DTIC ADA633006: Situation Desperate: U.S. Army Engineer Disaster Relief Operations, Origins to 1950

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Situation Desperate
U.S. Army Engineer Disaster Relief Operations
Origins to 1950
•
Leland R. Johnson
Office of History
Headquarters, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Alexandria, Va.
2011
EP 870-1-70
This is the Official U.S. Government edition of this publication and is herein
identified to certify its authenticity. Use of ISBN 978-0-16-086109-3 is for
U.S. Government Printing Office Official Editions only. The Superintendent
of Documents of the U.S. Government Printing Office requests that any
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new ISBN.
It is prohibited to use the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers seal, as it appears on the cover, on any republication of
this material without the express, written permission of the Office of History, Headquarters, U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers. Any person using official seals and logos in a manner inconsistent with the Federal Regulations
Act is subject to penalty.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Johnson, Leland R.
Situation desperate : U.S. Army engineer disaster relief operations, origins to 1950 / Leland R. Johnson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-16-086109-3
1. United States. Army. Corps of Engineers—History. 2. United States. Army. Corps of Engineers—
Civil functions—History. 3. Disaster relief—United States—History. 4. Civil engineering—United States—
History. 5. Military engineering—United States History. I. Title.
UG23.J64 2010
363.34'80973—dc22
2010030957
Table of Contents
Foreword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix
Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
1. Federal Assistance: Constitutional Questions . . . . 1
The French Refugee Bill, 1794. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Library of Congress List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Venezuela Earthquake, 1812 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Alexandria Fire, 1827. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Ships for Disaster Relief, 1847 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The New Madrid earthquakes of 1811–12
Observations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
created huge waves on the Mississippi River.
State Historical Society of Missouri
Chapter 1 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2. Disaster Relief Origins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Portland Fire, 1866. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Federal Disaster Measures During Reconstruction . . . . . . . 17
Humanitarian Services by Individuals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
First Official Engineer Disaster Mission, 1882 . . . . . . . . . . 22
Levees and Work Relief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
The 1884 Flood on the Ohio and Mississippi . . . . . . . . . . . 27
The Chicago fire of 1871 destroyed much of
North Carolina Storm, 1884 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
the city’s business district.
Charleston Earthquake, 1886. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 National Archives, 59-HB-1
Observations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Chapter 2 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
■
Table of Contents iii
3. The Corps Builds A Tradition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Johnstown Flood, 1889. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
The 1890 Mississippi River Flood Fight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Discretionary Disaster Authority, 1896 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
Flood Fight Operations, 1897 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Executive Initiative. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
The Johnstown flood of 1889 caused over
Shawneetown Emergency, 1898. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
2,200 fatalities. Office of History
Brazos River & New Bern Floods, 1899 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Observations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Chapter 3 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4. Disaster Mission Expansion, 1900–10. . . . . . . . . . . 59
Galveston Hurricane, 1900. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Bridging the Kansas River, 1903 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Baltimore Fire, 1904. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
San Francisco Earthquake, 1906 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
The hurricane that hit Galveston in 1900 also
destroyed Corps facilities and killed Corps Recovery Work at San Francisco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
employees.
Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-78468 Operational Challenges, 1907 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Observations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80
Chapter 4 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5. The Flood Fights of 1912 and 1913. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Lower Mississippi River Flood, 1912. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Rescue and Relief in the 1912 Flood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Dayton Flood, 1913 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Mississippi River Flood, 1913 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Observations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
The floods of 1913 inundated Riverside Park in
Indianapolis. National Archives, 27-ND-8 Chapter 5 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
iv Situation Desperate
6. The Corps Initiates Work Relief. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Louisiana Hurricane, 1915. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
No Work, No Rations in February Floods, 1916 . . . . . . . . 109
Work Relief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Southern States Floods, 1916. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Work Relief Administration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Torrential rains in 1916 caused damage to
Special Regulation No. 67 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Asheville, North Carolina.
Schandler Family Collection,
Observations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Special Collections, D.H. Ramsey Library,
University of North Carolina at Asheville
Chapter 6 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
7. Roaring Floods of the Twenties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Arkansas River Flood at Pueblo, 1921 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Mississippi River Flood, 1922 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Five Minutes of Hell on Earth, Lorain Tornado . . . . . . . . 143
Georgia Rivers Flood, 1925 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Mississippi River Flood, 1927 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
The 1927 Flood Relief Mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
National Guard engineers rushed to Lorain,
Ohio, after a tornado hit in 1924.
Observations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Lorain Public Library System
Chapter 7 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
8. Emergency Service and Military Training. . . . . . 161
Vermont Flood, 1927 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Managua Earthquake, 1931. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Floods of 1936 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Superflood on the Ohio, 1937 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Mississippi River Flood, 1937 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Observations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
In 1937 both the Ohio and Mississippi river
valleys experienced massive flooding.
Chapter 8 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Office of History
■
Table of Contents v
9. Emergency Planning and Mobilization . . . . . . . . 185
Los Angeles Flood, 1938 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
New England Hurricane, 1938. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Engineer Readiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Reorganization and Manpower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
The 1943 Floods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
The New England hurricane of 1938 drowned
The 1945 Floods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .200
almost five hundred people.
NOAA Photo Library, C&GS Season’s Report
Observations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Thomas 1938-84
Chapter 9 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .206
10. Postwar Emergencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Texas City Disaster, 1947. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .209
The Aiken Act. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Rutland Flood, 1947. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Missouri and Mississippi River Floods, 1947. . . . . . . . . . . 215
Vanport Debacle, 1948. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
In 1949 the Army responded to a massive
blizzard that affected seven states.
Other 1948 Floods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
U.S. Army photograph
Operation Snowbound, 1949 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Observations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Chapter 10 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
11. A National Policy on Disaster Relief . . . . . . . . . . . 233
The Federal Works Agency and the Army. . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Disasters of 1950. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Floods in the St. Paul District, 1950 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Federal Disaster Relief Act of 1950 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .240
An explosion in South Amboy, New Jersey,
heavily damaged the town in 1950. Observations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Historical archives of the Sadie Pope Dowdell
Chapter 11 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Library of South Amboy, New Jersey
vi Situation Desperate
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Annotated Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Cover photos, clockwise from top right:
Galveston Hurricane, 1900. Library of Congress,
LC-USZ62-120221
Baltimore Fire, 1904. Library of Congress,
LC-F8-44295
Texas City Explosion, 1947. Office of History
Pueblo Flood, 1921. Denver Public Library,
Western History Collection,
Arthur Osbourne Ridgway, Z-5076
■
Table of Contents vii