“Do not use water closets. Contents will reach cellars. Use vessels,
disinfect, and bury in back-yards. Disinfectants: carbolic acid,
chloride of lime, bichloride of mercury, and creolin.”
“Do not use sanitary sewers and closets until notified by the Board of
Health. Even if the “Hollywater” system is on, the sewers are full of
mud and will clog. Burn or bury all excreta, garbage and filth. Add
lime and bury deep. Use disinfectant in out-door trenches also.”
Inspection showed a much better condition than was anticipated. In all
but three districts, the sanitary sewers were running freely and the
warnings were replaced by new notices:
“Sewers are open and ready for use. If the water supply is not
sufficient for flushing, fill the tank of the closet with a bucketful
of water, and flush as usual.”
Wooden public convenience stations were also established over sewer
manholes in the business sections and in residential sections without
sewer connections.
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.
A food inspection office was also opened, and all food arriving on
relief cars was inspected before distribution to relief stations, that
which had already been distributed being inspected at the stations.
The medical corps of the Ohio National Guard established a base field
hospital in the new courthouse, and a supply depot in the probate court
room of the old courthouse. In addition, seven relief hospitals were
established in Dayton View, Miami City, Edgemont, South Park, the Davis
Sewing Machine Company’s plant, North Dayton, and Riverdale, with a
surgeon of the medical corps of the National Guard and a corps of
civilian physicians and Red Cross nurses in charge of each. These
stations had maternity, general, and infectious wards. Hospital and
proved infectious cases were promptly forwarded to St. Elizabeth’s or
the Miami Valley Hospital. The base hospital received all cases among
the companies of the National Guard on duty; those which would obviously
not recover in time for useful service were returned to their homes. The
supply depot of the field hospital not only furnished the base hospital
and the seven field stations, but supplies were also furnished to the
sixteen stations of the sanitary committee, at the request of Major
Rhoades.
An efficiently manned hospital doing all classes of work was established
by the National Cash Register Company and the American Red Cross in the
administration building at the National Cash Register Company’s plant,
and other medical relief stations were maintained in the city by the Red
Cross.
Up to the close of the first week following the flood no unusual
prevalence of infectious disease had developed. Some cases of
diphtheria, pneumonia, and measles were reported, but the number was not
substantially larger than that previous to the flood. When the
conditions that prevailed during the first three days after the disaster
are considered, with the strain on the entire population during the
first days of reconstruction, it seems impossible that Dayton will
escape without a considerable number of cases of intestinal and exposure
diseases, such as typhoid and pneumonia. But the complete, efficient,
and harmonious system of public health organization that has been
established gives promise that no epidemic will follow and that the
first cases, due to infection before control was established, will be
the last.