Bob Strickley

Cincinnati Enquirer

This month marks the 79th anniversary of the worst natural disaster in the history of Cincinnati and the entirety of the Ohio River Valley. Specifically, Jan. 26 marks the date the seemingly endless rise of the river stopped at 79.9 feet. Flood stage for the river in Cincinnati is 52 feet.

The flood of 1937, fueled by record-breaking rainfall, tested area residents' humanity and created conditions that have not been seen since. Rainfall totals for the river cities were absurd. Just under 14 inches in Cincinnati. Almost 15 inches in Evansville, Indiana. Almost 20 inches in Louisville.

According to Enquirer archives, on Jan. 26, 1937 a fifth of the city of Cincinnati was under water and across the river conditions were worse, with about one-third of the river cities of Kenton and Campbell counties under water. Nearly one of every eight people in the Tristate were left homeless.

Kentucky cities farther downriver fared no better. According to the National Weather Service, 70 percent of Louisville was submerged when the Ohio River crested at 85.4 feet.

As the weather service described it, "The Ohio River Great Flood of January 1937 surpassed all previous floods during the 175 years of civilized occupancy of the lower Ohio Valley."

At Coney Island, carousel horses became unglued and floated away to later be found in Paducah, Kentucky, according to the amusement park's recounting of the flood.

In Cincinnati, residents were not just dealing with homelessness. High water forced the power plant offline and limited power was diverted from Dayton, Ohio. At least 10 gas tanks exploded and there were oil fires on the Ohio and in Mill Creek Valley, according an Enquirer story that referenced the research of Owen Findsen and Cameron McWhirter.

The article recounting the struggles of the three-week long flood reported that The Milling Machine Co., an earlier iteration of Milacron, was converted to a water bottling plant.

Still, somewhat remarkably there were only two deaths in Cincinnati as a result of the flood, according to Enquirer reporting. The generally accepted flood death total across the region stands at 385.

Despite all of the suffering – which was amplified because it occurred during the Great Depression – many good things came as a result of "the flood." Perhaps chief among them was the accelerated implementation of the various Flood Control Acts of the 1930s.

Under the portion of the Flood Act of 1938 labeled "Ohio River Basin," the Secretary of War and the Chief of Engineers were given the discretion needed "for the initiation and partial accomplishment of said plan therein hereby authorized $75,000,000 for reservoirs and $50,300,000 for local flood-protection works. ..."

This act, which was signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt, paired with the efforts of municipalities along the Ohio River made the chances of another flood of '37's magnitude very unlikely.

Richard Pruitt, a hydrologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Louisville District, which includes Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, gave that assessment to The Enquirer in 2007.

"You can never say never," Pruitt said, "but it is hard to imagine that happening again."

Historic Cincinnati images now available