Photos and accounts of the 1913 flood

Anyone who lived in the Terre Haute area in June 2008 remembers the devastating flood that affected this area. In 1913, a tornado and flood terrorized Terre Haute and the surrounding areas.

According to Terre Haute’s Tornado and Flood Disaster, March 23-30, 1913, which was published by the Terre Haute Publishing Company in 1913, “The dawn of the week of Easter, March 23, 1913, brought with it to Terre Haute a week of flood and storm devastation which will go down in history as this city’s heaviest blow. To the south, a tornado, beginning at 10 o’clock on Easter night, laid waste to several hundred homes; claimed the lives of seventeen persons; resulted in the severe injury to more than 150 persons. …”

The booklet continued, “Long before the shock of this disaster had begun to wear away the north section of the city was inundated by the rise of the Wabash river, and at the same time Taylorville and West Terre Haute, across the river from Terre Haute, experienced the worst floods in their history.”

The Archives at the Vigo County Public Library has a plethora of documents, newspaper clippings and photos of this devastating week in Vigo County history. The Archives also has images from the 2008 flood. To learn more about each natural disaster, click here.