Floods

View of flood water from Arkansas River that caused construction to halt on second War Emergency Pipeline near site of "Big Inch" break under rampaging River.

View of construction of 20 inch War Emergency Products Pipeline that was stopped by flood waters from the Arkansas River. The pipeline runs between Beaumont-Houston, Texas and the East Coast. This same flood caused damage to the "Big Inch".

Back wash water of flooded Arkansas River which stalled highway traffic and pipeline construction work on Petroleum Administration's second Texas East Coast pipeline. Aerial view shows high water conditions and pipe strung ready for welding along second pipeline right-of-way near flood break in "Big Inch."

Back wash water of flooded Arkansas River which stalled highway traffic and pipeline construction work on Petroleum Administration's second Texas East Coast pipeline. Aerial view shows high water conditions and pipe strung ready for welding along second pipeline right-of-way near flood break in "Big Inch".

Back wash water of flooded Arkansas River which stalled highway traffic and pipeline construction work on Petroleum Administration's second Texas East Coast pipeline. Aerial view shows high water conditions and pipe strung ready for welding along second pipeline right-of-way near flood break in "Big Inch".

Oil slick (lower left foreground) caused by crude oil trapped between emergency gate valves, shut when flood damage occurred in "Big Inch" river crossing, seeped to the surface along bank of Arkansas River to mark the point of break in 24 inch War Emergency Pipeline. Raging water gouged back hundreds of feet of river bank and caused the "Big Inch" to break far north of the river channel. In the distance is Rock Island Railroad Bridge where the completed temporary pipeline detour spanned the flood, permitting resumption of "Big Inch" oil runs for the East.

Oil slick caused by crude oil trapped between emergency gate valves, shut when flood damage occurred in "Big Inch" river crossing, seeped to the surface along bank of Arkansas River to mark the point of break in 24 inch War Emergency Pipeline. Raging water gouged back hundred of feet of river bank and caused the "Big Inch" to break far north of the river channel.

View of flooded Arkansas River which washed out 300 feet of bank, undercut the buried "Big Inch" pipeline and caused a break that cost East Coast 7 day stoppage of pumping operations. The stoppage amounted to about one million, four hundred thousand barrels of oil.

View of emergency pipeline for oil to the East. Temporary 20 inch pipeline detour of flood break in War Emergency Pipeline at Little Rock, Arkansas was laid in 99 hours. The line moved across barnyards, cotton fields, beneath city streets and across a railroad bridge to span the damage and restore the "Big Inch" oil movements for the East.

Group of veteran pipeliners stringing pipe for emergency by-pass loop in Arkansas. The by-pass loop restored major oil movement to the East, which was disrupted by a flood on the Arkansas River. Many pipeliners worked 24 hours at a stretch to help complete the by-pass loop quickly. Five hundred veteran pipeliners volunteered to build the 8-mile by-pass of the flood break in the "Big Inch." All workers unidentified.