Two companies of the Ninth United States Infantry, stationed at Fort Thomas, Kentucky, were held in readiness to march at an instant's notice to Covington, where Mayor George S. Phillips feared the city might be in need of military protection due to high water that virtually surrounded the town. When the river stage reached more than 68 feet on Friday the gas plants were put out of commission and the city was in darkness.
Of the few important towns in Kentucky, opposite Cincinnati, only one, Newport, maintained direct communication with Cincinnati. Through Newport communication was obtained with Covington by a circuitous route. In Newport there were already under water nearly one hundred and twenty square blocks, located in the section along the south bank of the Ohio River. The other towns, Bromley, Dayton and Ludlow, were still without outside communication, but reports from there were that there was no immediate need of assistance.
THE CRISIS
The river continued to mount. It rose two-tenths of a foot during Monday night and early Tuesday the stage was 69.8 feet. The weather forecaster, Devereaux, said he expected the river to rise another tenth, after which it probably would recede. Up-river points reported the river either stationary or falling slowly.
At midnight Tuesday the river began to fall. The whole city breathed a sigh of relief. The Government stated that the river would be inside its banks within a week.
FLOOD DAMAGE
The direct and indirect damage caused in Cincinnati by the flooding of the river-front and low-lying residential sections was very great. An estimate of the indirect loss can never be made, while the direct loss is placed at more than $2,000,000.
Across the river in the Kentucky suburbs conditions were deplorable. Estimates were that one thousand homes there had been inundated and that more than four thousand persons were homeless.