The Kankakee Torrent was a catastrophic flood that occurred between 14,000 and 18,000 years ago, resulting from the breach of a large glacial lake formed by the melting of the Wisconsin Glacier.
The origin of the flood may have been prehistoric Lake Chicago, it may have come from further east, near what is today the center of the Lower Peninsula of the state of Michigan.
In both parks, smaller streams flow over waterfalls before they join the main river, a phenomenon known as hanging tributaries.
Glacial River Warren drained Lake Agassiz in central North America through a series of floods about 9,700 years ago.
Agassiz was a huge body of water, up to 600–700 feet (~200 m) deep, and at various times covering areas totaling over 110,000 square miles (~300,000 km2).
[1] Blocked by an ice sheet to the north, the lake water rose until about 9,700 years ago, when it overtopped the Big Stone Moraine, a ridge of glacial drift left by the receding glacier, at the location of Browns Valley, Minnesota.
The lake's outflow was catastrophic at times,[2] and carved a gorge through the moraine a mile (1.6 km) wide and 130 feet (~40 m) deep, which is now known as the Traverse Gap.
[3] While active, Glacial River Warren cut and eroded a bed up to five miles (8 km) wide and 250 feet (80 m) deep.
The flood carved a channel up to 2 miles wide, which today is the site of the Little River in Allen County, Indiana.
Much of the unique geography of eastern Washington, named the Channeled Scablands, is thought to have been carved during this period.
After each ice dam rupture, the waters of the lake would rush down the Clark Fork and the Columbia River, inundating much of eastern Washington and the Willamette Valley in western Oregon.
[7] In New Hampshire, a significant flood struck the Cocheco, Baker, Pemigewasset, Contoocook and Merrimack rivers on October 23 which established records at Lowell which held until 1902.
[10] A significant flood along the Androscoggin River destroyed the first dam built in the town of Turner, Maine.
After the flood, Congress in 1849 passed the Swamp Act providing land grants to build stronger levees.
Hardest hit was the State of Iowa, where the city of Des Moines was virtually destroyed, with significant flooding extending to the Lower Mississippi River basin.
Historical evidence suggest flooding occurred in the eastern Plains, from Nebraska to the Red River basin, but these areas were sparsely settled in 1851.
It began in Oregon in November 1861 after weeks of continuous precipitation, flooding the communities on the Willamette River.
The rain created an inland sea in Orange County, lasting about three weeks with water standing 1.3 metres (4 ft 3 in) deep up to 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from the river.
Samuel Young of Aurora recorded in his diary that the snow and rain had fallen for twenty six days out of thirty since December 24, 1861.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) named it a 100-year flood for the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, cresting 2 feet (0.61 m) higher than Hurricane Agnes in 1972.
The legislators eventually granted $120,000 to rebuild bridges and roads, which set a precedent for a state government to provide direct assistance after a natural disaster.
[13] The Great Flood of 1881 struck Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa between April 6 and 27, when waters began to recede.
Causing millions of dollars in damage, it crested two feet higher than ever-before measured on the Missouri River.
From cross sections and slope of bed of stream, using Kutter's formula, the maximum discharge is placed at 70,000 cubic feet per second for about one hour.
The Conemaugh Dam was maintained by the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, and had been recently rebuilt in 1881.
[26] Five days after the event, Clara Barton and her doctors and nurses arrived in Johnstown to tend to the survivors.
The flood eclipsed all previous records for water levels on the Potomac, which caused US$300,000 (1889 dollars) to the C&O Canal.