One century ago, during the final week of March 1913, severe weather caused death and destruction across a wide swath of the Midwest. In Omaha a tornado outbreak wrecked thousands of buildings and claimed many lives. The bad weather was headed east.
Rising waters from heavy rains caused severe flooding. In places like Indianapolis, Columbus, Portsmouth, Middletown, and hundreds of other towns the floodwaters breached levees, swept away buildings, and left thousands homeless.
Dayton was one of the hardest hit. When the levees gave way the waters surged into the downtown. The water was twenty feet deep in places before it began to recede. Geoff Williams, a Middletown native who currently resides in Loveland scoured newspaper archives for the stories of heroism and heartbreak that took place 100 years ago. The result is his book "Washed Away - How the Great Flood of 1913, America's Most Widespread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed it Forever."
