From the March 28, 1936, issue

THAW-SATURATED EARTH FORCED EASTERN RIVERS TO OVERFLOW

Rains gorged Eastern rivers into disastrous flood in just a few days, but behind the rains was a background of excessive snow, that lay in the mountain valleys all winter long and had the soil saturated when the rains began to fall. The new water thus could not sink into the earth, any more than it could on a thatched roof, and had nowhere to go but off.