Ohio River flood of 1937
The Ohio River flood of 1937 took place in late January and February 1937. With damage stretching from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Cairo, Illinois, 385 people died, one million people were left homeless and property losses reached $500 million ($10.2 billion when adjusted for inflation as of September 2022). Federal and state resources were strained to aid recovery as the disaster occurred during the depths of the Great Depression and a few years after the beginning of the Dust Bowl.[1]
Event timeline
- January 5: Water levels began to rise.
- January 10–18: Numerous flood warnings were issued across much of the region.
- January 13–24: Near record rainfalls were recorded.
- January 18: Numerous homes were flooded as the Ohio River started to overflow its banks due to the heavy rains.
- January 23–24: Martial law was declared in Evansville, Indiana, where the water level was at 54 feet (16 m).[2]
- January 26: River gauge levels reached 80 feet (24 m) in Cincinnati, the highest level in the city's history.[3]
- January 27: River gauge reached 57 feet (17 m) in the Louisville area, setting a new record. Seventy percent of the city was under water at that time.[4]
- February 2: River gauge surpassed 60 feet (18 m) in Paducah, Kentucky.[4]
- February 5: Water levels fell below the flood stage for the first time in nearly three weeks in several regions.
Aftermath and reconstruction
Media response
A handful of powerhouse
When it became obvious that the river would cut the electric power to radio station WHAS—thus cutting the last radio voice in Louisville—the rival clear channel station in Nashville, WSM, picked up WHAS's broadcast via telephone and broadcast emergency flood reports for three days for the lower Ohio River. Other stations across the country did much the same.
Around January 18, Huntington, West Virginia radio station WSAZ (1190 AM) began hourly broadcasts of flood related news. On January 22, the station received permission from the Federal Communications Committee to broadcast around the clock. The studios and offices in the downtown Keith-Albee Theatre Building became a regional communications center. They established direct telephonic communication with the city's general relief headquarters in City Hall with Red Cross, the Naval Reserve, the American Legion, the police and fire departments, and the Coast Guard. Messages of inquiry concerning the safety of friends and relatives, warnings of rising gasoline-covered waters, appeals for help from marooned victims, orders to relief agencies and workers poured into the cramped studios and quickly broadcast. Staff and local volunteers stayed on the air and provided information and support for nine days until 8:00 o'clock the following Sunday night, Jan 31, when the station's regular schedule was resumed.[6]
Government response
In January 1937, the
The federal government under President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent thousands of area WPA workers to the affected cities to aid in rescue and recovery. It also sent supplies for food and temporary housing, and millions of dollars in aid after the floodwaters receded.
The scale of the 1937 flood was so unprecedented that civic and industrial groups lobbied national authorities to create a comprehensive plan for flood control. The plan involved creating more than seventy storage reservoirs to reduce Ohio River flood heights. Not fully completed by the Army Corps of Engineers until the early 1940s, the new facilities have drastically reduced flood damages since.
In the 1930s, the
Much of the work of the Tennessee Valley Authority in the Tennessee River basin was strongly supported by the majority of the citizens in western
States seriously affected
This section needs additional citations for verification. (April 2024) |
Ohio
Six to 12 inches (300 mm) of rain fell in Ohio during January 13–25, 1937, totals never before or since equaled over such a large area of Ohio. January 1937 remains as the wettest month ever recorded in Cincinnati.[10]
One hundred thousand people in Cincinnati were left homeless, as the flood affected the city from January 18 to February 5. The river reached its peak on January 26, at 79.9 feet (24.4 m), more than 25 feet (7.6 m) higher than flood stage.
According the several local historians, the town of Gallipolis was completely submerged as high as the mound hill cemetery overlook, and many rumors regarding the curse of Lafayette's Gold Treasure buried by slaves on Gallipolis Island began to surface around the town.This flood was very severe.
In Portsmouth, the rising river threatened to top the flood wall, erected 10 feet (3.0 m) above flood stage. City officials deliberately opened the flood gates and allowed river water to flood the business district 8 to 10 feet (3.0 m) deep, thus preventing a catastrophic breaching of the flood wall. The Ohio River eventually crested 14 feet (4.3 m) over the top of the flood wall. Ten people died, many fewer than the 467 killed in the floods of March 1913.
Indiana
The river rose to a record 53.74 feet (16.38 m), which was 19 feet (5.8 m) above flood stage, and sent water over the six-month-old riverfront plaza in Evansville. After January 19, the conditions in New Albany, Indiana were deteriorating at a rapid pace. By January 21, all roads leading to Jeffersonville were completely covered in water making it near impossible to travel. On January 23, a levee located on the intersection of two main streets failed. This caused for water to start rushing into the city; by midday, the water had risen to a total of 9 feet. The city and state declared martial law on January 24 and the federal government sent 4,000 WPA workers to the city to assist rescue operations.[14] Residents were rapidly evacuated from river town by train and bus in the early stages of the flood, making Indiana the only state to avoid drowning fatalities. According to some residents of the area, the sound of the rushing water was equivalent to that of the Niagara Falls. More than 100,000 persons were left homeless by the disaster.
The WPA workers led the cleanup of the city. The Evansville Merchants Retail Bureau took out newspaper ads to praise their work:[2]
Before and during the flood these men of WPA were active in salvaging property and saving lives, and immediately afterward they handled the cleanup job with such efficiency that many visitors were amazed that there was practically no evidence of the flood left throughout our entire city. All honor and gratitude is due to the rank and file of the WPA for their often almost super-human efforts, always giving their best in the interest of humanity.
The Red Cross and federal government spent the equivalent of $11 million in today's money in aid to the city. The Indiana State Flood Commission was created in response, and it established the Evansville-Vanderburgh Levee Authority District, which built a system of earth levees, concrete walls, and pumping stations to protect the city.[14]
Illinois
Rural Pulaski County was functionally left an island by the rising portions of the Cache River, which near its mouth flowed in reverse as the Ohio floodwaters forced their way along the Cache to the Mississippi River above Cairo.[20]: 46 The majority of county residents were driven from their homes,[20]: 48 while the riverside county seat, Mound City, was entirely flooded, with the shallowest locations still lying under 12 feet (3.7 m) of water. Cairo itself was saved only by low water levels on the Mississippi River, which rose only to the highest spots on the levees without surmounting them.[20]: 47 The historic city of Shawneetown was completely inundated and the residents were forced to move to a tent city on the outskirts. Property damages in the southern Illinois region amounted to more than $75 million ($1.2 billion in 2015). Over three hundred bridges were smashed, six schools were ruined, and twelve hundred submerged homes. Flood waters were recorded at 65.4 feet (19.9 m). Damage in Shawneetown was so cataclysmic the town relocated three miles inland to higher ground.
Kentucky
In Louisville, the water reached a height of 40 feet, which resulted in almost 70 percent of the entire city being underwater. 175,000 people were forced to leave their homes and relocate due to the flood. The reported damage of the flood in the state resulted in about $250 million worth of damage. This flood outdoes the second highest water level in the city of Louisville by an astonishing 10 feet, showing how large the flood really was. Several businesses in the
At
With 18 inches (460 mm) of rainfall in 16 days, along with sheets of swiftly moving ice, the '37 flood was the worst natural disaster in Paducah's history. Because Paducah's earthen levee was ineffective against this flood, the United States Army Corps of Engineers was commissioned to build the flood wall that now protects the city.
West Virginia
After a prolonged fight and a legal battle that made it to the
Other areas of West Virginia were devastated by the flood as well. The
References
- ^ "Infamous Floods – Flood of 1997". The Enquirer.[dead link]
- ^ a b c "Ohio River Flood, 1937". The Lilly Libraries, Indiana University, Bloomington. Archived from the original on September 9, 2006. Retrieved September 7, 2006.
- ^ "Flood of 1937 – Flood of 1997". The Enquirer.[dead link]
- ^ a b "Fact Sheet: Ohio River Floods". Western Kentucky University. Archived from the original on June 4, 2008. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
- ^ "Bonhams : Thomas Hart Benton (1889–1975) Study for "Spring on the Missouri" 9 x 12in". bonhams.com. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
- ^ "History of WSAZ/WGNT/WRVC, Huntington, West Virginia". jeff560.tripod.com. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
- ^ "Dates In History". Lrn.usace.army.mil. Archived from the original on May 31, 2012. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
- ^ Tennessee Valley Authority, The Kentucky Project: A Comprehensive Report on the Planning, Design, Construction, and Initial Operations of the Kentucky Project, Technical Report No. 13 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951), pp. 1–12, 68, 115–116, 509.
- ISBN 0813117720.
- Cincinnati Magazine. p. 66. Archivedfrom the original on April 26, 2024. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
- ]
- ISBN 9781623760519. Archivedfrom the original on April 26, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2013.
- ^ "Coney Island Cincinnati – History". Coneyislandpark.com. Archived from the original on August 6, 2012. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
- ^ a b Rich Davis (January 7, 2007). "When disaster strikes". Evansville Courier & Press. Archived from the original on January 10, 2007. Retrieved January 7, 2007.
- ^ Davis, Norman (1938). The Ohio-Mississippi valley flood disaster of 1937: Report of relief operations of the American Red cross. American Red Cross. p. 79.
- ^ a b The Pittsburgh Press, page 50. United Press, January 29, 1937.
- ^ Chicago Daily Tribune, page 4. United Press, May 9, 1938.
- ^ Hitchens, Harold (1947). Illinois, a Descriptive and Historical Guide. US History Publishers. p. 436.
- ^ Walton, Clyde (1970). An Illinois reader. Northern Illinois University Press. p. 431.
- ^ a b c Wall, J.L. Moyers' Brief History of Pulaski County. Mound City: Pulaski Enterprise, 1944.
- ^ a b c "Floodwall History". Huntington Quarterly. September 27, 2018. Archived from the original on June 8, 2021. Retrieved June 8, 2021.
- ^ "The Ohio River Flood, 1937". Clio. Archived from the original on June 8, 2021. Retrieved June 8, 2021.
Further reading
- Bell, Rick (2007). The Great Flood of 1937: Rising Waters, Soaring Spirits. ISBN 978-1-884532-82-5. Retrieved August 9, 2015.
- Breaux, Gustave A. (April 1937). "1937 Flood at Louisville". Filson Club History Quarterly. 11 (2).
- Welky, David. The Thousand-Year Flood: The Ohio-Mississippi Disaster of 1937 (University of Chicago Press; 2011) to the book.
External links
- 1937 Flood images from Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library
- 1937 Flood images from University of Louisville Libraries' Digital Collections
- A personal account of the 1937 flood, Woodspoint
- The Carl Ackerman Collection of Historic Photographs, Southern Ohio Museum, Portsmouth, Ohio
- Mt. Vernon, IN – 1937 Flood