The Passaic Flood of 1903 | Page 4

.75 3 to 4 a. m. .34 4 to 5 a. m. .46 5 to 6 a.
m. .41 6 to 7 a. m. .29 7 to 8 a. m. .51 8 to 9 a. m. 1.38 9 to 10 a. m.
1.04 10 to 11 a. m. .08 11 to 12 m. .23 12 m. to 1 p. m. .24 1 to 2 p.
m. .31 2 to 3 p. m. .32 3 to 4 p. m. .01 --- Total 6.92
Hourly record of precipitation at Newark observation station, October
8-11, 1903.
Inches.
Oct. 8, 8.25 to 9 a. m. 0.05 9 to 10 a. m. .04 10 to 11 a. m. .00 11 to 12
m. .00 12 m. to 1 p. m. .14 1 to 2 p. m. .72 2 to 3 p. m. .49 3 to 4 p.
m. .11 4 to 5 p. m. 1.05 5 to 6 p. m. .45 6 to 7 p. m. 1.20 7 to 8 p. m. .60
8 to 9 p. m. .24 9 to 10 p. m. .24 10 to 11 p. m. .13 11 to 12 p. m. .17 9,
12 to 1 a. m. .29 1 to 2 a. m. .33 2 to 3 a. m. .62 3 to 4 a. m. .29 4 to 5 a.
m. .35 5 to 6 a. m. .26 6 to 7 a. m. .13 Oct. 9, 7 to 8 a. m. 0.29 8 to 9 a.
m. .69 9 to 10 a. m. .69 10 to 11 a. m. .39 11 to 12m. .20 12m. to 1 p.
m. .39 1 to 2 p. m. .28 2 to 3 p. m. .34 3 to 3.25 p. m. .13 11.50 to 11.55
p. m. .01 10, 3 to 4 a. m. .02 7 to 8 p. m. .07 8 to 9 p. m. .09 9 to 10 p.
m. .02 10 to 11 p. m. .04 11 to 12 p. m. .04 11, 12 to 1 a. m. .06 1 to 2 a.
m. .09 2 to 3 a. m. .03 3 to 4 a. m. .05 4 to 5 a. m. .01 --- Total 11.83
From the above tables it may be seen that the maximum rate of
precipitation per hour was 1.38 inches at New York and 1.2 inches at
Newark. Comparison of the tables on pages 11 and 12 gives an

excellent idea of the intensity of the storm. The amount of water falling
in a single storm is nearly equal to the total for June, a month of
unusual precipitation.
The average of the total amounts of precipitation recorded at the
various stations in the Passaic area is 11.74 inches. These totals are
fairly uniform, none of them varying widely from the average.
Therefore the figure 11.74 represents a conservative mean for a
calculation of total amount of water over the drainage area. Assuming
this as the correct depth, the amount of water which fell on each square
mile of the Passaic drainage area during the storm was 27,273,000
cubic feet, or for the whole Passaic drainage area over 27,000,000,000
cubic feet, weighing about 852,000,000 tons. This amount of water
would, if properly stored, fill a lake with twenty times the capacity of
Greenwood Lake, would cover Central Park in New York City, which
has an area of about 1.5 square miles, to a height of 645 feet, and, at the
present rate of water consumption in the city of Newark, N. J., would
supply the city with water for twenty years.
DESCENT OF FLOOD.
HIGHLAND TRIBUTARIES AND CENTRAL BASIN.
A description of the descent of flood waters from the highland
tributaries into the Central Basin has been given in Water-Supply Paper
No. 88. It has been shown that the lands of the Central Basin are
covered even in ordinary freshets, and that in the event of a great flood
the waters merely rise higher, being, for the greater extent, almost
quiescent, and beyond the flooding of houses and barns and the
destruction of crops, little damage is done. In other words, the flood
along this portion is not torrential in character.
During the flood of 1903 the water fell so quickly all over this basin,
and was collected so rapidly by the small tributaries, that a lake was
formed at once which served as a cushion against which the raging
torrent of the highland tributaries spent itself without doing
extraordinary damage in that immediate region. Bridges which might
have been lost in a smaller flood like that of 1902 were actually

standing in slack water by the time the mountain torrents appeared in
force. These streams caused much destruction higher up in the
mountains, but in the Central Basin their energy became potential--a
gathering of forces to