| Damage to buildings, equipment and machinery | $782,400 |
| Damage to materials | 1,698,900 |
| Loss to employer by suspension of business | 1,974,200 |
| Loss to employee due to shut-down | 1,308,300 |
| Expense of cleaning up | 547,400 |
| Charities dispensed and funds for prevention of disease | 27,800 |
| Fires uncontrolled through inaccessibility or lack of water pressure | 175,000 |
| ————— | |
| Total | $6,514,000 |
It was found that the loss ranges as follows: For the flood of 27.3 feet, $414,700; 30.7 feet, $839,800; 35.5 feet, $5,259,500.
The area comprising the larger part of the mercantile, industrial and railroad interests amounts to about 3,000 acres, 1,540 of which was covered by water during the great flood of 1907, which had a height of 35.5 feet, or 13.5 feet above the danger line. This flood remained sixty-five hours above the danger line of 22 feet. About fifteen miles of river front land are occupied with industrial works of various kinds. The assessed value of real estate as affected by the 1907 flood amounts to about $160,000,000, and a careful estimate shows that this property is nearly $50,000,000 lower in value than it would be if protected from floods. Using the results obtained for the above floods and the flood records for the past twenty years it is estimated that the direct loss to the city has amounted in that period to about $17,000,000, over $12,000,000 of which occurred in the ten years preceding January, 1911.
Based on the assumption that in the next two ten-year periods there will be no increase in number or height of floods over those occurring in the ten years just preceding January, 1911, it is estimated, if protective measures are not provided, that the flood losses at Pittsburgh in the next twenty years will amount to about $25,000,000. As records show, however, that floods are increasing in frequency and height, it is estimated that the losses in the next twenty years will amount to about $40,000,000, or nearly twice as much as it will cost to carry out the flood prevention measures recommended by the Commission.
The Commission did not have resources for securing the amount of damage at the many important points along the rivers, above and below Pittsburgh, but at Wheeling, W. Va., it was ascertained, for instance, that about $1,000,000 was lost during the flood of 1907. Authorities consider that the total loss along the Ohio Valley for the two floods of 1907 amounted to more than $100,000,000. This is indicative of the vast losses occurring annually all over the country.
In addition to many miles of street car tracks, streets and alleys, about 435 acres of railroad and industrial yards were covered, in addition to 17 miles of main railroad, by the big flood of 1907.
At high stages many manufacturing plants must close down. The following is quoted from a report of the American Iron and Steel Association: “Damage to the iron and steel industry unprecedented. At beginning of March, 1907, flood there were forty-four blast furnaces in Allegheny County in blast, and of these thirty-eight had to be banked for an average of two days. Work at most of the sixty-five or seventy rolling mills and steel works was suspended.” Many of the open-hearth furnaces were badly damaged and some of them practically ruined.
FLOOD PROTECTION.
Regarding methods of local treatment, studies and estimates of cost were made of the following: A wall of about twenty-five miles in length to be built in the city along the river fronts; also for deepening, widening and straightening of the river channel by dredging.
The wall, high in places above the river streets, would prevent overflow by confining the floods to the channel. Dredging and removal of obstacles in the channel, bank encroachments, etc., as can now be accomplished, would have comparatively slight effect in reducing flood heights and these means were, therefore, not broadly recommended. Furthermore, these forms of treatment would be of local flood benefit only and communities above and below Pittsburgh would continue to suffer in various ways.