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Remembering "The Flood"
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By MARLA TONCRAY Staff Writer
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Seventy years have passed since “the flood” rolled through the Ohio River Valley during late January and early February, 1937, bringing death and destruction from Pittsburgh, Penn. to Cairo, Ill.
Following on the heels of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, the 1937 flood left one million people homeless, more than 380 people lost their lives and property losses were estimated at $500 million.
In Maysville, floodwaters reached into the heart of the city before finally cresting at more than 70 feet. Homes and businesses along Front Street and Second Street in the downtown district had water up to the second story levels -- the east end residential area suffered the same fate all along Second Street. The town was literally cut in half because the Newtown Bridge, which spans Limestone Creek, was totally submerged and the viaduct that now connects Forest Avenue with Third Street at the U.S. 68 intersection had not been built.
Maysville native Don Buckley was 7 years old when the 1937 flood hit. His family lived in a two-story red brick home, which still stands today, next to the Lee House on Front Street.
His memories of the flood tell a story of loss and destruction that most of us who grew up Maysville behind the safety of the floodwall can’t imagine.
The 1937 flood was the most destructive flood in 60 years to hit our area until 1997 and January, 1937 remains as the wettest month ever recorded in Ohio, with six to 12 inches falling between January 13n25.
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| The Market Street fountain surrounded by floodwaters in 1937.
Photo submitted |
“It was so monumental and so many things happened, it sticks in your memory,” Don said of his ability to recall so many details of the days leading up to the disaster and afterwards.
“You don’t have floods in January. So many people didn’t anticipate it was going to be the magnitude it was,” he said.
As the Ohio River began to rise, Don remembers his mother preparing the house, moving furniture and other items to the second floor and into the top of the first floor closets. She also rolled up curtains and draperies at the first floor windows to a point above where the flood of 1913 had reached, which was at the top of the fireplace mantles, which were 5 feet tall, in a home that was built 3 feet above street level.
“It took a week for the river to crest and after it crested it stayed at that level for a week. Everybody knew it was coming, they just didn’t know how high,” Don said of the family’s efforts to save its belongings.
When it was all said and done, the floodwaters reached 2 inches into the second story of the house, which had 12-foot ceilings. Combined with the 3-foot elevation of the home, the Buckley’s home was left standing in more than 15 feet of water.
Don’s father, James M. Buckley, was the commissioner of Public Safety for the city at the time and was working throughout the city during the disaster, which left Don at home with his mother, Isabella, his brother, James Joseph and his sister, Audrey. He remembers water gushing up through the toilets and sinks as the water rose and being taken out of the house with his family in a rowboat. The family stayed with his grandparents on West Second Street until floodwaters reached that house too.
Don said one night while the family was eating dinner his uncle looked at the window to the back steps and saw the water had reached the first of three steps leading into the house. By the time they finished dinner, the water was at the top of the steps and the family abandoned the house, leaving the dinner dishes where they were and moved on to his uncle’s home, the Myles and Calvert Funeral Home, at West Third and Short streets.
“I don’t have any idea how long we stayed there, but it was a hell of a long time,” he said.
During the week that the floodwaters soaked the town, Don remembers his mother going back and forth to the family’s home to remove items she wanted to save and he laughs about the fact that most of what she brought out was pictures. He remembers people in rowboats and skiffs bringing food and water to those who stayed at their homes and he also remembers a train belonging to the C&O Railroad that was full of coal and abandoned on the tracks providing a barrier for the city against the debris that floated down the river.
“I don’t know who orchestrated it or if it was by happenstance that the train was there. You can’t imagine the debris; whole houses, barns, dead cows, that floated down the river,” he said.
Once the floodwaters receded, the Buckleys came back to their house and began the process of restoring their lives. Don said everything in the house was covered with mud and ice and it “was like a cave” inside. On the first floor, everything had to be thrown away and the plaster and lathe walls were stripped down to the brick structure underneath. The electrical wiring had to be replaced and there was no gas to cook on or heat by. Throughout the winter and into the summer coal fires burned every day to get the dampness out of the house and Don said his mother swept mud out of the house every day for a year.
Today, Don and his wife, Francis live on Limestone Street, within a block and a half of the Ohio River. He said the biggest impact on the town of the 1937 is the obviously the floodwall, which was completed in the early 1950s. Admitting the floodwall has taken away the view of the Ohio River, he says with certainty that without the floodwall, the 1997 flood would have probably reached his current home.
“Once you’ve gone through that, the view becomes secondary,” he said.
Contact Marla Toncray at marla.toncray@lee.net or 606-564-9091 Ext. 275. |
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