The Great Columbus Experiment of 1908: Waterworks that Changed the World by Conrade C. Hinds

Author:Conrade C. Hinds
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2012-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

The living set up tents, often where their former homes had been, and began what must have been perceived as the impossible task of cleaning up and beginning to build a new life. Clara Barton and her Washington, D.C., contingent of the Red Cross built hotels for people to live in and warehouses to store the many supplies received by the community. By July 1, stores opened on the Main Street for business. The Cambria Iron Company reopened on June 6. Five years later, an observer would have been hard pressed to imagine the destruction in the valley on May 31, 1889.

However, no city, county or state legislation was enacted to protect people from similar disasters in the future. Suits were filed against the members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, but in keeping with the times, the courts viewed the dam break as an act of God and no legal compensation was made to the survivors.

The city would continue to suffer nuisance floods as water collected in the streets and in people’s basements, especially in the spring of the year. It would be another forty-seven years, after more property was destroyed and more lives lost, until some constructive efforts were made to control the waters that flowed through Johnstown. The news and stories of the Johnstown Flood continued to echo in the minds of Columbus, Ohio citizens over the next three decades whenever that subject of building a dam came up. Indeed, Johnstown’s flood experience taught the people of Central Ohio a lesson in fear and mistrust of any public works project, including building a dam anywhere near the city. It most likely added to the reason city leaders in Columbus continued to talk, bicker and debate about building a badly needed water-supply dam.

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