KENTUCKY SUBURBS IN TROUBLE
Newport and Covington were virtually surrounded by water. Conditions there were worse than elsewhere and nearly ten thousand people were driven from their homes. Relief measures, however, were adequate. Manufacturing plants in the lowlands ceased.
In these two cities the only fear was that health conditions would be seriously affected because of the clogging of the sewage system and the stagnation of back water. The water works and gas plants continued in operation, but the electric light plants had been forced to cease.
In the Kentucky towns of Dayton, Ludlow, Bellevue and Bromley identical conditions existed, but in their cases all communication with Cincinnati, Newport and Covington was suspended. These towns remained in isolation until the water had fallen sufficiently to permit the operation of street cars on the south side of the river.
In these towns there were 2,000 persons cared for by relief committees. More than 500 homes disappeared under the flood waters. Property damage assumed alarming proportions, especially as this was the second time within three months that the Ohio Valley had suffered from high water.
By Sunday the outlook for Cincinnati was brighter. No trains had gone out of the city except south to Kentucky by way of Covington, and rail and telegraph communications were still badly demoralized, but fair, warm weather which had continued since Thursday had greatly helped the complex situation. It was predicted that the river would reach its greatest height at Cincinnati on Monday.
EXPLOSIONS IN THE CITY
Spreading over a vast expanse of territory in Cincinnati, as well as an almost equal amount in the various towns that lie along the river on the Kentucky shore, the Ohio continued to rise.
During Saturday night the central part of the city was thrown into a semi-panic by an explosion that could be heard for miles. The Union Carbide Company, at Pearl and Elm Streets, had been destroyed in an explosion caused supposedly by the carbide coming in contact with water.
The river reached the stage of 69.3 feet at noon, Saturday, and continued to rise at the rate of two-tenths of a foot every two hours.