THE WARNING
In 1904, National Cash Register was considering plans to build a new levee west of the company’s plant. NCR’s Building Committee decided to hire John W. Alvord, a Hydraulic and Sanitary Engineer from Chicago, to come to Dayton to look at the situation. Alvord agreed and came in May of that year to survey the Great Miami River and the watershed of the lands above the city in order to determine how high the levee would need to be to afford protection from future floods.
On May 24, 1905 Alvord wrote of his findings in a nine page document titled Report to National Cash Register Company, Dayton, OH on protection from floods of the Great Miami River. In it, Alvord warned the Building Committee that Dayton was due “for some exceptional and extraordinary high water conditions in the future.” Part of the problem, he believed, came from the “denudation of the country of its forests,” as well as “the extensive drainage operations and tilling of farm lands.”
Excerpts from the informative and prophetic report follows:
JOHN W. ALVORD
Keppele Hall, Esq.,
Chairman Building Committee,
National Cash Register Company
Dear Sir: -
In accordance with your instructions I visited Dayton on the 3rd of May last, and examined plans for a new levee along the Great Miami River immediately west of the National Cash Register Company’s plant, with particular reference to the question of proper height of the same.
I also examined with care the general features of the Great Miami River from the Big Four Bridge below the city to the Main Street Bridge in the city…
Briefly speaking, the watershed of the Great Miami River above the lands of the National Cash Register Company have a drainage area of about 2612 square miles, and an average slope above Dayton of about 3.3 feet per mile…
Computations… show that an average velocity of 10.71 feet per second may be expected, which would account for a discharge of 115,000 cubic feet per second.
This is equivalent to 46 cubic feet per second per square mile, and is approximately the discharge of the flood of 1898, - the highest within recent years.
It will be observed that 46 cubic feet per second per square mile on a drainage area of 2600 square miles… will fall about midway between ordinary floods and the curve of extraordinary floods, which would seem to indicate that the flood of 1898 may be exceeded by some exceptional and extraordinary high water conditions in the future.
It is thought by many who are familiar with the subject that the floods of our Western Rivers are very gradually increasing through long terms of years, not only by reason of the denudation of the country of its forests, but also because of the extensive drainage operations and tilling of farm lands. If this is so, these causes are constantly at work to precipitate flood heights of exceptionally large amounts, as well as to lower the low water flows to diminutive quantities.
Therefore, if we should apply the data… we will arrive at flood heights about 14 inches higher than those produced at Dayton by the flood of 1898, and it appears to me that it would be well to increase the height of the levees to at least this extent from this cause alone.
I would also point out… the further fact that the construction of railway and highway bridges have so contracted the river channel that the towpath of the canal which was at one time probably well above high water mark, has already been found to be dangerously near the limit, and has, I am informed, been actually overtopped at some points along the company’s property.
I would therefore recommend that… the elevation of the levee at its junction with the Miami Canal at the south end be fixed at 85 feet, 5 feet higher than the present canal bank.
Very respectfully yours, John W. Alvord
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