According to HendersonHistory.com, two million acres of land in 196 counties in 12 states were inundated by 165 billion tons of water. The flood caused 500 deaths overall and damages totaling $400 million. Find out how Evansville and Henderson were affected.

HendersonHistory.com writer this.......

 

Looking back, some scientists have said the rain that fell almost every day of that month was the result of a North Atlantic "dead calm" that had flowed into the U.S. interior. Whatever the reason, by January 31 the Ohio reached the gauge of 53.909 feet - nearly 19 feet above flood stage. The previous high had been 48.2 feet in 1913.

Several thousand people evacuated as one by one railroads and highways were closed by high water. People took refuge in local schools, churches, businesses or with families outside the flooding. Thousands got typhoid shots. The U.S. Army distributed clean water. Martial law was declared Jan. 24.

By Jan. 31 -- when the Ohio crested at 53.74 feet, almost 19 feet above flood stage -- water was a foot deep at 8th and Main downtown. Five hundred city blocks and all of Union Township were a lake. About 7,500 structures were damaged to the tune of what today would be $300 million. The Ohio didn't recede inside its banks until Feb. 19.

The Great Flood of '37 covered 13,000 square miles, saw an Ohio 25 miles wide at points, killed 385 and left a million homeless from Point Pleasant, W.Va., to Cairo, Ill. Henderson, Ky., was higher and drier, but Leavenworth, Ind., and Shawneetown, Ill., were flooded away by this region's worst natural disaster.

 

In Tri-State fashion, giving to others was at an all time high with an attitude that we have seen over and over when devastation hits...'I can do without'. #lovelivininthetristate

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