Friday, October 26, 2018

More Than 6 Inches Rain Brings Problems to Farms, Mills, Railroads Along Catawba River, Oct. 26, 1918

“Serious Floods,” from the Hickory Daily Record, Oct. 26, 1918

Loss to Corn Crop Standing in Fields or Shocked in Bottoms Will be Great. . . Catawba Rises Rapidly but Most Destruction Was by Small Streams in the County.

Catwaba river and its various tributaries overflowed their banks last night and today as the result of the heaviest rainfall since July 1916, when this section was cut off by wire and rail from the rest of the state and millions of dollars in property damage and hundreds of lives were lost throughout the western half of the commonwealth. The damage last night and today fell harder on the farmers than any other class of citizens, and in this case was confined mostly to corn that had not been gathered in the bottom lands.

The rainfall from Thursday night until 8 o’clock this morning was 6 ¼ inches. It sent every stream roaring out of its banks, but the danger passed when the streams began receding last night. The South Fork alone was reported as not having reach the flood tide near Col. G.M. Yoder’s this morning, Mr. Enloe Yoder reporting that the water covered every stalk of corn in the bottoms. The damage is estimated at 50 per cent to corn, but if the water recedes quickly, and the sun comes out soon, much of the corn can be salvaged.

Water also rose high at Mr. R.L. Shuford’s place, the water flooding his dairy barn. Mr. Shuford had gathered all his corn from bottom lands and sustained no material damage.

The South Fork flooded the weaving room of the Brookford Mills to a depth of six inches, depositing a lot of sand and dirt on the floor, and carried away much coal and wood.

The surface water caused slight damage to the Granite Falls Cordage Company’s plant near Granite Falls, the big storm pipe under the mill being unable to carry off the water and causing it to undermine the wall. Here the damage was not great. Gunpowder creek was on a boom but caused no damage to either mill there.

Messrs. A.A. Shuford Jr. and G.H. Geitner went to Granit last night and on returning were compelled to rush their automobile through the back waters on this side of the Catawba river. Last night the flood was within six or seven feed of the floor of the bridge at Horseford.

Considerable damage also was done to highways and bridges in the county, and there were many reports as to losses.

In the big flood of 1916 there was a total rainfall in two days of 13.18 inches. The hardest rain fell from Friday night to Saturday night, when 9.98 inches occurred, 3.3. inches being contributed Saturday night and Sunday. It was Sunday morning when the covered bridge went down at Horseford and all day on Sunday thousands of people watched bales of cotton, hay, lumber and other articles ride the big waves. In that freshet much damage was done to manufacturing plants and business was suspended in this section for about two weeks.

Col. L.T. Nichols, superintendent of the Carolina & North-Western, was here today from Chester en route north to investigate the flood damage to his line. There was no damage of consequence between here and Lenoir, but north of Lenoir three bridges were reported down. He was hopeful of having the damage repaired in a few hours, as the trestles were small ones. Around Mortimer the damage may be greater.

A telephone message from Lenoir last night said that much damage had been done to crops in that section and also to bridges. The rainfall must have been much heavier there, as was the case in upper South Carolina, where the precipitation was much greater than around Hickory.

There were varying reports as to the flood stage of the Catawaba river. It was reported 15 feet high at Horseford, 8 feet high at Terrell, and 20 feet at Catawba station. It could have easily been all these, depending on the width of the stream and the steepness of the banks.

Serious damage was reported in the Bridgewater section, but investigation disclosed only minor damage except to crops in the river bottoms. There were no important bridges destroyed, and it was said that the situation there was similar to that around Hickory.

The long distance telephone lines were in operation out of Hickory but local lines were somewhat crippled.

At Rhodhiss Today

The Catawba river was 18 feet high at Rhodhiss at 2 o’clock this morning by actual measurement, according to a report made to Mr. Geo. B. Hiss at Charlotte. At 6 o’clock the water was 17 feet, and at 10:30 it was 14 feet deep and receiving at the rate of a foot an hour. No damage was done to the mill, which in 1916 was badly flooded.

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