Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
This detail is from a larger sketch published in Harper's Weekly of March 3, 1883, titled
“The Breaking of the Embankment at Louisville, Kentucky.” Houses caught by the rushing
floodwaters float down the river while hapless residents flee for their lives. Note the draw-
ing inset at lower right showing a family seeking refuge in a tree.
On February 12, 1884, people in Huntington, West Virginia, had to helplessly watch as the
Ohio River flooded their young town, then an unlucky 13 years old. The large three-story
