The Flood of '37

CINCINNATI - For most of us, the big Tri-State flood happened in 1997. But for people with longer memories, such as Ed Schroeder of Ludlow, Bill Mallory, Sr. of Cincinnati or Reference Librarian Chris Smith of the Cincinnati/Hamilton County Public Library, nothing beats the flood of 1937.

"I've never seen anything like it," said Schroeder.

Bill Mallory, Sr. added, "People turned to God and wanted to pray for this to cease."

Chris Smith explained, "It was a disaster. I actually read a quote where someone said, 'Is this the end of the world?' "

Actually, it wasn't, but it was the result of an unusual weather pattern. Heavy rain started in late December and carried well into January. Snow melted upriver. All of it spawned a surge that swamped streets and neighborhoods for weeks.

Ed Schroeder was an adventurous 7-year-old when the flood happened. "My mother and dad were, I'm sure, concerned, but I don't think that concern came over to me. For me, it was kind of exciting, you know."

Schroeder estimates 40 percent of Ludlow was under water. But his boyhood home on Church Street was high and dry. He remembers having electricity and a water source nearby. His parents and some neighbors took to boats, but only to help stranded residents in Bromley.

"Because they literally were on an island and they couldn't get away," said Schroeder.

And across the river, the water was swallowing up a Cincinnati neighborhood known as the Bottoms.  On Carr Street a 6-year-old boy named Bill Mallory, and his family had their encounter with the Great Flood.

"What stands out in my mind was the fact that we were rowed out of that fourth floor apartment at 660 Carr Street and taken to Washburn School," said Mallory.

Mallory was safe, but on that island in the flood, thirsty for fresh water.

"And the thing that I remember to this day is the smell and taste of the water we had to drink. In order to purify the water, because the water had become contaminated."

Like Schroeder, Mallory remembers no personal fear, but both remember the high anxiety of the day now known as Black Sunday: Jan. 24.

"Well," said Schroeder, "It rained, then it turned to 10 inches of snow, then it got warmer with 3 inches of rain on top of that."

Mallory added, "People had never seen so much rain in Cincinnati and it seemed it would never stop."

Smith included an additional factor. "The standard oil tanks and the Crosley Oil tanks began to rupture because the water was so deep and when that did, all that fuel oil was spread all over the water and something sparked and basically caught the water on fire."

"I guess," Schroeder remembered, " That's when people really started to panic because they felt it's not going to stop."

But stop it did on Jan. 26 at 79.9 feet.

"Third Street," said Smith."Third Street today. The water made it up to Third Street downtown."

And when the waters receded, they left a changed community.

"It was pretty devastating," said Schroeder.

"There's nothing," Mallory added, "to compare to the 1937 flood."

Were the flood to happen today, it would have done nearly $8 billion in damage along a stretch of river from Pittsburth to Cairo, Illinois. It left 100,000 Cincinnatians homeless. Worst of all, it killed a total of 385 people.