The Survey, Volume 30, Number 3, Apr 19, 1913Various
History
The Survey, Volume 30, Number 3, Apr 19, 1913
Various
Charities -- Periodicals; Social problems -- Periodicals; United States -- Social conditions -- Periodicals
The three sewer districts that were out of commission were the St.
Francis, the North Dayton, and the Riverdale low line. The St. Francis
sewer is a gravity line, and a manhole at the lower end was completely
choked up. It was necessary finally to dynamite this manhole in order to
open the line. The two latter lines are both low, and sewage has to be
pumped into the river by pneumatic ejectors. The air lines from the
compressor plant in the water works pumping station were laid in the
levees which were washed out and at one point about 200 feet of pipe was
lost. This was difficult to repair, and these districts had to be left
without sewerage until April 2, when a by-pass on each line into the
storm drains was opened, and the backed-up sewage lowered sufficiently
to clear most of the cellars and to permit the use of water closets.
While this work was proceeding the organizations devoting their energies
to control of infectious disease, inspection, and administration had
been far from idle. The State Board of Health had three sanitary
engineers and two physicians, trained in public health work, in the city
before the waters receded. The city Board of Health was one of the first
in the field, and the medical corps of the Ohio National Guard promptly
took up the work. Co-operating with one another, under the direction of
Major L. T. Rhoades of the United States medical corps, who was
appointed chief sanitary officer, and with the assistance of local
doctors and nurses and those furnished by the Red Cross, these
organizations soon established control of the entire city in a
comprehensive and effective manner.
The Ohio State Board of Health engineers were assigned to assist in the
water works, sewerage, and general cleaning up. Then, in co-operation
with the city board and Major Rhoades, the city was divided into sixteen
sanitary districts, with a physician in charge of each. These physicians
inspected their districts, reported to headquarters, conditions
requiring particular attention, instructed people in sanitation and
followed up all reported cases of illness to guard against contagion.
The city bacteriologist reestablished his laboratory, which had been
inundated, and took up diagnostic and analytical work. The state
plumbing inspector and the state inspector of workshops and factories
established offices, and joined with the city inspectors in pushing
inspection work rapidly. Men were sent out to trace all contagious cases
that were on the books at the time of the floods, and the reporting of
infectious diseases and deaths were resumed as rapidly as possible.
Four contagious disease wards were established in addition to the
tuberculosis and small-pox hospitals, two in the St. Elizabeth and Miami
Valley Hospitals in the city and one each in North Dayton and Riverdale.
As fast as infectious cases were reported or discovered, they were
removed to one of these wards, and the houses placarded and disinfected.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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