have never been seen before.

“I was so for­tu­nate I was part of this 25 years ago,” Car­son said.

“We brought together mem­bers of the com­mu­nity who could still remem­ber it, and we put them on tape. We have some great sto­ries that some of them told of the flood.”

Accord­ing to the city, the flood on March 25, 1913, was the worst nat­ural dis­as­ter in both the state of Ohio and Delaware city. Statewide, 428 peo­ple were killed and more than 20,000 homes were destroyed. Car­son said the flood also hit Colum­bus and Day­ton hard. In Delaware, 18 died and 60 struc­tures were affected when heavy rains caused the Olen­tangy to rise to 32 feet, or 23 feet above flood stage. The Cen­tral Avenue, William Street and Win­ter Street bridges were swept away, along with the Big Four rail­road bridge.

Car­son said a 100 years ago, flood­ing in the area was much more com­mon because there was no dam on the Olen­tangy River.

“Many peo­ple liv­ing close to the river did not leave their homes, think­ing, ‘We had the flood before. It wasn’t that bad. We’ll wait it out,’” Car­son said. “I think today that reac­tion would be different.”

In addi­tion to the March 25 events, Car­son will lead “flood walks” at noon, 2 and 4 p.m. on March 30 and April 6; and at 2 and 4 p.m. April 7.

The walks begin and end at the Society’s Cry­der His­tor­i­cal Cen­ter, 157 E. William St., and visit the east side and down­town areas hit hard­est by the flood.

The city said some tem­po­rary mark­ers will be placed to indi­cate the water depths from the flood.

Each tour is lim­ited to 30 peo­ple and reser­va­tions are required.

Tick­ets for the walk are $10; or $5 for chil­dren and stu­dents through col­lege; and $20 per fam­ily. For more infor­ma­tion, call 740–369-3831 or visit delawareohiohistory.org.

Posted by Staff Reports on Mar 21 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.