JEFFERSONVILLE, INDIANA — Whatever came of the current flood threat, the mayor would miss it.
On January 7 The Evening News, Jeffersonville’s daily newspaper that sold for two cents, reported that Jeffersonville Mayor Allen W. Jacobs would remain in Miami, Florida, for several weeks. The mayor had taken ill. His ailment was not disclosed.
Ordinarily this might not have been a cause for concern. But as 1.48 inches of rain fell on Jeffersonville this Monday and the river inched up the levee, the mayor’s absence was one more unsettling fact.
The Ohio River officially flooded on January 15, the day after three inches of rainfall soaked the area.
“The Ohio River at Louisville passed the flood stage for that area at 11 o’clock Friday night,” The Evening News wrote. “In the twenty-four-hour period ending at 11 o’clock Friday night, the river rose 6.2 feet. The gauge registered 28.1 feet.”
At that time, the Board of Works prepared to close the sewer flood gates and install pumps to handle the excess water.
The newspaper explained what to expect as the river climbed:
When Louisville’s upper gauge was at 30 feet, the [Jeffersonville] sewers would fill with water.
At 32 feet, water would enter basements in parts of Jeffersonville.
At 38 feet, “the waters [would become] a real menace to Jeffersonville.”
And in case anyone was wondering, “nearly 50 feet” would inundate the small city. Jeffersonville would be under water. Surely no one wanted to think about a 50-foot flood. No living person had seen a flood of that magnitude in Jeffersonville.
The Ohio River had risen nearly three feet since Friday, to the level at which sewers were filling with excess water.
Charles Field briefly wrote about the situation at Jeffersonville on this day. It was the first paragraph of his “1937 Flood Diary.”
Field lived across East Market Street from the Sagebiels, the family of his wife, whose name was Evelyn. The nephew from across the street who sometimes knocked on his door was young Ralph Sagebiel.
“The flood gates in the levee at Jeffersonville had been closed on Monday, Jan. 18th,” Field wrote, “and the pumps had been able to take care of the sewage and rain.”
He also mentioned the conditions that preceded this day:
The river, since it had been raining more or less almost every day since Jan. 1st, had been filling up below and had reached flood stage or better all the way from the mouth of the Ohio to above Cincinnati. All rivers flowing into the Ohio below Jeffersonville were extremely high.
Flood defenses were sufficient for now, but when would it stop raining? Would the river pour into basements — or something worse?
Inch by inch, the Ohio River kept rising at Louisville, Kentucky, and, on the Indiana side, at Jeffersonville, Clarksville and New Albany.
Jeffersonville resident Arthur Smith later said he knew “what the river could do and conditions and things when the water was coming up.” Smith recalled how the entire Ohio Valley faced rising waters from Pittsburgh to Cairo, Illinois.
And water was still coming and it was still raining, and it was very imminent there was a big flood coming.
Unlike Smith, others were not watching the Ohio River as closely — at least not yet. And those who were focused on the river may have been skeptical about the possibility of a big flood.
Nonetheless, something was coming that could not be altered by opinions. The natural world did not answer to men.
Read or listen to the introduction to The 1937 Flood Journal or access the archives for the full chronology and anything you’ve missed.
My Family in the Story
Charles Field, great uncle
Evelyn Field, great aunt
Ralph Sagebiel, father
FRIED BOLOGNA: Family Stories from the American Midwest and Upland South Join me for stories about my ancestors who lived, worked and traveled in the hills and along the rivers of Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri and beyond.
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