Fort Worth: The 1949 Flood

My folks recounted more than once the story of their moving to Fort Worth just in time for the “great flood”. The city had experienced floods before, in 1908 and 1922, but the most devastating by far took place in May of 1949. The deluge began around 6 p.m. on Monday the 16th and lasted until almost 3 o’clock Tuesday morning, the intense, slow-moving storm dumping as much as 11 inches. On Tuesday the levees along the Clear Fork of the Trinity River began to fail, causing extensive residential and commercial property damage. The Fort Worth water treatment plant, located within the boundaries of the flood plane, was contaminated. Ten lives were lost in the flood, bringing further attention to the urgent need for preventive measures. Within a few years Benbrook Lake was created, primarily to avoid such flooding in the future. Read the rest of this entry »