Károlyi Zsigmond (szerk.): A szegedi árvíz 1879. (Vízügyi Történeti Füzetek 1. Budapest, 1969)

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SERIES OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING HISTORY IN HUNGARY Nr. 1 Published by: Hydraulic Documentation and Information Centre THE SZEGED FLOOD 1879 In the geological past the area of the present Tisza River Valley situated at the centre of the Carpathian basin was covered by seawater. Across the almost perfectly horizontal former seabottom the Tisza River meandered at a slope of only 0,000,01 to 0,000,02. The flood plains of round 19,000 sq.km area were up to the 19th century frequently afflicted by inundations for months, and undrained rainwaters formed vast marshlands over large parts of the plains. In order to prevent the regularly recurring damages regulation plans had been prepared by the outstanding hydraulic engineer of the time, P. Vásárhelyi in 1846, following the initiative of the leading economist, I. Széchenyi. The regulation plans envisaged altogether 112 cuts to increase the slope over the stretch in the plains, which was thus shortened from 1125 km to 696 km, accompanied by a corresponding increase of flow velocity. At the same time levees have been built along the bed. However, after the suppression of the Hungarian revolution of 1848/49, the realization of the plans suffered serious setbacks. Different interests grouped into associations constructed their levees without centralized guidance and supervision, while lack of state funds prevented the proper development of cuts. The Szeged flood disaster pf 1879, which destroyed the second largest town of the country was a grave consequence of the accumulated mistakes and omissions. As a consequence of flood stages raised by levee construction, a breach occurred 20 km upstream of the town, at a location remote from all human settlements on the 5th March, and the inundation could not be controlled neither by the cross dyke dividing the flood plain, nor at the railway enbankment. In spite of feverish defence efforts the flood water attacked the town 7 days after the first breach and destroyed it completely. A volume of 85 to 100 million cu.m water discharged through the breach and inundated an area of round 186 sq.km. The disaster aroused sympathy all over the world and different countries contributed large sums in aiding the reconstruction of the town. In memory of this aid the main streets of the rebuilt town were named after the capitals of the different countries. The basic principles of regulation were much criticized and made responsible for the disaster. An expert commission of invited foreign (French,