Washed Away: How the Great Flood of 1913, America's Most Widespread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed It Forever (54 page)

April 1913, Memphis. A tent city is erected alongside some floodwaters.
Both images courtesy of Memphis and Shelby County Room, Memphis Public Library & Information Center
.

Survivors survey the wreckage shortly after the March 23, 1913 tornado in Omaha.

Another look at Omaha after the March 23, 1913 tornado.

Tornadoes have a way of making everything look the same. These are the remains of a home destroyed in Terre Haute, Indiana.
All three images courtesy of The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce, archival photography by Steve Nicklas, NOS, NGS

Still (barely) standing. The March 23, 1913 tornado that hit Terre Haute, Indiana and pulverized this home was part of a storm system that brought forth numerous tornadoes and, of course, the flood.

Late March, 1913. Fremont, Ohio, experiences the flood up close and personal.
Both images courtesy of The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce, archival photography by Steve Nicklas, NOS, NGS.

Late March, 1913, somewhere in New York state, along the Hudson River.
Courtesy of The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce, archival photography by Steve Nicklas, NOS, NGS.

At Forest Avenue and Palmer Street, in Dayton, Ohio, an oarsman takes some people to safety.
Courtesy of Dayton Metro Library, 1913 Flood Collection.

It looks calm here, in Troy, New York, but on March 28, 1913, when the worst of the flooding hit, fires broke out and hundreds of people were made homeless.

The flood, which hit Watervliet, New York, was said to have infected the wells in the area and the general drinking water and may have been responsible for making residents sick. Eleven people died in the aftermath of the flood of typhoid fever, double the amount of deaths from the disease in the years before and after.
Both images courtesy of The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/ Department of Commerce, archival photography by Steve Nicklas, NOS, NGS.

In Youngstown, Ohio, many of the residents lived on hillsides and were spared the wrath of the Mahoning River in March 1913. The industries in the valley, however, weren't so lucky.
Courtesy of The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce, archival photography by Steve Nicklas, NOS, NGS.