Parkesburg Flood Control and Protection
By Larry Brian Radka
Flood control and protection of Parkersburg, West Virginia have always been on the mind of this Mid-Ohio city—ever since the Ohio and Little Kanawha Rivers began drowning the downtown area.
The chart above, listing the "highest flood levels endured by Parkersburg" since records have been kept, shows why.
And a quick visual comparison above of the conditions surrounding the Wood County Courthouse in 1913 and 2008 exemplifies the difference flood control and prevention can make.
Down through the years, however, nothing was done to eliminate Parkersburg flood problems until well into twentieth century, and even then action was delayed by the human and monetary expenditures of World War II.
The following report on the "Local Flood Protection Project" at "Parkersburg, W. Va.," by the Corps of U.S. Army Engineers at Huntington, West Virginia, dated April 13, 1953, outlines its progress from that time to date. This brochure, provided by a generous employee of the City of Parkersburg, informs us that
The Parkersburg Local Flood Protection Project was authorized by the Flood Control Act of 28 June 1938. Assurances of local cooperation, as required by the authorizing Act, were provided by the city of Parkersburg in a Resolution passed by the City Council on 26 July 1938.
Construction was accomplished during the period from March 1946 to April 1950 under the supervision of the Huntington District, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army. The project was transferred to the city of Parkersburg on 18 May 1950 for operation and maintenance.
The local protection project, acting alone, will provide complete protection for the city against recurrence of a flood stage equivalent to that experienced in March 1913, the maximum of record, with a freeboard of 3 feet. In addition, it is a unit in the comprehensive flood control plan for the Ohio River Basin, which provides for some reduction of flood crests along the Ohio River through the construction of 37 reservoirs upstream from the city, of which 23 have been completed and 2 are under construction.
The project consists essentially of 10,400 feet of concrete walls, 9,600 feet of earth levees, fourteen gate openings, six pump stations, certain appurtenant drainage structures and 1,900 feet of diversion channel for Pond Run. Principal construction materials include 63,000 cubic yards of concrete, 8,840,246 pounds of reinforcing steel and 600,100 cubic yards of earth.
The wall sections are of the reinforced concrete cantilever type. The width of the wall base is, in general, equal to or slightly greater than the height of the wall stem. A perforated drain is provided along the toe of the wall to intercept and conduct seepage water to the nearest pump station.
The levee is constructed of compacted earth fill composed entirely of impervious material.
A sand and gravel blanket is provided under the landward portion of the levee to control seepage. The levee slopes are protected from erosion and scour by a vegetative cover, which was sown on the Entire surface of all levees.
Gated openings are provided through the walls and levees for certain highways, railroad tracks, industrial plants and miscellaneous uses.
All but one of the fourteen openings are closed by tiers of timber stop logs between abutments and are supported in some instances by intermediate trestles of structural aluminum.
At Twelfth Street, the gate opening is closed by a metal floodgate, which remains suspended above the opening when not in use. All closures can be placed entirely by hand.
Six pump stations* are provided for the disposal of internal drainage during flood periods. During normal periods the sanitary and storm sewage by-pass these stations directly into the Ohio or Little Kanawha Rivers. During flood periods, sluice gates are closed and the sewage is pumped either over or under the wall or levee. During the past 70 years, the damage stage at Parkersburg (36 feet on Parkersburg gage) has been exceeded 32 times.
The three greatest floods of record, in the order of the magnitude, occurred in March 1913, January 1937 and February 1884 and reached stages of 59.0,** 55.4, and 53.9 feet respectively. If the city were not protected, it is estimated that the occurrence of a flood equal to that of 1913 under the present stage of development would result in damages of about three million dollars.
Illustrated Notes
*A good example, the Pond Run Pump Station, is illustrated in the diagram above.
**Note. as seen in this close-up of the figures on the floodwall at Opening No. 10 above, that the figure differs by .1 feet from the 1953 report issued by the U. S. Corps of Army Engineers' report.
I would like now to share with you the contents of an old pamphlet with an introduction and photographs (tinted now for page contrast) of the devastation from the 1913 Parkersburg flood, the worst flooding catastrophe, which, along with the other two great Ohio River floods, contributed to the eventual building of the Parkersburg floodwall:
Belpre, Ohio is situated directly across the Ohio River from Parkersburg.
The Ohio River floods not only inundated Parkersburg and Belpre but Marietta, Ohio also.
Here are a few of the 1913 flood pictures of that beautiful little city that lies on the west side of the Ohio River just a few miles north of Parkersburg, West Virginia.
Marietta never built a floodwall and is still periodically flooded by the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers, although the Army Corps of Engineers controls the Ohio River water level much better than in the past. So the flood damage is now never as extensive as is illustrated in the pictures here.
I hope you appreciate the flood photographs and information on this Web page. I will now close it out with the picture above, of the flood waters sweeping by the North-South Ohio River Railroad Station, in a lower portion of Parkersburg at 2nd and Ann Streets. The writing on this picture shows the depth of the March 1913 flood waters here at 58.6 feet, which is .3 of a foot lower than the official and highest figure for the Ohio and Little Kanawha River floodwaters that once drowned a large portion of the "Biggest Little City on Earth," Parkersburg, West Virginia.
This page was last modified on Friday, August 20, 2010