Winston-Salem’s worst-ever flooding disaster had nothing to do with the weather.

Before dawn on Nov. 2, 1904, a wall of the city’s reservoir on what is now North Trade Street failed, releasing an estimated 800,000 to 1.4 million gallons of water into a “veritable river of death,” according to the following day’s edition of the Western Sentinel.

The torrent “bore nine persons to a watery grave, caused the serious injury of several others, and swept away a number of small houses in its path,” the paper reported.

“There were some scenes in connection with the affair sufficiently horrible to rend the heart of the most unimpressionable,” the front-page story noted. “Mrs. Martin Peoples, whose house, next to the reservoir, was damaged was pinioned under a mass of brick and mortar, crying piti

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