The Waterfront Flood That Never Was
Hundreds of Seattleites gathered at the waterfront, expecting a disastrous high tide prediction that failed to materialize.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The high tide foretold by Fred Plummer of Tacoma and others did not materialize. Had the tide been as high as predicted, Railroad Avenue and all the wharves in the city would have been several feet under water, flooding the entire lower portion of the city. Despite the derision with which Plummer's prediction was met, an astonishingly large number of people believed it and flocked to the water front early Christmas morning to watch the flood. They were doomed to disappointment, though the usual seasonal high tides have caused some inconvenience for boats at low water.
“A great many had taken pains to get to the front early in the morning to see the flood, but were doomed to disappointment.”
This event captures the intersection of amateur meteorology and the anxiety of a city built on regraded mudflats and fill, a struggle with the tides that continues as modern Seattle addresses climate change and rising sea levels along the same waterfront.
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